thoughts?

Just looking for some outside input.

the origonal is 2569x1920 (pixels)

http://img62.echo.cx/img62/6905/beeneyes2resized6or.th.jpg (http://img62.echo.cx/my.php?image=beeneyes2resized6or.jpg)


ideas/thoughts/ways to make the pic better?

not by photoshopping it... during the actual picture-taking time.

thanks!

Definitley try a different view. I don't know if it's the model or the shot, but it's unpleasing to look at, I don't know why.

How were the eyes made/kept green?

Only thing I can suggest is the exclusion of the pupil in the colouring process - you can see the green around the reflection of the flash in the right pupil ;)

If they were coloured contacts with a solid transparent green throughout, if there is some way you could again exclude the pupil, it might make it look a bit more realistic

right, i'm crap at taking pix of people so feel free to ignore...

exposure

it's a very low contrast picture. there's no black in it anywhere. even the dark background is grey. either take the pic in a dark room with a big wide open space behind the person or use a dark background. black cloth surprisingly is crap. it will almost always come out as grey. you want something that will reflect the least amount of light possible and that is - velvet. i'm sure you've got loads of velvet all over the place right? no? ah....

general exposure of the person's face is very good, but unflattering. do you see all the little marks all over their skin that gives the mottled effect? it's blood vessels i think. either way it doesn't help the picture. the way to remove them is to slightly overexpose the pic. if you have exposure compensation on your camera, try adding 1/3 to 1/2 a stop more exposure. if you don't have exposure compensation, but do have manual mode to you still do it, but it's a bit harder. take a meter reading for the pic you are about to take and note down the shutter speed and aperture. but the camera in manual mode and set the aperture to be the same as the meter suggested, but use a slower shutter speed (depending on your camera the shutter speeds are set either 1/2 or 1/3 of a stop apart so experiment a bit). all this does is even out the skin tones and makes them more of less the same colour.

lighting

the lighting isn't too bad in the pic. it's fairly directional (shadow round the nose), but not too harsh. the safest lighting to go for is window light (i.e. natural light from a window on a sunny day). it's best to do it indoors so you can control the background too. this gives a good even light that can define shapes but doesn't cast strong shadows. using a gold reflector (it's not real gold, just yellow foil) on the other side of the face from the light source gives people a 'healthy glow' (bit like instant sun tan). if you're shooting in b&w a silver one works fine (you can use a bit of card covered in bacofoil).

composition

it works quite well with a close crop and looking straight into the camera. the only thing that unbalances the pic for me is that the persons left eye is only partially included. i would have cropped that out of the pic. as a rule of thumb (but remember rules are there to be broken, it's just knowing when!) it's best to either include or exclude, never partially include.

hth,
j.

thanks for the input guys :)

and zzpza - the little marks are freckles... i dunno how to either minimize or maximize their presence...

the little marks are freckles...

works just the same as the method i described.

:)

j.

wow, zzpza, nearly every post of yours I read makes me want to go play with my camera, I'm gonna go take pictures of something.......

wow, zzpza, nearly every post of yours I read makes me want to go play with my camera, I'm gonna go take pictures of something.......

cool :D go forth and take pix.

:)

j.