Action Sports Cartel

Tim i think you're just trying to rack up post count with all those edits. cause anyone with a high post count obviously knows their shit!

I think the guys nailed the techy stuff above, closer to ambient. gal in bkg was brighter (more of an issue than left to right, but still notable) etc. the only thing i'd add to that is on the first shot i'm really bugged by the shadow falling on the left cheek of the gal in the red dress. getting the lights higher would help.
BW vs Colour; TK's treatment on the BW looks real nice, but its useful to keep in mind that shots meant to be selling fashion accurately portraying the fashions is important. a long way from any sort of rule of thumb, but something to keep in mind.

more of my comments will come on concept. sorta feels a bit half baked on it. i'm not seeing any connection between the clothing and locations. don't get me wrong fashion mags don't make much sense at all (the whole industry has a bit of a screw loose). i think shooting an idea that has more of a connection to the dresses would help 'sell' the dresses. OR going completely opposite and play up the disconnect between the fashion and the environment. Right now its hanging out in middle ground.

Yeah I see what you mean about them being out of place in a mossy forest, she just really wanted to do an outdoor shoot, and I'd been wanting to shoot this spot for a while now, so I went for it. I think the red dress looks amazing surrounded by all the lush green. The other one, maybe not so much.. But I think the contrast of "high" fashion and rustic forest makes the dresses stand out more. I wouldn't be so interesting if they were on a runway or something, and if I shot some dude in a flannel holding an axe in the forest it would look like a sears catalog.. How much more disconnected should it be? On the moon? Or underwater?.... Actually underwater would be pretty cool..

I've just re-read what I'm typing and it sounds a lot more harsh than I mean. I do appreciate the comments! Thanks Reuben!

Mike Jones wrote:
Haha man, you procrastinate with the best of em!

I did do some b&w with a few of the photos, I hesitate posting them here because someone always says "I'd love to see the full-colour version blah blah..."

How'd you do that in Lightroom? If you don't mind me asking..

Which the first? -- I did a couple gradients to bring down the exposure in the back. Burn down the highlights all around with the paint tool as well as the mid-tones to viewers left of girl in red, then I painted yellow color to make them [highlights] a little warmer.

The second image I played with the levels and contrast in Photoshop using a couple plug-ins. Nothing you couldn't do in Lightroom... what I really wanted to work on in PS was the harsh shadow on the girls face in red (around her left eye). I didn't have many pixels to work with, so I just painted with a sharp brush, at a low opacity to work on the shadow and highlight.

The B&W was just a tweak of a preset in LR 3. The grain was added in LR as well. Nothing too fancy.

That answer it ok? tk

Yeah I was just curious how you selectively darkened one model and brightened the other in lightroom, apparently it has many tricks I'm unaware of..

haha didn't read as harsh at all, no worries. from my travels in fashion the dresses are more traditional than high fashion. not trying to bicker, just an opinion.

i agree the disconnect between the fashion and location is big. and it does make it interesting, but i think the posing, props, and 'story' behind the images is the thing which i'm having trouble with (sorry i didn't articulate that properly before) so i'm not suggesting a change of location.
in a large amount of fashion shooting (i'd even say majority) the photographs are shot to display a lifestyle or mood of luxury, basically an unachievable lifestyle. Your shots have the starting of an unachievable lifestyle (cause no one wears a dress in the forrest) but the shot isn't portraying much luxury to me.

Ah yeah I get what you mean now, something to think about for sure. Thanks!