How to get better: lighting & all the rest

[Frank Fremerey]

I got 4x5 here, including film, yet my experience is that "models" (as in customers to be pictured) are very impatient nowadays and a 4x5 always costs a lot of setup lighting & shooting time.

Now I will go to the "Zollamt" -- customs office -- top collect my copy of " The Best of Dean Collins on Lighting by Dean Collins" on DVD coming from the US of A

[Olivier]

By 4x5 I meant picture format after cropping, not the camera itself!

[Frank Fremerey]

By 4x5 I meant picture format after cropping, not the camera itself!

I see, that is one of the available aspect ratios in the newer Nikons, right. I though of good old 4in x 5 in film...

[elsa hoffmann]

Hairlight - I would not automatically have mentioned it as my assumption would be that you would have used it if you had one. It is needed against a black background
Background - covered already. I would like to add that if you shoot on a pure black - you need to regard the shots more as studio shots - so processing will be different. If you have a more blended natural background - less retouching can be done.
crop - FAR to low down in the frame - wasted dead space on top. If only I can get that right every time too....
Some of the images are under exposed and have a yellow cast
Some have a red cast
A tad higher angle would have been nice
remove blemishes

I photographed the staff of a local business the other day - charged per person  - took 3 shots of each to select from - and supplied one photo per person. Took me 10 minutes to shoot. Set up took me 10 minutes also. And no - mine ain't perfect either.
USUALLY it is important to have continuity - the pics needs to look the same
You said you did this in 2014. No doubt if would have been very different if you did it now

[Frank Fremerey]

Elsa: Thank you. I "see" differently today, need to change eyes from right to left might have added to that. IIRC this was a 3 hour job, shooting 10 classes, each of ~30 students on a neutral BG. I did not change the setup for the portraits because the teachers came and went with their classes and the portraits were just a "goodie", while the paid for part were the group shots.

The reflections on the skin of the company workers looks as if you used flash light with two soft boxes, one on the left and one on the right.

I avoid using flash light apart from BG or Contour.

[elsa hoffmann]

Yes I used flash - I can't do otherwise when doing corporate work like this.
Straight forward flat lighting.

We all see differently - as time goes by - thank the pope for that