Recent "Jazz" themed shoot - Comments?

[iamcdn]

Trying for something different on my last shoot, and did a Jazz theme.

I would be interested in any critiques on how these turned out.

1)


2)


3)

[Jagdoc]

I think you did a great job with lighting and posing. My only nit is that I would like to see the entire neon club name in the last one.
Good concept, well done.

Vic

Re: Recent "Jazz" themed shoot - Comments? 

[iamcdn]

Thanks Vic.

I agree it would have been nice to have the entire sign name in the shot, but I didn't include it from a licensing perspective, as I didn't have a location release. It was a toss up of putting the whole sign in which would have looked cool and then risking an issue with the club later. Besides "Belgian Club", really doesn't scream "Jazz"

[Photoboy]

I think the last one is the best. Great job on the lighting.

[PhotoAl]

Beautiful model, terrific lighting, and a tenor sax, how can you not love it?

[Mark_Oehler]

If you didn't have the location release, I think opening up the shutter more and blurring the sign would have kept with the feel, but made the sign less distracting....you wouldn't have had to include more, but the sharpness of the sign makes it stand out. Maybe a PS blur there would help.

[iamcdn]

good suggestions Mark, I do have a couple shots with the full sign, perhaps I will go back and look at them again with those ideas in mind.

[epenrod]

I am a professional musician as well as a photographer, and one of my "pet-peeves" is to see a model holding an instrument, that they obviously have never touched before. That is not the case here. The length of the neck strap, the placement of her hands and fingers and her embouchure (French word for shape of the mouth, while playing an instrument) are great!

She has either played the sax before or was coached well, before the shoot. Congrats on a great shoot.

Eric Penrod

[jford]

I think the exposures and stylings are all spot-on.

However - and this is just opinion - I think the long strands of grass and the seed heads are distracting and incongruent (what's she doing in a marsh?) in the first image, and that the center horizonal line makes the image less interesting. Also, she doesn't seem to really be interacting with the sax in the first one, simply holding it. I mean, like a prop, not like a musicians usually caress their instruments.

The sign and the composition in the third are really good, but the model's expression kills it for me. YOU caught her between mouthpiece in place and a normal expression. It looks like she's just about to say something to you. (This could be a personal dislike, because I so frequently would catch my wife just as she opened her mouth, usually to say, "Take the stupid picture already.")

On the other hand, I really like the second image. I think it's a good angle - she echos the shape of the clocktower, unusual but not confusing perspective, dynamic. I don't find the lighted clockface distracting. She looks like she's enjoying herself, yet her face is not so contorted that you can't tell that she's a beautiful young woman. So, for what it's worth (nothing, actually), IMO, the second image is the hands-down winner.

Thanks for sharing.

[iamcdn]

Great feedback J

I very much appreciate the time it takes for that level of critique and it is very helpful.