I see blown areas on the shirt and her forehead and the shadows dont help either.

A slightly larger picture would be better to see more detail.

As mentioned before using a reflector to the left of the model would have helped to lighten up the dark areas of the body.

Screw the "golden hour" as long as you have direct sunlight creating harsh shadows it's not much better than straight sunlight at noon for example.

Without some additional light (strobes or reflector) it's pretty much impossible to shoot this nicely. Actually if the sky was somewhat overcast it would help a lot.

You need to find a reflective material that bounces plenty of light back, you might get away with an old white bed sheet - no need to actually buy a reflector.

With more light at hand, exposure times will be shorter and the highlights that were blown out before should be ok then.

If you want to use this image and compete (successfully) in stock photography you have to crank your game a bit.

The location (or better background) looks quite busy and is rather distracting. You should shoot it at a much lower aperture than the 7.1 you used in order to throw the background more out of focus.

There are more "issues" with the clothing, props and concept if you want to talk about it let me know.

Thanks for posting and the replies so far, I like to see the constructive ideas on how to improve photos.

Thank you all! This is very helpful tips!


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Even on a bright overcast day, a reflector makes a huge difference. As an example, here's a crop from a test shot on a bright overcast day with and without a reflector. In this case it was one of the large circular ones, but I also have a few light panels which are great if you need a larger scrim or reflector surface. Click on the thumbnail for a larger version.



You can see tons of video tutorials on this sort of thing - see

here

and

here

and here for a couple of examples.

Agree with others - golden hour or not, you've got harsh light coming from one side that needs to be tempered by an external source on the left.

Great Post JoAnn.  Did you use the gold side?  Sometimes when I use gold it is terribly yellow.  You sure can't beat a good example like your before and after.  The skin is softer and healthier, the eyes are brighter.  The shadows aren't terribly harsh in the first shot, but they sure add age and even a few pounds.  No hint of colour in the eyes - and the shadows from the brow are close to causing the "racoon eyes" that are so attractive with overhead light. 

So who was holding the reflector?

Another great thing about the 5 in 1 reflectors is that you can take the outer casing off and use the inside as a scrim to reduce light, or to fire a flash through.  I need to invest in a rig that won't blow over.  (Maybe those C stands?)  I can't use reflectors without help, it's ALWAYS windy on the prairies.

In this case, the reflector was on a cooperative shrub in front of me I have stands and sand bags (or those water filled plastic weight bags with hooks) so I can use both circular reflectors or the light panels without an assistant (which I almost never have).

It was the gold/silver stripe cover in this case. I like the light from that a lot when you want a little warmth but not as much as the gold.

In this case, a on camera flash as a fill will do the trick as well.

I am now the proud owner of 5 in 1 reflector kit that includes silver and gold. Plus some nice new portable softboxes with strobes- I am so ready next time!