New Model, New Photographer

[drp7804]

My first posted photo :-)

Took this of my wife on our honeymoon a couple weeks ago. I used a Canon S400 (w/ flash) to capture it, and then Gimp to crop it, increase the contrast, and sharpen it a bit. I welcome any constructive advice or comments...

Thanks,
Derek

[eoym]

Congrats on the wedding.

I bet she turned some heads on the beach?

The first thing I noticed is that the image is compressed too much.
Also, it appears that there's more light on her body and the upper portion of the image is darker. There a color shift that coincides with that as well. she's yellow/green in the tummy and a bit red in the face.

I love the pose and expression though....

[terrace]

Originally Posted by eoym

Congrats on the wedding.

I second the "congrats!"

Originally Posted by eoym

Also, it appears that there's more light on her body and the upper portion of the image is darker. There a color shift that coincides with that as well. she's yellow/green in the tummy and a bit red in the face.
I love the pose and expression though....

she looks like she is under something and that the light just didn't hit her face the same, a reflector would have been useful (but I doubt during the crazy wedding planning and honeymoon packing, a relflector got packed with the swimsuits) I might have looked around a bit for something that could have been used as one, but than that, great pose, great composition.
we'll be seeing more of her?

[lsc1]

Derek,

You appear to be a very lucky man, she is a beautiful bride. On the image, I second what the others have said and would just add that you should try to get the eyes sharper in GIMP. great pose and a good first effort.

As per the rules, here's one of mine. I have a long way to go too.

Cheers,
LSC

[SamBeasley]

I agree with what's already been said, and I'd also say that the crop looks a bit confined to me, like it's cropped in a little too close on the sides. But I dunno, maybe not? It's kinda one of those I'd-have-to-see-the-original kind of things. As it is though, if you were cropping out some distracting elements or something, it's probably for the best. And yes, I ramble and think out loud when I critique.

EDIT: Whoops, thought of something else, hehe. Were you standing up when you shot this? When showing this much of the body in the image, you might try getting a little lower to the ground and shooting from that angle. Oftentimes it looks better.

Sam

[drp7804]

Thanks for all the tips (and compliments!)... I agree with pretty much all of them.

Cropping: Yes, pretty narrow. She was in front of a door and the handle is just out of view with the way I cropped it. I started thinking about those "True" vertical banner ads you see all over the 'net :-)

Lighting: She was on a small set of stairs, maybe one or two steps above me... so the flash went right into her body. I'm playing around in Gimp a bit to generate some artificial "light sources" to see if it helps. But yeah, there was an overhang just above us that blocked light from above, as well.

Also playing around with sharpening the eyes some more...

Looking forward to having another shoot! It's fun :-)

Thanks again,
Derek