Need Photo Critiqued

[AnnariaB]

I'm happy with my photo so far but I feel like there's something missing. I'm looking to eventually turn this into a job on second life so I could use some feedback and constructive criticism. 

[Chic Aeon]

Nice set up, Windlight and composition. The setting sun however is the focus of the "portrait" and I am guessing that isn't what is supposed to be. Adding some face lighting (not too bright) would bring the attention back to the subject. There are some facelights that have degrees of light brightness as well as color and other choices. They are free. I made a special "dim" version which works well when you just need a little help.

You can also rez a spher and used the advanced lighting perameters adjusted to your needs -- if you can rez of course.

[Dora Gustafson]

I like:)

We have a general problem with skins
Up til now a skin is nothing but a diffuse UV map and the highlights and shades are mostly those painted on the skin
Painted highlights and shades do not change when light sources change
In this case the light I see falling on the models face is not coming from the sun or the sky

I am not blaming you, nobody can do it much better given only the diffuse skin UV texture

The day glossiness and normals come to skins it will be another story

:smileysurprised::smileyvery-happy:

[Tamara Artis]

The photo looks great and I'm sure you would get jobs if you have more of them like that one. So keep doing more of them

If you want to play with it more here are few things; decide if you want to go realistic or more fantasy way and bump up any of those. For example in this one you have a sunset scene and avi is not facing the sun which means that the body should be much darker. Basically her whole body is in the shadow and only highlighted parts are hair tips at the outer side of the hair and the top of her shoulder.

Also you could play more with the body, just search for real life photos that show the figure in the same or similar pose and see how the body looks, then try to make it same with the avi. I would change the shape of her shoulder and see what to do with the neck - the jaw is too big compared with the tiny neck.

When you do in-world shots and need to do lots of liquifying best is to cut out the avi and put it on a separate layer so you don't distort the background too - in this example the reflection on the water near the shoulder area. 

You can take 1px brush and add tons of tiny hair strands to make the hair more "alive", make them messy, to go in different directions. Her boobs are not same, the right one looks like it has less gravity so maybe it would look good if we could see it in the water too, just a bit half transparent. Then see how the line between the boob and the water is round, thats great but it needs to be more round on the arm area too because the arm is also rounded.

And what Chic said, the sun is poking my eyes and stealing the attention from the beautiful avi. 

[Jackson Redstar]

did you use ctrl +0 to zoom in, or just mouse zoomed in? the standard sl "lens" is like maybe a 18-24mm in rl, and in rl, we wouldn't use that for portaits - that would be like walking up 2 feet in front of the subject and snapping the pic

IMO, the DOF is too strong here too.. SL DOF sometimes works, sometimes doesnt. in a scene like this, if could be more subtle (this may be post DOF cause seems only the water and trees are soft focus, not the sky)

the last issue is something that drives me bonkers in sl, that is the SL 'crazy eyes' our eyes do not line up correctly! it is very frustrating to deal with, and being that eyes are the soul of a portrait, it is really notiable But i this case, the alignment isnt too far off, it is more the blank stare that is throwing me off (me personly, i tend to move the eyes either to the left or right sides, or, if i want 'eye contact' what i do is set the eyes and start rotating the cam until i 'feel' the eyes looking at me)

and i would also say if the model would have rotated a little more to the picture left, not so much a dead on look, them move the sun maybe just barely off the left edge and given that side of her head a kiss of light. 

[AnnariaB]

Here is my updated version with the critique you guys gave me. Some of the ideas were super helpful, thank you all. I'm just getting started doing Second Life photography so I'll be sure to work on in-world lighting and better poses/camera angles. 

 

[Jackson Redstar]

my point on the eyes you will notice they dont always line up 'parralel' human eyes, normaly, will be lined up properly when we focus our gaze somewhere. SL has a flaw and the eyes are out of psition from one another. sometimes it is barely noticeable, but alot of times you get a whole 'crazy eyes' look going on

[Jackson Redstar]

Here, I gave it a stab with what you had

[Tamara Artis]

Please make a Flickr or some other account and keep posting them, I would love to see more! And the updated version looks great, hair is awesome! Kudo