Portrait of my Girlfriend

[birdbonkers84]

well your settings were probably wrong because you don't understand them ... you need to understand dof and posing, recomposing... just practice and see what happens

OP said he was going for the eyes as a focal point and your immediate assumption is that any miss is the result ignorance?

it's not "immediate assumption" because I looked carefully at his images and came to conclusion that he doesn't have enough knowledge to understand the settings he had in camera, I would never use the word "ignorance"
If he had understanding of all settings in the camera he wouldn't make those concrete mistakes and even when he makes those kind of mistakes he wouldn't need to ask about what's wrong, he would knew

Maybe.
Or maybe his camera/lens combination needs to be fine tuned. Appears to me his rig might be back-focusing a tad.

nice of you to think like that

Maybe he's right that his shutter speed was too slow (couldn't find any EXIF).

which confirms that he doesn't understand settings he used


@Coull3d you don't need to buy anything before you get to know your camera. The only correct way of shooting is YOUR way! You'll figure out what's your way after certain experience.
Shoot in S, A or M mode to get to know why, how, what for and then choose what fits to you.
Listen to photographers whose work you like or admire, don't get caught too much in technical stuff. Get to know technical stuff and rules and then play with it the way you want to. Photography is art, not a science. True emotion captured is better than any technical-sterile image.
That's the way I look at things... You need to figure out what you think

eta: You have a lovely model and she seems like she doesn't mind to be in front of your camera... keep shooting and practicing

Thanks for the input,

I had a feeling I had mistakes hence why I've come here to have them pointed out, if I didn't have the courage to post images here I would then still be taking out of focused images and not saving them as .jpg.

In my line of work we save renders as either tiff or png so its a habit I need to put on hold for photography, I get that now. I'm not a moron, I've learnt a lot in the last 3-4 months of "taking up photography" as a side hobby. I'm a quick learner, but I have a habbit of rushing things something I also need to work on. Sometimes you have to make mistakes to learn from them...I think that concept is lost on a few these days

 

[birdbonkers84]

Hopefully the skin tone is better? Also removed the hairs around her face.

Not fond of photos where you see too much sclera. Have her look straight ahead rather than peek into the corners.

I'm gonna assume you mean the whites of her eyes! Thanks I'll take that into consideration

 

[mmaria]

Sometimes you have to make mistakes to learn from them...I think that concept is lost on a few these days

it's not "sometimes".... Everyone makes mistakes and no one learns from compliments.
I make my own mistakes everyday and I'm ready for critique every day.

waiting to see what you'll do next

 

[birdbonkers84]

Thank you to everyone that pitched in with comments, I've learned some valuable lessons and it even got me editing the 3 photographs in Lightroom for the first time. I'm much happier with the new images.

 

[birdbonkers84]

No.1 f/2.2 50mm SS 1/160 ISO 200.

No.2 f/1.8 SS 1/160 ISO 200.

Wouldn't mind some opinions on these, these were edited in Lightroom, taking into consideration the WB and skin tones. I also lightened her eyes in both images and saved them as .jpg! and both have been cropped.

I'm also aware that these look different on 3 monitors and 1 phone.

 

[Peeb]

#1 seems to have some kind of focus issue.
#2 seems tack sharp to me.

 

[goooner]

Good shots, I'm not a portrait photog, so I'm sure the pro's will chime in soon. These are much better than the 1st few, no camera shake that I can see at all. I would have liked a little more DOF in #1, say around F4, to get more of her nose in focus, or back up a little to get more DOF. Also focus on the eye closest to the camera, the models right eye seems to be the focus point. The 2nd shot the horizon is extremely skew, not sure if it is intentional or not. The horizon 'cutting' her head in half is also not ideal.

 

[birdbonkers84]

#1 seems to have some kind of focus issue.
#2 seems tack sharp to me.

Thanks Peeb

Good shots, I'm not a portrait photog, so I'm sure the pro's will chime in soon. These are much better than the 1st few, no camera shake that I can see at all. I would have liked a little more DOF in #1, say around F4, to get more of her nose in focus, or back up a little to get more DOF. Also focus on the eye closest to the camera, the models right eye seems to be the focus point. The 2nd shot the horizon is extremely skew, not sure if it is intentional or not. The horizon 'cutting' her head in half is also not ideal.

Thanks Goooner,

No.1 has been cropped in quite a bit around her head, but I'll definitely try a f4 next time. I'm not going to lie I struggle sometimes to see the focus point grid on the D3300, I hope its a lot easier on the D7100 when it arrives next week. Will make sure I get it right next time.

With regards to the 2nd image, I've actually cropped this in quite a bit and intentionally rotated it, but now you've pointed out the horizon cutting through her head I might have to undo this crop!

 

[pgriz]

Your GF is a beautiful lady. You've gotten good advice from some very capable photographers. I won't add much except to say that while we live in a three-dimensional world, our photographs are 2-dimensional, and paying attention to the background is really important. Otherwise, trees growing out of heads, and similar oddities will keep drawing eyes away from the stuff that you want to show. It's the easiest way to see if the person is an amateur or a professional who knows his/her art - the way the background is managed.

 

[birdbonkers84]

Your GF is a beautiful lady. You've gotten good advice from some very capable photographers. I won't add much except to say that while we live in a three-dimensional world, our photographs are 2-dimensional, and paying attention to the background is really important. Otherwise, trees growing out of heads, and similar oddities will keep drawing eyes away from the stuff that you want to show. It's the easiest way to see if the person is an amateur or a professional who knows his/her art - the way the background is managed.

Thanks, I'll be sure to remember that!