Abandoned house photoshoot

[ncstater1919]

I'm pretty sure that I was trespassing but definitely worth it! This is the same model that I posted photos of a few months ago. C&C always welcome!

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Thanks as always!
-Spencer

 

[Cheesyman]

very nice, you got some really good photo's here, top ones for me are 1, 8 and 9

 

[TommyF]

They look fantastic. My favorite is number 5.

 

[RancerDS]

#5 is a truly fantastic close-up. Her eyes look so bright in this.

#4 and #9 need to be cropped.

#7 is underexposed.

#8 is under-exposed, but the composition is ideally suited for it being that way. SO it is a lot better shot than some might state.

I like #1 for the colour saturation and #3 in how the same dress and her skin tones are both softened. Maybe a bit too soft, but it keeps my eyes focusing on her. I'd say that #3 makes the 2nd best use of natural lighting, behind #5.

 

[IgsEMT]

I won't go into details, as its already been done.
Overall: I like the atmosphere and on few images you attempted to capture it. Some of the images are a bit overexposed and soft - UNDERexposing maybe by a 1/3-2/3 of a stop would give you an opportunity to capture the arena you were in.
#6, 7, 8, i'd use flash. in 6 & 7 I'd bounce it off the walls - it would soften it up and imitate natural light. #8, I'd set a light outside and set that off.

The key for using a flash/strobes during portraits is to light up the subject enough for proper exposure and at the same time don't make it obvious that flash was used.
Good Job!

 

[ncstater1919]

I won't go into details, as its already been done.
Overall: I like the atmosphere and on few images you attempted to capture it. Some of the images are a bit overexposed and soft - UNDERexposing maybe by a 1/3-2/3 of a stop would give you an opportunity to capture the arena you were in.
#6, 7, 8, i'd use flash. in 6 & 7 I'd bounce it off the walls - it would soften it up and imitate natural light. #8, I'd set a light outside and set that off.

The key for using a flash/strobes during portraits is to light up the subject enough for proper exposure and at the same time don't make it obvious that flash was used.
Good Job!

Thank you for that description. I think the main thing for me is to get into the technical stuff with photography. I'm able to grasp the idea of aperture and other terms but when I'm taking these pictures I don't generally think about that. I currently only have a d40 with a 18-200mm lens and I mean I am able to compose photos, I do not know the technical stuff with my camera nor do I even have any photo editing software (I use iPhoto ). What is your suggestion to learn these techniques? Just through experience or should I pick up books on it? I will be in college next semester and may decide to wait until I'm in these classes to learn that part of it.

 

[IgsEMT]

What is your suggestion to learn these techniques? Just through experience or should I pick up books on it?

In order to learn from experience, you have to have someone teaching you. If you want to really improve your skill, learning by your self isn't enough. Ideally it's nice to have a mentor and/or buddy you can bounce ideas off and experiment with.
Based on your samples, you have a good eye now its time to put it to use with the camera. D40 is a decent enough body to start and get you going plus 18-200 is another great toy. Boost the sharpness in-camera and that lens (soft by default) will be your best friend for very long time.
For books:
There are THOUSANDS of books out there and yes I do recommend you get one and/or get many.
Few popular books are understand the exposure by brian p-something, another one is by Steve Sint - don't remember the name of his latest book but i love his explanation (you can find him on amazon). For online stuff, I like David Ziser's blog as well as the whole kelby training lessons. Lynda.com also provides really good tutorials.
Iif you want, PM me, we'll talk more. I also have bunch of reading material that you might like. Good Luck

 

[~myStical~]

6 & 9 ! I love it.

 

[Kblc]

I like the set overall. Rather than throwing out my opinion on all of them, I'll pick my favorite and critique that one.

Of all the photos, #8 is my favorite. It has a lot of potential in my opinion. First, I would push the darkest areas a bit further to make them black. This photo, to me, just screams for her to emerge from the darkness into the light. I would punch up the colors in her dress/skirt as well. They would serve to draw the eye more confidently to the subject. I love the negative space created by her right arm and around her legs. It points straight to her face, which I would lighten up to make it stand out more. In fact, I would lighten all the highlights on your model. Throw in some very subtle sharpening around her face and, in my opinion, you'll have a photo to stop some in their tracks.

Hope this helped.

 

[taskoni]

Looks like I am the only one who don't like that costume
May be you made some good pictures but they don't impress me because the costume is too loud IMO. I can not except it in that surrounding and in a visual art I would think about costumes as well as for light, ISO, shutter etc. things.
Again, this only my opinion and you can ignore it because I might be wrong being a newbie
Regards,
b.

BTW,
nice girl, #5 a bit lost texture in the hat. Is it because of the flash?

 

[kamalzharif]

What is your suggestion to learn these techniques? Just through experience or should I pick up books on it?

In order to learn from experience, you have to have someone teaching you. If you want to really improve your skill, learning by your self isn't enough. Ideally it's nice to have a mentor and/or buddy you can bounce ideas off and experiment with.
Based on your samples, you have a good eye now its time to put it to use with the camera. D40 is a decent enough body to start and get you going plus 18-200 is another great toy. Boost the sharpness in-camera and that lens (soft by default) will be your best friend for very long time.
For books:
There are THOUSANDS of books out there and yes I do recommend you get one and/or get many.
Few popular books are understand the exposure by brian p-something, another one is by Steve Sint - don't remember the name of his latest book but i love his explanation (you can find him on amazon). For online stuff, I like David Ziser's blog as well as the whole kelby training lessons. Lynda.com also provides really good tutorials.
Iif you want, PM me, we'll talk more. I also have bunch of reading material that you might like. Good Luck

yes, the more with your friend with same interest, the more things you can experiment with. The mentor will show you which part need to be polished even that part cannot be seen by you..

 

[ncstater1919]

What is your suggestion to learn these techniques? Just through experience or should I pick up books on it?

In order to learn from experience, you have to have someone teaching you. If you want to really improve your skill, learning by your self isn't enough. Ideally it's nice to have a mentor and/or buddy you can bounce ideas off and experiment with.
Based on your samples, you have a good eye now its time to put it to use with the camera. D40 is a decent enough body to start and get you going plus 18-200 is another great toy. Boost the sharpness in-camera and that lens (soft by default) will be your best friend for very long time.
For books:
There are THOUSANDS of books out there and yes I do recommend you get one and/or get many.
Few popular books are understand the exposure by brian p-something, another one is by Steve Sint - don't remember the name of his latest book but i love his explanation (you can find him on amazon). For online stuff, I like David Ziser's blog as well as the whole kelby training lessons. Lynda.com also provides really good tutorials.
Iif you want, PM me, we'll talk more. I also have bunch of reading material that you might like. Good Luck

These are all great I like how you mentioned about the mentor that could help me. I've considered contacting photographers to see if I could shadow them during a shoot, as I could see how they set up shots. I will definitely be PMing you in the near future thanks!

 

[ncstater1919]

I like the set overall. Rather than throwing out my opinion on all of them, I'll pick my favorite and critique that one.

Of all the photos, #8 is my favorite. It has a lot of potential in my opinion. First, I would push the darkest areas a bit further to make them black. This photo, to me, just screams for her to emerge from the darkness into the light. I would punch up the colors in her dress/skirt as well. They would serve to draw the eye more confidently to the subject. I love the negative space created by her right arm and around her legs. It points straight to her face, which I would lighten up to make it stand out more. In fact, I would lighten all the highlights on your model. Throw in some very subtle sharpening around her face and, in my opinion, you'll have a photo to stop some in their tracks.

Hope this helped.

I wish I had the PPing abilities to do that . iPhoto will not do that, and I do not have the money to buy photo software. Even if I did use photoshop I would have no way of trying to figure it out hah. I think classes in photoshop should be my main priority!

 

[ncstater1919]

Sorry Ill try to stop posting so many in a row. To the poster that was talking about the doorway shot... I have this one that I also took and liked a lot except the PPing is annoying because its so poorly done.

 

[Bambi]

I won't be adding too much as I think everyone captured it perfectly. She's a beautiful girl but I would prefer her in jeans- IMO it would go with the scene better.

also, GIMP is a free download and can do quite a bit.