First attempt at a Photo Shoot C&C welcome

[cardinals1970]

Well I have 2 teenage daughters and I couldn't con or bribe either one in to doing a photo shoot. So I did the next best thing which was begged one of my oldest daughters friends and all it cost me was dinner at Taco Bell

1.

2. Probably need a tighter crop to remove her right elbow that is sticking up. Got to give the girl props for climbing the tree to get the shot.

3.

4. I know watch cutting off body parts, but I promise she was able to walk fine the rest of the shoot :mrgreen:

 

[LCARSx32]

Good shots, all in all. You pointed out most of the flaws yourself, lol. I'll C&C anyway

#1: Looks uncomfortable and I think you missed the focus. Looks a bit soft to me.
#2: I really like this shot. Focus still seems a little off. It almost looks like the tree is what you focused on? I see the most detail in the bark of the tree and the wispy little hairs silhouetting her head. In portraits, you want to focus on the eyes. You may want to try a higher f/# than f/5. f/5 is giving you a really narrow depth of field. I would use f/8 or f/11. I don't think a closer crop will look better. I agree her arm is distracting, but I don't think the tighter crop will work with this pose.

#3 I like this shot as well, although it's over exposed. Otherwise, I like the composition, pose, and setting.

#4 If only the foot was still attached!! This shot is 99% there.

Good work! Can I have some Taco Bell, too?

 

[Morpheuss]

+1 have you ever thought of doing senior pictures to those look really nice

 

[cardinals1970]

+1 have you ever thought of doing senior pictures to those look really nice

Yes, I have thought about doing that and that is the main reason I asked her to help out. The girl was a trooper cause we were out for like 3 hours and used 2 different locations. Here is one more pic.

 

[cardinals1970]

Good shots, all in all. You pointed out most of the flaws yourself, lol. I'll C&C anyway

#1: Looks uncomfortable and I think you missed the focus. Looks a bit soft to me.
#2: I really like this shot. Focus still seems a little off. It almost looks like the tree is what you focused on? I see the most detail in the bark of the tree and the wispy little hairs silhouetting her head. In portraits, you want to focus on the eyes. You may want to try a higher f/# than f/5. f/5 is giving you a really narrow depth of field. I would use f/8 or f/11. I don't think a closer crop will look better. I agree her arm is distracting, but I don't think the tighter crop will work with this pose.

#3 I like this shot as well, although it's over exposed. Otherwise, I like the composition, pose, and setting.

#4 If only the foot was still attached!! This shot is 99% there.

Good work! Can I have some Taco Bell, too?

Just wanted to say thanks for your reply and that I can't really argue with anything you said. Since this was my first attempt with a person I was flipping back an forth between Manual mode and Auto mode trying to learn the differences. I also didn't realize that I had my camera set to Raw until I got home and noticed. I then kind of freaked out just cause I had never shot in Raw but I now love what you can do in PP by shooting in raw.

As far as the poses go well you had two people out there that had no idea where to start. So we started out really simple and the more we shot the ideas just started flowing. The one with the rocks and water we shot that one with 5 different poses. The one on the tree branch was her idea to climb up there and I really like that even with the flaws. I think I shot somewhere around 100 pics( some where mulitiples) and she really like about 25 even though I noticed flaws but she didn't.

 

[Dominantly]

White Balance, Focus, and Composition.

Those are a few of the things that first came to mind.

Focus on the eyes, make sure they are tack sharp above all else. Pay attention to your aperture (DOF) and your shutter speeds for this.
When you cut off a limb (it's ok), make sure to do it at a point that doesn't make the viewer uncomfortable. For example don't cut off a knee, instead go crotch or high thigh.

For something like #3, the foreground seems more interesting then the background. SO I would have brought the top of the frame down closer to the top of her head, exposing more of the rocks and water.