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Well we sure had a great day at the Portrait Minimeet at Mt Coot-tha Botanical Gardens.

The girls were FANTASTIC and put up with, at times, very trying conditions (it was bloody hot) not to mention flashes going off every couple of seconds.

They did their best to look at the photographer taking a shot which wasn't easy as sometimes there would be 3 or 4 at once!!

Great stuff and a big thank you for your efforts from me.

When I finished the minimeet I had to go to do a portrait shoot for a friend of her and her daughters so the afternoon was very valuable from a learning point of view also. She likes the soft vignette blur look so I was working towards that effect. I have included one from that session as well.

Straight from the camera.
Nikkor 35-105 @ 105mm with Soft Spot Filter 1/100s @ f/11 SB800 on TTL/BL with Lightsphere and inverted dome.


Straight from the camera.
Nikkor 35-105 @ 105mm with Soft Spot Filter 1/160s @ f/11 SB800 on TTL/BL with Lightsphere and inverted dome.


Sigma 180 1/80s @ f/8 PP soft focus


Sigma 180 and also PP soft focus

All nice shots, dreamy, if I can say that.

Mark,
Good practice after attending portrait workshop.

Nice work Mark, though the hotspots on Anna's face, in particular, are fairly strong.

a series of shots....... they all look good

They're nice poses, but the blurred ones look a little overdone. Kind of distracting. I think maybe the blur should be not quite as thick.

think the shine on the first one spoils it.

the last 2 seem the strongest to me.

my favourite is a toss up between the 3rd and 4th, leaning towards the 4th. with the most pleasing lighting and pose.

Dont mind the diffusion also.

dont find it distracting as it focusses attention on the main subject.

Steve

Nice shots Mark. The shot of Anna does look a bit harsh, she was very hot sitting in the sun at that stage of the day.
Craig

The last one is a very nice portrait. The only thing I don't like is the softness around the neck area. No. 1 has too many hotsports, but that's probably more a problem with positioning of the model respective to light. Other ones are a bit too softened for my liking.

Alex

#1 is spoilt by the shine on her face.
#2 i like the light on her face and the highlight in her hair but she looks a bit sleepy which doesn't go with the outdoors.
#3 i like this one a lot but not sure if a touch less softness would be better ... would have to see pics side by side to decide.
#4 lighting is nice but i would like to see her face tilted up a bit more and maybe turned a bit towards the camera.



Its hard to be so honest ... sorry

Appreciate all the feedback folks. The lighting was a bit harsh in teh first and doesn't do justice the subject. I was playing around with on camera filters on my Nikkor 35-105 to see the effects. I am much happier with the results from the longer lens (#3 & #4 Sigma 180 Macro) as it produces a much softer background. I think I'll leave my filtering for Photoshop:roll:

Birdy, the minimeet was a perfect opportunity for practice and I am sure it helped me achieve some nice results.

Big Red wrote:#1 is spoilt by the shine on her face.
#2 i like the light on her face and the highlight in her hair but she looks a bit sleepy which doesn't go with the outdoors.
#3 i like this one a lot but not sure if a touch less softness would be better ... would have to see pics side by side to decide.
#4 lighting is nice but i would like to see her face tilted up a bit more and maybe turned a bit towards the camera.



Its hard to be so honest ... sorry

Mate, don't be sorry. That's why they're posted here