New Here..Sort Of

[FirstLight]

Hello everyone!

I had signed up here quite awhile ago but haven't posted in quite awhile. I rediscovered this forum while cleaning out my bookmarks and have been enjoying exploring and reading the different posts. There sure is a lot of great talent here!

At any rate, my name is Jenn and I currently specialize in children's custom portraiture. I do mostly natural light, on location work but am looking to branch out into other genres as well. I just recently finished up with my portfolio building stage and have started charging full price (eeeek!)

I currently shoot with my Nikon D70s, 50mm f/1.4 lens, 28-75 f/2.8 lens and natural light (with a little help from my speedlight when necessary). All editing is done in CS3. I'm patiently waiting to upgrade my camera but the D70 is a great little camera and has served me well thus far.

I have a website, but it is in desperate need of a re-vamp.

I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone here and learning lots I'm sure!

Here are a few of my recent favorites to share.

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2.

3.

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[Ads]

[Big Mike]

Welcome aboard/back.

[Johnboy2978]

You have some nice work here. Welcome. I look forward to seeing more.

[Montana]

Excellent body of work!

Derrick

[Brutus]

I especially like #3, but all are quite nice.

[butterflygirl]

Wow! Beautiful work! I love them all but especially three and four - in that black and white his eyes are so piercing! Can't wait to see more...

[NJMAN]

Wow, you have some amazing work there! The images are sharp, colorful, and creative. Great comp.

NJ

[vandecarr]

I like all the images with just one exception.

All the eyes look completely fake and over worked.

The pupil itself looks great but the whites of the eye are way to white. This is just my opinion but I think they would all look a hundred times better, especially the close ups, if there was some bloodvessels and red in there.

Again, its only my opinion and other than that I thnk your work is great.

[FirstLight]

I like all the images with just one exception.

All the eyes look completely fake and over worked.

The pupil itself looks great but the whites of the eye are way to white. This is just my opinion but I think they would all look a hundred times better, especially the close ups, if there was some bloodvessels and red in there.

Again, its only my opinion and other than that I thnk your work is great.

Thanks everyone for the welcome (back) and kind comments!

Vandercarr - Thanks! I'll take that as a compliment to my photography skills since I don't actually do much of any pp'ing to the eyes in my photos. I had to chuckle because one of my own biggest pet peeves is over processed eyes..lol.

What I do do is to work really hard at getting really lovely, natural light into their eyes. I also strive for correct exposures in camera so that I have to do as little as possible in pp'ing. I never whiten the whites and I rarely adjust the irises in post. I guess maybe it's just the nature of kid's eyeballs..they tend to have nice, clear eyes (for the most part they've gotten enough sleep and haven't been out drinking the night before..lol). Honestly, my usually pp'ing is maybe a slight boost in contrast/saturation/curves to the entire image (erasing back where needed of course) and some minor touch ups and possibly a little cropping. I also sharpen for the web so that may add in an extra boost to the eyes.

Here's some of the images straight out of the camera for comparison. These are all fully un-edited (except a resize and sharpen for the web).

[NJMAN]

Thanks everyone for the welcome (back) and kind comments!

Vandercarr - Thanks! I'll take that as a compliment to my photography skills since I don't actually do much of any pp'ing to the eyes in my photos. I had to chuckle because one of my own biggest pet peeves is over processed eyes..lol.

What I do do is to work really hard at getting really lovely, natural light into their eyes. I also strive for correct exposures in camera so that I have to do as little as possible in pp'ing. I never whiten the whites and I rarely adjust the irises in post. I guess maybe it's just the nature of kid's eyeballs..they tend to have nice, clear eyes (for the most part they've gotten enough sleep and haven't been out drinking the night before..lol). Honestly, my usually pp'ing is maybe a slight boost in contrast/saturation/curves to the entire image (erasing back where needed of course) and some minor touch ups and possibly a little cropping. I also sharpen for the web so that may add in an extra boost to the eyes.

Here's some of the images straight out of the camera for comparison. These are all fully un-edited (except a resize and sharpen for the web).

Good job! This just goes to show that you understand how important light is when getting the shot right in camera. The fact that you are doing very little pp means that you are way ahead of the game.

Even if you did clean up the eyes, that would be the way to go, since no one ever wants to see photos of themselves with red bloodshot eyes.

[iflynething]

Dang. That's impressive

~Michael~

[KristinaS]

These are stunning. Great work!

[pm63]

These are outstanding!

[yamadak13]

I just went back and looked through them a few times. I was going to pick one that I liked the best, but so many of them are really good. Great job.