First photoshoot, first post! Hello!

[lcaphotog]

So I just had my first photoshoot a couple of days. The whole shoot was taken on Nikon D3200 with the 55-200mm lens. I remember reading longer lenses blur out the bg more, but should I have used an 18-55 instead? I'm planning on buying a 50mm f/1.8 prime lens soon because of my fondness of shooting with wide apertures. Anyways, any comments or critique is welcome!

Also, any tips on getting models to pose? I felt it was hard getting the model to pose in a way i wanted, so I was just letting her do her thing.

 

[The_Traveler]

Clearly she is gorgeous.
The images have lots of empty space for no real reason and they are really out of focus.
Since there is no EXIF, can't tell what is going on.

Sorry,

 

[lcaphotog]

Clearly she is gorgeous.
The images have lots of empty space for no real reason and they are really out of focus.
Since there is no EXIF, can't tell what is going on.

Sorry,

View attachment 93602 View attachment 93603

empty space? Yeah I'm having trouble getting in focus with the shallow DOF. any tips on getting in focus with a long lens as well?

how do i show you the EXIF?

EDIT: don't be sorry. I'm still learning after all

 

[Granddad]

Welcome to the forum!
A pretty model hides a multitude of sins. Good choice! She didn't do too badly at all. To get her to pose the way you want you need to know what you want and tell her clearly. Communication is the key.
#1 - Your love of wide apertures suggests to me that you are overusing this. The focus point seems to be in her hair parting leaving the rest of her face not quite so sharp. I can't see any EXIF data so I can't say for sure what aperture you were using.
#2 - You seem to have missed the focus here, too. I'm not sure where that went to. Also I think this would have been better shot in portrait orientation.
#3 - I like the setting and love the smile you captured. If you look at the pond on the right there's a plastic bottle or plastic bag floating in the water that could easily be cloned out. It's a pity you didn't leave a little room under her boots, that spoils the shot and as you cut off the soles it would be hard to fix that in post.

I'll leave others to make suggestions about lenses but I'd say that you need to work on sharpness with what you have. A good sharp image of your subject is basic. Don't be afraid of criticism, here. It's usually meant positively and I have learned most of what I know about photography from having my photos ripped to shreds on this forum!

P.S. EXIF date is embedded into your digital image by the camera. I'm not familiar with yours but you should be able to set the camera to include it in the main menu.

 

[lcaphotog]

Welcome to the forum!
A pretty model hides a multitude of sins. Good choice! She didn't do too badly at all. To get her to pose the way you want you need to know what you want and tell her clearly. Communication is the key.
#1 - Your love of wide apertures suggests to me that you are overusing this. The focus point seems to be in her hair parting leaving the rest of her face not quite so sharp. I can't see any EXIF data so I can't say for sure what aperture you were using.
I Probably am overusing it then. I'll try to find the right balance next time! I seem to miss focus a lot. Could it have something to do with wearing glasses? It's hard getting my eye to the viewfinder without my glasses hitting my eye. Aperture was at f/4.8
#2 - You seem to have missed the focus here, too. I'm not sure where that went to. Also I think this would have been better shot in portrait orientation.
#3 - I like the setting and love the smile you captured. If you look at the pond on the right there's a plastic bottle or plastic bag floating in the water that could easily be cloned out. It's a pity you didn't leave a little room under her boots, that spoils the shot and as you cut off the soles it would be hard to fix that in post.
I didn't even notice that! Teaches me to show others my work first as they notice things I didn't. Guess I gotta work on my framing as well!

I'll leave others to make suggestions about lenses but I'd say that you need to work on sharpness with what you have. A good sharp image of your subject is basic. Don't be afraid of criticism, here. It's usually meant positively and I have learned most of what I know about photography from having my photos ripped to shreds on this forum!

P.S. EXIF date is embedded into your digital image by the camera. I'm not familiar with yours but you should be able to set the camera to include it in the main menu.
It seems the EXIF data is included with the photo. Guess the metadata gets lost through imgur?

Thanks for the criticism!

 

[The_Traveler]

Use a smaller aperture and use DOFmaster.com to understand how deep your DOF is.
Use an iso that will allow you to shoot at the aperture you want with a shutter speed at least 1/1.6 times your focal length (ex: your focal length is 100 mm, your shutter spoeed using a crop frame camera should be at least 1/160.

To embed exif, see below
your software will have something similar

As far as space, what do you lose by cutting off some (and don't clip her toes

Turn the camera sideways.

.

 

[lcaphotog]

Use a smaller aperture and use DOFmaster.com to understand how deep your DOF is.
Use an iso that will allow you to shoot at the aperture you want with a shutter speed at least 1/1.6 times your focal length (ex: your focal length is 100 mm, your shutter spoeed using a crop frame camera should be at least 1/160.

To embed exif, see below
your software will have something similar
Thanks! However, why can't I upload pictures on here? It says something about a security thing.
View attachment 93606

As far as space, what do you lose by cutting off some (and don't clip her toes
Woops XD

View attachment 93607

Turn the camera sideways.
Isn't it better to take pictures in landscape (there's exceptions I know) and just crop it to portrait? I understand I should have this picture in portrait now though.

View attachment 93608




.

I appreciate your input!

 

[The_Traveler]

Resize your pictures to max 1400 on longest side and save as jpeg, quality max 60.
That is as large as needed both in dimension and file to be seen well on line

 

[The_Traveler]

Just noticed your profile is set to NO EDIT.
I will remove the ones I posted if you'd rather.
Sorry.

 

[lcaphotog]

Resize your pictures to max 1400 on longest side and save as jpeg, quality max 60.
That is as large as needed both in dimension and file to be seen well on line

Thanks!

 

[lcaphotog]

Just noticed your profile is set to NO EDIT.
I will remove the ones I posted if you'd rather.
Sorry.

It's fine! I'll change that haha

 

[Trever1t]

welcome to the forum, as said she's quite a beauty. Keep shooting!

 

[lcaphotog]

welcome to the forum, as said she's quite a beauty. Keep shooting!

Hello! Keep shooting I shall

 

[KmH]

What ever you read that said longer lens blur the background more was wrong and/or did a poor job of explaining what the real difference lens focal length makes.

What longer lenses do it magnify the background more and at longer focal lengths the lens field-of-view (FoV) is smaller.
When using a longer lens we have the camera further from the point of focus (PoF).
If we keep the subject the same size in the image frame and use a 200 mm focal length we are 4x further from the point of focus than if we use a 50 mm focal length.
If the lens aperture and subject size in the frame is the same for both shots the depth-of-field (DoF) for both shots is the same. But as mentioned above the FoV is smaller and the background is magnified more but the background is blurred the same in both shots.

 

[Designer]

..should I have used an 18-55 instead? I'm planning on buying a 50mm f/1.8 prime lens soon because of my fondness of shooting with wide apertures.

Also, any tips on getting models to pose?

I'm glad to see someone using the 55-200 for portraiture. I think a longer view has less distortion than shorter lenses.

The 50mm is shorter, so be ready for some slight measure of distortion. Larger apertures are not necessary, and could lead to DOF troubles. Always know your depth of field in any situation.

If your model is lacking experience, then it is your responsibility to give direction. You should learn good modeling technique and be able to direct your model.