jstill wrote:
Jim,
excellent  exposures and comps across the board. The rest is just my take on it, feel free to ignore!

smooth carries emotion, with interesting lines. good shot.

Background is too busy in slippery, but i love the skin tone.

purple again with the background, distracting.

ribbon has a good general concept, i dont like the how it came out, the angle of pose widens the hips and make her head look large and she looks a little lost.

prepare would be nice in bw, lots of different converging lines.

waiting is my favorite shot, digging the golden comp!

i dont like the shadow in lounge.

Selective color in a bw image is very hard to pull off, didnt do it in cross.

Workout, wet, soundbound, and sepia, all successful images.
If i were editing, i would remove lounge, reprocess cross and reshoot ribbon.

You are showing some strong work here.
john

John, thanks for taking the time! I appreciate it.

I definitely agree with pretty much all of your points, and its nice to hear someone else say it to confirm. Especially when it comes to the backgrounds being a bit too flashy in the bikini shots.  I think the only thing I disagree with is the shadow in 'lounge' - that was exactly as I had wanted it to be - was very intentional.  But I cannot for a moment argue that you should like it more because it was how I intended to shoot it 

With regard to 'cross' - I would definitely appreciate some more specific guidance here. I dont know if it will matter much, but that blue that was used for the bikini top is in fact the real color of the top. I didn't alter it a bit.  Was it the color you didnt like, the object I chose to allow color in, or something else perhaps?

Interesting take on ribbon.  Some great points and I will certainly look at shooting that again.

I really appreciate the feedback - thanks! 

Jim

Nicholson Photography wrote:
you should go with the more awkward angles and posses. i would stay away from the glam stuff.

Hi Andrew...

Its hard for me at this point to even really know what real glam is anymore.  I am going to assume that the glam shots you are referring to are things like 'purple' and 'slippery', the bikini shots.  Please correct me if I am off the track there.

But the eye popping colorful glam type stuff IS what I really want to concentrate on more, as I have only just begun to explore it.  If my first attempts stink - I really dont mind anyone saying so.  Please help me improve by pointing out specifics, and I can assure you that I will listen.

My intention ultimately is to be technically adept in more than one style, and I am ready to create a bunch of substandard stuff and survive the criticism to get there.

Just to fill you in a bit, I am experimenting with ring flash for the glammish type stuff like those bikini shots, and will promptly abandon the high gloss backgrounds I have been using for something less distracting as per jstill's recommendations.  These shots are the only ones that I have used flash for at all, I use hot lights and natural for everything else.

Thanks for your time!

Jim

Avicdar wrote:
Gus...

First of all, THANK you for taking the time to look at my port and offer your comments.  I do guide the posing a little bit, depending upon what is really needed, but I have been fortunate in working with wonderful women who seem to be able to offer a variety of poses in a flash.

It would mean a lot to me actually though if you would offer up any insights into technical issues with my work.  I learned quite a bit about proper cropping and composition by asking people to be up front about what they see, and I feel the work has improved because of it.  Sometimes criticism stings, but once the sting heals the advice remains, is retained and applied.  So please - let me have it if you have something specific in mind, no matter how picky!

Thanks again for taking the time - I really appreciate it.  Now I am off to peek at your work, your avatar is simply too inviting 

Jim

Jim

I really am being honest - I do not have the heart to take something i like and try to find out why i shouldn't like it so much or fingure out what it wrong with it.  I try to provide people with insite and often spend quite a bit of time trying to figure out what it is that could be better. 

I said  "" I hate nit picking little technical issues if the image overall has strength "" and this is the truth - but i did not mean to imply that I saw any at all.  .