Re: GESO art nudes, nsfw

2012-06-01 Thread William Robb

On 31/05/2012 2:05 PM, Larry Colen wrote:



BW is your friend.

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William Robb

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Re: GESO art nudes, nsfw

2012-06-01 Thread Bulent Celasun
Perhaps you should also consider some detail studies (body parts with
an abstract sense).

Congratulations on you both, by the way.

Bulent

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/bc_the_path/
http://photo.net/photodb/user?user_id=2226822
http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/artists/bulentcelasun


2012/6/1 William Robb anotherdrunken...@gmail.com:
 On 31/05/2012 2:05 PM, Larry Colen wrote:


 BW is your friend.

 --

 William Robb


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GESO art nudes, nsfw

2012-05-31 Thread Larry Colen
In the spirit of Jeff Foxworthy,

If your girlfriend comes home to find a naked woman on your couch, and she 
doesn't bat an eye, you might be a photographer.

As I mentioned, I've been jonesing to do some photography on a higher level 
than I've had the opportunity for lately. A friend came over last night to 
visit, and I convinced her to let me do some art nudes of her.  I set up the 
photos up keeping in mind the discussions on the improving my technical 
quality thread.  I meant to use both the strobes and the tripod but I found 
that with a fidgety model trying to use a tripod would be too impractical.  I 
suppose I should have used my monopod, but I don't think I'm seeing too much 
camera blur.

It was a fun set because I'd describe my friend as more classically pretty than 
conventionally pretty.  She's six foot tall, about 190 pounds and has cerebral 
palsy.  In other words, she's not as slim as modern American tastes dictate, 
but well within the preferences of figure artists.  I do need to learn a lot 
more about lighting, but still managed to get some acceptable photos.  I am 
feeling the need for a larger softbox to get softer lighting, without blasting 
photons all over background that I may not want lit.

Most of these were shot with a grid on my white lightning off stage right, with 
some sort of fill, from stage left.  My fill light was one of those $25 strobes 
that you can screw into a light socket.  Many of them with a softbox on it.  I 
was going to use the strobe that the softbox actually fits, but the bulb for it 
got broken since I last used it.

My friend wanted any pictures posted to flickr to be under restricted access 
so that only people willing to see adult content can see them. So I'm sorry 
if anyone wants to see them and doesn't have a flickr account.  

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ellarsee/sets/72157629987056554/

I posted them at full resolution, because I'm actively seeking feedback, 
primarily on technical issues right now, and you can't pixel peep low-rezzed 
photos.  

Since feedback on a whole set is a lot of work so well, I'm picking this one, 
as my favorite, to specifically ask for critique on, but feel free to give me 
suggestions on any of them:

standard:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ellarsee/7309874796/

full resolution:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ellarsee/7309874796/sizes/o

K-5 DA*16-50 at 34mm ISO 80 1/160 f/8

They were all shot with the 16-50. I thought about using primes, but the 16-50 
is sharp enough at f/8-16 and a lot more versatile.

--
Larry Colen l...@red4est.com sent from i4est





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Re: GESO art nudes, nsfw

2012-05-31 Thread Bruce Walker
First off, good for you for getting right into experimental mode and
doing some real-world work. I'd say the results are quite encouraging
and if you can persuade your friend to sit for you again, do it.

Here I will veer into personal preferences, so take with the usual grain-of.

My technical issues in the shot you submitted for critique:

- redness of face and neck and general skin blotchiness detract from
this being an idealized figure study. Pretty easy fix: go BW. You'll
see in your bw's that they look much better for overall evenness of
skin tones.

- hot spots. Your light source isn't soft enough yet. BW will help
here too. Investigate strip-light softboxes. You can craft DIY ones.

- too much detail. In a figure study like this I don't want to see
pores, uncomplimentary lines, etc. I suggest some retouching -- not a
lot! -- just enough to idealize your subject. Eg: try using the
Distort - Diffuse Glow filter. Put it on a layer so you can mask its
effect on eyes and lips. My go-to filter is Imagenomic Portraiture,
but it's pricey. You could try out Portrait Professional. Disable its
myriad default actions (like facial feature reshaping) and just enable
skin softening features.

- pose: needs work. :-) It's fine, even pretty good, and you filled
the frame nicely, but that angle on her face isn't to my taste. Avoid
arranging her body so you are shooting square-on. You should try to
angle her trunk more to avoid putting on extra weight. Try also to use
the longest tele focal lengths you can manage in the space. Get up on
a ladder to help that.
Study art books. Look up Edward Weston's nudes.

But again, good stuff, Larry!


On Thu, May 31, 2012 at 4:05 PM, Larry Colen l...@red4est.com wrote:
 In the spirit of Jeff Foxworthy,

 If your girlfriend comes home to find a naked woman on your couch, and she 
 doesn't bat an eye, you might be a photographer.

 As I mentioned, I've been jonesing to do some photography on a higher level 
 than I've had the opportunity for lately. A friend came over last night to 
 visit, and I convinced her to let me do some art nudes of her.  I set up the 
 photos up keeping in mind the discussions on the improving my technical 
 quality thread.  I meant to use both the strobes and the tripod but I found 
 that with a fidgety model trying to use a tripod would be too impractical.  I 
 suppose I should have used my monopod, but I don't think I'm seeing too much 
 camera blur.

 It was a fun set because I'd describe my friend as more classically pretty 
 than conventionally pretty.  She's six foot tall, about 190 pounds and has 
 cerebral palsy.  In other words, she's not as slim as modern American tastes 
 dictate, but well within the preferences of figure artists.  I do need to 
 learn a lot more about lighting, but still managed to get some acceptable 
 photos.  I am feeling the need for a larger softbox to get softer lighting, 
 without blasting photons all over background that I may not want lit.

 Most of these were shot with a grid on my white lightning off stage right, 
 with some sort of fill, from stage left.  My fill light was one of those $25 
 strobes that you can screw into a light socket.  Many of them with a softbox 
 on it.  I was going to use the strobe that the softbox actually fits, but the 
 bulb for it got broken since I last used it.

 My friend wanted any pictures posted to flickr to be under restricted 
 access so that only people willing to see adult content can see them. So 
 I'm sorry if anyone wants to see them and doesn't have a flickr account.

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/ellarsee/sets/72157629987056554/

 I posted them at full resolution, because I'm actively seeking feedback, 
 primarily on technical issues right now, and you can't pixel peep low-rezzed 
 photos.

 Since feedback on a whole set is a lot of work so well, I'm picking this one, 
 as my favorite, to specifically ask for critique on, but feel free to give me 
 suggestions on any of them:

 standard:
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/ellarsee/7309874796/

 full resolution:
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/ellarsee/7309874796/sizes/o

 K-5 DA*16-50 at 34mm ISO 80 1/160 f/8

 They were all shot with the 16-50. I thought about using primes, but the 
 16-50 is sharp enough at f/8-16 and a lot more versatile.

 --
 Larry Colen l...@red4est.com sent from i4est





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-bmw

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Re: GESO art nudes, nsfw

2012-05-31 Thread Larry Colen
Thanks for all of the excellent feedback.

There is a lot about post processing that I still need to learn.  I just picked 
up the LR4 book, and now just need to read it.

Posing was a bit of a challenge with a hemiplegic model, she has limited 
mobility on her left side.  Also, her left eye lid was having issues last night 
and her left eye wasn't necessarily pointing in the same direction as her her 
right eye.  But that being said, I'll definitely keep your suggestions in mind. 

I did process a couple in black and white, I haven't tried much of the 
processing techniques you mentioned. I suspect that a big point to consider on 
the other thread is learning digital post processing much better.  I'm still 
getting used to the new controls in LR4.



On May 31, 2012, at 1:54 PM, Bruce Walker wrote:

 First off, good for you for getting right into experimental mode and
 doing some real-world work. I'd say the results are quite encouraging
 and if you can persuade your friend to sit for you again, do it.
 
 Here I will veer into personal preferences, so take with the usual grain-of.
 
 My technical issues in the shot you submitted for critique:
 
 - redness of face and neck and general skin blotchiness detract from
 this being an idealized figure study. Pretty easy fix: go BW. You'll
 see in your bw's that they look much better for overall evenness of
 skin tones.
 
 - hot spots. Your light source isn't soft enough yet. BW will help
 here too. Investigate strip-light softboxes. You can craft DIY ones.
 
 - too much detail. In a figure study like this I don't want to see
 pores, uncomplimentary lines, etc. I suggest some retouching -- not a
 lot! -- just enough to idealize your subject. Eg: try using the
 Distort - Diffuse Glow filter. Put it on a layer so you can mask its
 effect on eyes and lips. My go-to filter is Imagenomic Portraiture,
 but it's pricey. You could try out Portrait Professional. Disable its
 myriad default actions (like facial feature reshaping) and just enable
 skin softening features.
 
 - pose: needs work. :-) It's fine, even pretty good, and you filled
 the frame nicely, but that angle on her face isn't to my taste. Avoid
 arranging her body so you are shooting square-on. You should try to
 angle her trunk more to avoid putting on extra weight. Try also to use
 the longest tele focal lengths you can manage in the space. Get up on
 a ladder to help that.
 Study art books. Look up Edward Weston's nudes.
 
 But again, good stuff, Larry!
 
 
 On Thu, May 31, 2012 at 4:05 PM, Larry Colen l...@red4est.com wrote:
 In the spirit of Jeff Foxworthy,
 
 If your girlfriend comes home to find a naked woman on your couch, and she 
 doesn't bat an eye, you might be a photographer.
 
 As I mentioned, I've been jonesing to do some photography on a higher level 
 than I've had the opportunity for lately. A friend came over last night to 
 visit, and I convinced her to let me do some art nudes of her.  I set up the 
 photos up keeping in mind the discussions on the improving my technical 
 quality thread.  I meant to use both the strobes and the tripod but I found 
 that with a fidgety model trying to use a tripod would be too impractical.  
 I suppose I should have used my monopod, but I don't think I'm seeing too 
 much camera blur.
 
 It was a fun set because I'd describe my friend as more classically pretty 
 than conventionally pretty.  She's six foot tall, about 190 pounds and has 
 cerebral palsy.  In other words, she's not as slim as modern American tastes 
 dictate, but well within the preferences of figure artists.  I do need to 
 learn a lot more about lighting, but still managed to get some acceptable 
 photos.  I am feeling the need for a larger softbox to get softer lighting, 
 without blasting photons all over background that I may not want lit.
 
 Most of these were shot with a grid on my white lightning off stage right, 
 with some sort of fill, from stage left.  My fill light was one of those $25 
 strobes that you can screw into a light socket.  Many of them with a softbox 
 on it.  I was going to use the strobe that the softbox actually fits, but 
 the bulb for it got broken since I last used it.
 
 My friend wanted any pictures posted to flickr to be under restricted 
 access so that only people willing to see adult content can see them. So 
 I'm sorry if anyone wants to see them and doesn't have a flickr account.
 
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/ellarsee/sets/72157629987056554/
 
 I posted them at full resolution, because I'm actively seeking feedback, 
 primarily on technical issues right now, and you can't pixel peep low-rezzed 
 photos.
 
 Since feedback on a whole set is a lot of work so well, I'm picking this 
 one, as my favorite, to specifically ask for critique on, but feel free to 
 give me suggestions on any of them:
 
 standard:
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/ellarsee/7309874796/
 
 full resolution:
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/ellarsee/7309874796/sizes/o
 
 K-5 DA*16-50