Constructive Feedback Request Thread

[SofaCitizen]

This is a thread to post images and "hopefully" obtain some constructive feedback from others. That seems quite tricky to get sometimes but sharing knowledge, skills, suggestions and ideas with a variety of artists would surely be a good thing. I know that I would certainly benefit from it. So, this is not a "roast me" thread, but more of a "how could I have made this better" thread.

Post images here alongside any thoughts or comments about what kind of feedback you would like and then others can respond with answers and suggestions from their point of view.

[SofaCitizen]

I'll start with this one. I don't really do a lot of portrait-style renders and this was one of the first that I was brave enough to post. It did fine on the Daz forum but was largely ignored on DeviantArt, while others that seemed to be posted around the same time and were somewhat in the same ballpark received 10x the engagement.

So, the question(s) I have are - is this image good or just "OK"? Is the colour pallete missing something? is the framing good enough? Even tho it is a slightly non-sensical image, does it still make SOME sense?

Please bee honest :)

[SimonJM]

I'll start with this one. I don't really do a lot of portrait-style renders and this was one of the first that I was brave enough to post. It did fine on the Daz forum but was largely ignored on DeviantArt, while others that seemed to be posted around the same time and were somewhat in the same ballpark received 10x the engagement.

So, the question(s) I have are - is this image good or just "OK"? Is the colour pallete missing something? is the framing good enough? Even tho it is a slightly non-sensical image, does it still make SOME sense?

Please bee honest :)

It's a nice whimisical image, the Dpeth of Focus is very nicely applied, with the overall lighting being quite good - it could, maybe, just maybe, do with the ambient/environemt lights being a touch brighter? The pallete is limited (primarily yellows and greens, with a bit of black) but nothing wrong with that (in my view, at least).
In short, a perfectly acceptable image (that'd I'd be happy to produce) but, nothing that leaps from the screen.

[SofaCitizen]

It's a nice whimisical image, the Dpeth of Focus is very nicely applied, with the overall lighting being quite good - it could, maybe, just maybe, do with the ambient/environemt lights being a touch brighter? The pallete is limited (primarily yellows and greens, with a bit of black) but nothing wrong with that (in my view, at least).
In short, a perfectly acceptable image (that'd I'd be happy to produce) but, nothing that leaps from the screen.

Awesome, thank you! :) This is the feedback that I need. I think the problem with DeviantArt is that the star/favourite mechanic there kinda signifies artwork that you "love" and so that leaves the entire spectrum from "utter rubbish" to "quite good" without anything to cover it so getting no stars leaves you in the dark somewhat.

I hadn't thought about the lighting myself before. I did work on it a little since there is a subtle light coming from the flower to provide a warm glow on the girl's face. However, I probably got too distracted by that small detail and so didn't consider the rest of the lighting. That is definitely something I want to practice and so I will try to focus more on that in my next portrait.

Thanks again! :)

[jammixx]

So, the question(s) I have are - is this image good or just "OK"? Is the colour pallete missing something? is the framing good enough? Even tho it is a slightly non-sensical image, does it still make SOME sense?
    Please bee honest :)

I just noticed this thread, and think it is a good idea.  I often come across flaws after I'm already done.  Most common is when I do one area, then work another and render without noticing that there is a conflict between the two.    As for comment:  I like the image and get a happy feeling from it.  Having a single color pallete across an image is fine with me ( it can be very effective if there are shadows and tone variations included). Two things: the flower at the very front keeps distracting me from the subject.  The bee lady has quite a grip on that flower (maybe just a few fingers would be adequate).    I'll submit one for review soon.  I can use the help.

[SofaCitizen]

    I just noticed this thread, and think it is a good idea.  I often come across flaws after I'm already done.  Most common is when I do one area, then work another and render without noticing that there is a conflict between the two.    As for comment:  I like the image and get a happy feeling from it.  Having a single color pallete across an image is fine with me ( it can be very effective if there are shadows and tone variations included). Two things: the flower at the very front keeps distracting me from the subject.  The bee lady has quite a grip on that flower (maybe just a few fingers would be adequate).    I'll submit one for review soon.  I can use the help.

Awesome, thanks for the feedback! :)  For many of my images I will display them on my secondary-screen (or set them as a wallpaper/screensaver for landscape ones) and leave them there for a while to see if something odd popups up. However, these two things I had not noticed and now that you have pointed them out they seem quite obvious - the benefit of having many eyes on something!  I really struggle to find the enthusiasm/creativity to make portrait-style renders but I do have an idea of a series (of sorts) which should provide me the hook I need to do some more and put some of these suggestions from this thread into action and hopefully improve :)

Please post some images here when you want and hopefully we can get more users involved to provide some helpful feedback.  I did have another I was dissapointed that it did not get as much attention as I thought it should (comparitively speaking) but it does also have an obvious flaw that I spotted too late so I might fix that first before asking for opinions on the rest.

[jammixx]

    Here is an image I did not too long ago that didn't get much notice on Daz3D.  I don't normally do renders with more than one person, so this is one of my first doing that.  The setting is on a greek island and features two friend that were separated for a while, and just randomly found each other again.  They are looking at a church steeple that is nearby.  Does it need more light and sharper shadows, more risque clothing, or something I am missing entirely?

[SofaCitizen]

I think I would agree with you that perhaps the light is not quite being right. I am far from an expert with lighting but my first thought was that there wasn't quite enough vibrancy which is odd seeing as there is plenty of colour. Perhaps a warmer "summer sun" light is needed maybe?

Without knowing how you lit the scene or being familiar with that environment product there are a few things that are throwing out a little confusion for me - the dark space at the top behind the red flowers gives an indication that it could be a night sky although given that the girls met up while wandering around and are looking at a church spire it is not so likely to be night so perhaps that is a shadowed area that has been mostly cropped out? Also, the centre two spires of the railings are very white which could be the reflection of a harsh spotlight - potentially backed up a little by the shadows of the railings under the red flowers - although they could also just be where the paint has worn away (as the railings at the front would suggest could be the case).

Either way, I would like to hope that risque clothing would not be the answer. Sure that can help the numbers to some extent - more so at other galleries. However, even tho I have not been to Greece before, I would like to think that those two outfits are perfectly suitable for the situation. The only thing that maybe works against them is both being blue tops when there is so much blue elsewhere? Perhaps yellow or pink (for the girl not in front of the red flowers) may help draw the eye to them a little more?

I do love the expression on the girl with the black shorts - she looks so full of wonder and admiration. The other girl is perhaps more focussing on, and striking a pose for, the person behind the camera. I am not sure if that makes the image better or worse but for me does help add a splash of extra flavour and personality to the two characters and the untold story behind the scene :)

[SimonJM]

Risque clothing is not the answer! (I can't believe I just wrote that ...  )

The lighting ... judging by the shadows from the balcony fence the main light is at a very low angle which is good for doing the illumination but would be unrealistic for the potential time of day. If it were me I'd be having the main light be at a steeper angle (more akin to an afternoon sun angle) and perhaps adding some indirect/ambient light to allow details to be clearly seen.

The composition ... generally good; the posing of the two figures gets a huge thumbs up, having interacting figures is a huge pain to do well, and you have done so! I might be inclined to have panned the camera right a little so the figures were around a 1/3rd the way across the image from the left (so making use of the golden ratio).

Apart from that, very decent render!

[jammixx]

Ha!  "Risque clothing" sure seems to be the solution on some sites, but I avoid it.   Thank you for your comments.  You  caught one of my on-going weaknesses, which is that my base assumption of illumination is not very bright.  I live in a rain forest so I need to be more conscious of that one.  Adding shader lighting (colored) to imply time of day is something to work on for sure; and of course, shadow sharpness.  I used an Iray sky to do the lighting on this, but clearly that is not a complete solution.
    You spotted my goof-up SofaCitizen.  The black hole you noticed is where I set up the scene but then got to moving things around and left that hole.  I noticed it later myself. 
   Following the golden ratio is always wise and I even use 1.618 as part of a user name somewhere.  That darn town prop really took some wrangling.  I wish the creators of these wonderful environments would also have in mind how many individual scenes somebody can get out of their product. 
   This is a good exercise, and I have learned from your comments.
Would anybody mind commenting on their experience trying to supplement Environmental light?  I've had a hard time using both in the past.  Back in the time of 3Delight, there was the photographers 3-point light setup as a guide.  However, the jump to environmental lighting, and HDRI doesn't seem to have the same standard approach or tutorials beyond things like dome rotation and presets.