All critique welcome

Peakapot · Oct 30, 2015

Hi there,

I am fairly new to photography and would like some feedback on these photos. I have only done shoots with my own family and friends so far. These photo are of my daughter I done recently with my wife. I am looking in to start making this into a small business and have my first booking coming up. I would like as much feedback as possible to help me improve my photos.These are just a few from many many others. If you could also tell me how you would enhance these with editing that would be great. I have gimp 2.8 for editing.

camera = Rebel T3i
lens = Standard 18-55mm kit lens

Thanks in advance for any input

Dan

Designer · Oct 30, 2015

Pretty good so far.

I don't know what light you're using, but it appears to be one bounced flash. Not too bad, but the subject's face needs a wee bit more light. In all three. Do you have only one light, or is there another light you can use?

I see some fall-off toward the corners, (or added vignetting) which is distracting, and should not be there.

In #3 you should have attempted to not include the child's diaper, as that also is distracting.

I really like #1 with just the one prop. #2 could lose the green toy prop, and in #3 the balloon makes more shadow just where you don't want it.

Peakapot · Oct 30, 2015

at the time i had two soft box lights and used no flash. I have just received a Yongnuo 560 IV which i will be using from now on. I will be bouncing off my ceiling and using it on a low setting with a diffuser to use it as a fill lighting.

I never even noticed the green toy being out of place until you mentioned it. Now i cant stop looking at it haha. The fall out in the corners will hopefully not be a problem now i have my new flash

Thanks for taking the time to look at these mate

Dan

Designer · Oct 30, 2015

Go ahead and try the ceiling, but think about the fact that the light then comes from above your subject, so you will want to evaluate the shade and shadows.

You could also try a wall behind you if that wall is white. Or a wall to one side will work too. If they are white. If the walls are not white, you can either adjust the color in editing, or find some large white reflector. I have several large sheets of white foamcore.

Derrel · Oct 30, 2015

Shot #1 is really cute in expression and props. THAT will be a great, lifetime shot of her as she grows. Shot #2 has too much top space, and would have more impact if the top were cropped down a bit, or better yet, crop it to a horizontal by cropping a little off the bottom and a lot off of the top. The third shot is a bit less-compelling than 1 or 2 due to the balloon and the visible diaper.

I think #1 shows some lens faults, and I would look into applying lens corrections in light room to get rid of that lens's distortion signature.

The light fall-off does not bother me all that much, but it could be corrected in Lightroom. I like a little bit of fall-off, but this is more than a little bit, and some people really are sensitive to light fall off on light backdrops.

Peakapot · Oct 30, 2015

Lens correction in light room?, lens distortion signature?

apologies but i have no idea what you mean mate. My camera is a canon 600d Rebel T3i so i dont use a light room. How can i correct the problem on a digital DSLR

Dan

Derrel · Oct 30, 2015

Well...here's what I meant...in Lightroom, there is a thing called Lens Correction, and it is there that one can modify the images. In Lightroom, I opened the large size image and manually corrected the light fall-off, and corrected some chromatic aberration, which is a common fault that 18-55 kit zooms often display. It's a subtle thing, but it gives an effect similar to looking through thick aquarium glass...things are sharp-ish, but there's also a very,very slight "wonkiness". here it is, exaggerated quite a bit, so it is super-obvious.

This is the manual vignette removal and the manual chromatic aberration I removed from your large-size web image.

THIS is what really BAD red/green chromatic aberration looks like. This is sometimes called "color fringing", for obvious reasons, also called "CA".

As you can see, the vignette removal tool allowed me to brighten up and eliminate the light fall-off at the corners of the image.

Some cameras have a setting that allows the camera to automatically eliminate vignetting on JPEG files the camera makes; I am not sure if your camera has that option.

Peakapot · Oct 30, 2015

that makes more sense now and i can see what you mean. I am using the canon T3i. I think my camera does that and it is called Auto Lighting Optimizer. I have had this turned off up until recently as like i said i am still learning. Is light room a free software? I currently have gimp 2.8 because it is free.

Thanks for taking the time to explain this to me its much appreciated.

Dan

vintagesnaps · Oct 30, 2015

If you're still learning don't try to go into business yet... You seem to have potential but you'll need to produce professional quality results consistently, every single time. Your questions seem like you need to learn a lot yet BEFORE you start booking sessions. You probably could be successful but how can you go into business doing anything until you're at a higher level of expertise in it?

She's adorable, and you captured her personality and seem to have ideas for photos that are cute as can be. But I would suggest getting better at the technical aspect of it first so you can do this successfully.

Designer · Oct 30, 2015

Peakapot said:
Is light room a free software? I currently have gimp 2.8 because it is free.

No, Lightroom is not free. Gimp might actually out-perform Lightroom in the long run, but there is a steep learning curve with the Gimp. Lightroom on the other hand is easier and faster to learn.