C&C My first photoshoot

[Postman158]

Here are some pics of my first photo shoot a couple days ago. My friends wanted some new pictures so I offered my skills for free, for some fun practice. Any help..helps! All photos are straight from my memory card with no Photoshop, although I have CS5. Which is why i need critiquing

Canon T2i
EF-S 18-55mm Macro lens
EF 75-300mm lens

1.

IMG_7775 by Andrew Montero, on Flickr

2.

IMG_7465 by Andrew Montero, on Flickr

3.

IMG_7441 by Andrew Montero, on Flickr

4.

IMG_7402 by Andrew Montero, on Flickr

 

[jowensphoto]

1. I'm not fond of the crop. The subjects are so small in comparison to the rest of the photo.
2. Cute pose, but her belly is hanging out... just a tiny bit unflattering.
3. Not bad. Watch cutting off body limbs (her toes, his arm). Also, he has something in his pocket... it's a little distracting.
4. Watch out for shadows.

Nice job for a first shoot! Just watch out for the little details. All of the colors look great on my laptop (it's not calibrated though).

 

[radiorickm]

Well, here is my $.02 worth.

Photo #1 is soposed to be of them, but they aren't in focus, so they aren't the focus of the photo. I would have tried to get them in focus, and let everything else fall out.

Photo #2 is interesting, but to me all of the bridge metal is a very distracting back drop. had it blurred out it might have been ok.

Photo #3 is pretty good. Just may be my browser, but having her foot cropped and his arm cropped is not that flattering. Now here is the silly thing; i realize the entrance to the bridge is dead center, but because of the structure, having no beams on the left side of the picture, leaves it feeling lopsided to me.

Photo #4, had the lighting been right, no dep shadows on their faces, would have been ok. But still, the background is a little distracting still.

 

[AnthonyRyanPhoto]

I think all of your shots were good composition and good ideas, you will learn to watch your shadows and minute details in your poses such as the belly isue

 

[ababysean]

Here are some pics of my first photo shoot a couple days ago. My friends wanted some new pictures so I offered my skills for free, for some fun practice. Any help..helps! All photos are straight from my memory card with no Photoshop, although I have CS5. Which is why i need critiquing

Canon T2i
EF-S 18-55mm Macro lens
EF 75-300mm lens

1.

IMG_7775 by Andrew Montero, on Flickr

2.

IMG_7465 by Andrew Montero, on Flickr

3.

IMG_7441 by Andrew Montero, on Flickr

4.

IMG_7402 by Andrew Montero, on Flickr

1. I wish more of the path would have been in the front of the photo. Where it is now it just kind of doesnt do anything for the photo....

2. She is not going to like her belly is hanging over her pants, either fix that in photoshop or crop it so it doesnt show.

3. Dont like his hand is cut off.

4. ok I see where you are going, guy on girls back instead of vice versa.

What time of day did you shoot? There is hardly ANY light in their eyes, in the 4th one, their eyes are totally black.

Try again with either some fill flash or at a different time of the day.

 

[subscuck]

Good job on proper exposure. #1 isn't a bad concept, but your focus on the "subject", in this case, the foreground, really has no subject. A bench, fountain, statue, etc., would have worked better. #4 would benefit from fill flash or a reflector. Serious racoon eyes and heavy shadows. #3, even with the cut off appendages, is the best of the bunch. Keep practicing.

 

[Postman158]

Thanks everyone! Luckily this was a free, just fun-practice shoot. I sure did learn a lot, and know what to look for. You all pointed out things I would have never of noticed. Thats what this forum is for! Thanks again everyone. I really appreciate it. Again, I've only had my T2i for about... 8 days at the time of the "photo shoot", so I obviously have a lot more to learn.

 

[iCareMuch]

I was in your same position about a month or two ago but I've grown and learned so much about photography since. I can tell right off the bat that have you a natural talent for good composition. I'll try my best to explain how you could possibly fix some of the shots.

1) Your focus is what people focus on (go figure) when they first see a picture. It should generally be the subject, but in this picture there's nothing interesting too interesting going on in the focus. I think this picture would look great if the couple was in focus. I'm not 100% sure if you know how to use the 9 point auto focus system but it's quite simple. While shooting, if you hit the upper right-most button on the back of the camera you can select which of the 9 red dots in the viewfinder you want to focus on. I won't go anymore specifics just in case you already know what you're doing.

2) Very sharp picture and again good composition. My only complaint would be that the background is very complicated, and to make matters worse, it's all in focus. This picture would look much better if your aperture was more open so that they can really pop away from the complicated background. Quick and dirty way to do this: set the camera to Av mode and select your desired aperture. The lower this value, the more bokeh (blur) there will be on whatever is out of focus.

3) My favorite of the set. The female's foot chopped and male's arm are pretty much the main problem. To fix this just step back. The tracks make great leading lines in the composition.

4) Funny picture, you captured the emotion and humor perfectly. The only problem here is the dark shadows on the face. Two easy ways you can fix this is with 1) a reflector (and someone to hold it) or 2) flash for fill light. I also think if you would have stepped a bit to the right you could have had them between the two trees to frame the shot a little better.

This is a handy and short tutorial to help give you some additional tips:

http://emptyeasel.com/2006/11/24/9-steps-to-creating-better-compositions/

My only other advice would be to read a lot of photography tutorials on the web. I've learned so much about functions on my camera that I otherwise never would have utilized or stumbled upon.

Good luck on your future endeavors and great first set!

 

[Postman158]

I was in your same position about a month or two ago but I've grown and learned so much about photography since. I can tell right off the bat that have you a natural talent for good composition. I'll try my best to explain how you could possibly fix some of the shots.

1) Your focus is what people focus on (go figure) when they first see a picture. It should generally be the subject, but in this picture there's nothing interesting too interesting going on in the focus. I think this picture would look great if the couple was in focus. I'm not 100% sure if you know how to use the 9 point auto focus system but it's quite simple. While shooting, if you hit the upper right-most button on the back of the camera you can select which of the 9 red dots in the viewfinder you want to focus on. I won't go anymore specifics just in case you already know what you're doing.

2) Very sharp picture and again good composition. My only complaint would be that the background is very complicated, and to make matters worse, it's all in focus. This picture would look much better if your aperture was more open so that they can really pop away from the complicated background. Quick and dirty way to do this: set the camera to Av mode and select your desired aperture. The lower this value, the more bokeh (blur) there will be on whatever is out of focus.

3) My favorite of the set. The female's foot chopped and male's arm are pretty much the main problem. To fix this just step back. The tracks make great leading lines in the composition.

4) Funny picture, you captured the emotion and humor perfectly. The only problem here is the dark shadows on the face. Two easy ways you can fix this is with 1) a reflector (and someone to hold it) or 2) flash for fill light. I also think if you would have stepped a bit to the right you could have had them between the two trees to frame the shot a little better.

This is a handy and short tutorial to help give you some additional tips:

http://emptyeasel.com/2006/11/24/9-steps-to-creating-better-compositions/

My only other advice would be to read a lot of photography tutorials on the web. I've learned so much about functions on my camera that I otherwise never would have utilized or stumbled upon.

Good luck on your future endeavors and great first set!

Thanks so much! All of this will help so much, and its great to hear that I'm somewhat on the right track.