Cosplayer Portrait

[cuttiz]

1.in what area is critique to be sought?

Composition, lighting, exposure.

2.what one hopes to achieve with the piece of work?

Expression of cosplayer.

3.under what circumstance is the picture taken? (physical conditions/emotions)

Photo was taken @ Malaysia, KL. Sunny after rain. Outdoor. Managed to locate a background good enough without people walking behind as there's a cosplay event ongoing. No flash used.

4.what the critique seeker personally thinks of the picture

I like how the background contrast with the dress of the model. Did some post process on the photo, did I enhance too much? I still feel the background can be improved.

 

[sinned79]

u should use flash, so that some catchlights can be seen in her eyes. Especially she wear those contact lens that makes her cornea looks bigger.

the tree behind her hand quite hindering... so either u use a wider aperture to make the background out of focus or u should try a different angle to have a simpler background.

 

[cuttiz]

Thanks for your comment ^^

Hmm, I started out 6months ago and haven't touch a flash before.. Will remember your words and try in future.. maybe soon.
I agree with what you have mentioned about the background.

 

[sinned79]

Thanks for your comment ^^

Hmm, I started out 6months ago and haven't touch a flash before.. Will remember your words and try in future.. maybe soon.
I agree with what you have mentioned about the background.

no harm using your pop up flash. just wrap a tissue paper around it to diffuse the flash light. once u are comfortable using flash, u can consider buying an external flash.

 

[cuttiz]

Sure ^^ Thanks for telling me that. DIY diffuser. hahahaa...

 

[kwttan]

Personally, I would prefer the pic in portrait instead of landscape and also not to cut off her elbow. Try to cut off some of the distracting background on the left.

 

[megain]

IMHO, you should indeed use flash. I find the pic a little grainy(maybe intentional for skin texture?) that could be caused by high ISO settings or too much cropping or many layers and attempts of post processing.
Exposure is fine but be careful with the highlights at the left. Also, the vertical tree trunk is quite distracting to me.

P.S. Should also comb her hair. =P

 

[sjackal]

I am going to give a very different critic from the previous commentators.

The Good:

Composition is good, the big tree visually helped to framed her face, exposure is without question very good and I must say either you know how to use natural light, or you were lucky. But I will assume you knew how to find the light - first I like the way the light skims across her face and highlighting her nose bridge and sculpting form and features, second there is another light coming from behind her, defining her hair like waterfall.

The horizontal/landscape orientation is perfectly alright. Why? Yes I know conventional norm for portraits is horizontal but in this case she is not looking at the camera, which makes the scene 'cinematic' or 'story-like' so its ok. Have you either seen a vertical orientation TV show? Not using flash is a good decision also. Unless you have a huge flash modifiers off camera enough to make flash soft, using flash is going to kill the mood. Exposure is not just about what you light, its also about what you DON'T light - shadows. SHADOWS. In this case, her eyes are ok. A little catchlights would be good for drama but I would not want the source of that catchlight be from flash.

Contrast yes, green is the opposite color of magenta - which is really close to red, so that contrast really makes the image pop.

Now the BAD:

Horizontal lines, those 'yellow ropes from fencing'? Its breaking the flow of the vertical energy of the trees. Clone those out, or adjust your perspective. This is minor actually.

The major bad, her hands, looks terrible. Your faut if you were in control. Next time, direct her to hold those magic keys or whatever delicate items, with her thumb and index finger, middle finger will work too, and curl in the rest of the fingers.

 

[sjackal]

And a 5X7 crop might work better than 4X6, so that you can get rid of the overly bright and distracting bokeh on the left side of the pic. Or burn that side in a bit.

 

[cuttiz]

Personally, I would prefer the pic in portrait instead of landscape and also not to cut off her elbow. Try to cut off some of the distracting background on the left.

noted! will minimise landscape.. hee..

 

[cuttiz]

IMHO, you should indeed use flash. I find the pic a little grainy(maybe intentional for skin texture?) that could be caused by high ISO settings or too much cropping or many layers and attempts of post processing.
Exposure is fine but be careful with the highlights at the left. Also, the vertical tree trunk is quite distracting to me.

P.S. Should also comb her hair. =P

Will do another try with flash next time. There are times I'm afraid of flash because of shiny reflection from the face. I have to be daring to try different stuff :x
I think I crop too much.

The comb hair part cannot help
Because I just happen to walk past and did random take here and there.

 

[cuttiz]

I am going to give a very different critic from the previous commentators.

The Good:

Composition is good, the big tree visually helped to framed her face, exposure is without question very good and I must say either you know how to use natural light, or you were lucky. But I will assume you knew how to find the light - first I like the way the light skims across her face and highlighting her nose bridge and sculpting form and features, second there is another light coming from behind her, defining her hair like waterfall.

The horizontal/landscape orientation is perfectly alright. Why? Yes I know conventional norm for portraits is horizontal but in this case she is not looking at the camera, which makes the scene 'cinematic' or 'story-like' so its ok. Have you either seen a vertical orientation TV show? Not using flash is a good decision also. Unless you have a huge flash modifiers off camera enough to make flash soft, using flash is going to kill the mood. Exposure is not just about what you light, its also about what you DON'T light - shadows. SHADOWS. In this case, her eyes are ok. A little catchlights would be good for drama but I would not want the source of that catchlight be from flash.

Contrast yes, green is the opposite color of magenta - which is really close to red, so that contrast really makes the image pop.

Now the BAD:

Horizontal lines, those 'yellow ropes from fencing'? Its breaking the flow of the vertical energy of the trees. Clone those out, or adjust your perspective. This is minor actually.

The major bad, her hands, looks terrible. Your faut if you were in control. Next time, direct her to hold those magic keys or whatever delicate items, with her thumb and index finger, middle finger will work too, and curl in the rest of the fingers.

Wa.. you are very detailed. Suddenly I noticed a lot of things that I didn't manage to see.

The "yellow rope" is actually chains that is suppose to be coming from some barrier. I only manage to notice it after refering back to those sets of photos. Agree should be crop away but I have limited knowledge on post process. What I did is to crop and enhance colour of whole photo only.. Erm, now I also notice I also enhance the background together with the model instead of the model only.

Regarding the hand now I feel bad about it because it just happen to be whole lots of photographers taking photo around cosplayers that were moving around outdoor. I'm more or less squeezing and shifting around. Didn't manage to get a chance to communicate with her *I'm too shy to approach strangers* Guess I need to take portraits when I have control of the models. I will remember your suggestion regarding the pose and fingers.

Thanks for taking your time to comment. I was really happy someone took effort to write for me.

 

[cuttiz]

And a 5X7 crop might work better than 4X6, so that you can get rid of the overly bright and distracting bokeh on the left side of the pic. Or burn that side in a bit.

Been like 6mths since I played with my cam. I'm moving next to explore and try different post processing so I can show the kind of effect that I wanted.

 

[IsenGrim]

I dont have suched detailed comments, but by just taking a casual look,
1) It looks like all the trees are going to fall down soon. All leaning towers of Pisa.
2) I can't tell who she is, or what she is doing. There needs to be more context. (show more of the costume, or a more identifiable pose, or interactions with the location)

I can't tell what you're trying to show. There's no emotion/thought invoked when I look at this image.

I notice a lot of cosplay images are very tightly cropped. And in the end, most viewers can't tell who they are.

 

[shaoken]

Sorry but I think the trees are a little distracting in a landscape format.
Maybe a portrait format would be better? :dunno:

 

[cuttiz]

I dont have suched detailed comments, but by just taking a casual look,
1) It looks like all the trees are going to fall down soon. All leaning towers of Pisa.
2) I can't tell who she is, or what she is doing. There needs to be more context. (show more of the costume, or a more identifiable pose, or interactions with the location)

I can't tell what you're trying to show. There's no emotion/thought invoked when I look at this image.

I notice a lot of cosplay images are very tightly cropped. And in the end, most viewers can't tell who they are.

Thanks for your comment.
I'm asking for critique for the following as stated for composition, lighting, exposure.

But I do agree the trees seems falling to one side.

 

[cuttiz]

Sorry but I think the trees are a little distracting in a landscape format.
Maybe a portrait format would be better? :dunno:

I do have the portrait format just that I decided to place this photo for critic.
Thanks for your comment.