Well, Brendan, points for trying! The model is certainly attractive, and you've got the right brand of gear, but I must echo the suggestions made by some other folks.
First, posing is crucial. Only lub4 is attractive (at least to my eyes). Often the poses only really start to happen by the second roll of film, so it's often worth having the model run through several poses before you start shooting, just to loosen up. This also gives you a chance to size up the lighting, and decide where and how to place her, in regards to the lighting and background. The distant backgrounds are distracting. Photography is a subtractive medium, unlike painting. Your frame contains many elements, and you remove all those that don't contribute positively to the image, by lens choice, point of view, selective focus, and so on. For starters, use a wider aperture, even if you have to use a neutral density filter. If you have room, a longer lens would help. Many fashion shooters like the 300/2.8 for the perspective, shallow depth of field, and most importantly, the narrow angle of view that crops out distractions. The 50 is useful for full figure shooting with appealing backgrounds, but you need a longer lens for waist-up or head and shoulder shots. The 70-200/2.8 is what I use most often for this kind of shot, often at f4 or f5.6 up close, at f2.8 at a distance. That's the typical application of those high shutter speeds, not stopping action. As for shooting in bright sunshine, it's a challenge. Many pros either use a scrim, or lots more flash power, to tame those shadows. You can certainly use backlighting, with sufficient lighting from the front, flash or otherwise. The backlighting can give you rim lighting, which can emphasize her shapely contours. Open shade with a warming filter and some fill flash is also a good way to go. For film, you want good fleshtones and low contrast. Fuji NPS or Reala are good choices. Bottom line is keep shooting. You'll learn from your mistakes, and get more confidence in your posing ideas, which will be sensed by the model, improving her performance. And it could be worse. Those "pro" pictures are the first bikini mugshots I've ever seen. Pat White - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
