First attempt at the beach shots

Crimsonandwhite · Sep 26, 2008

C&C welcomed..

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JoannaWilcox · Sep 26, 2008

I think that you are doing a great job and have a lot of different poses and locations in your shots which is AWESOME.

#1 is so cool and so different from your other shots that it doesnt even seem to be yours (compared to your other pictures). ou did a very nice job on this picture and it is SUPER eye catching.

There is something SO EASY that would really help you bring out the best in all of these shots. That is having the proper white balance. here is an example of your one photo (which it says its okay to edit). All I did is set the proper white balance and sharpen. Nothing else.

Do you see how much brighter and more awesome it looks!

I would say learn how to get a proper white balance (all your whites are coming off as blue which is the first sign of and incorrect white balance) and also work on your exposure (as some of your shots seem under exposed).

I hope this helps!

Crimsonandwhite · Sep 26, 2008

The first photo is from Fort Morgan in Gulf Shores, AL. Just a big freaking anchor in the parking lot....it was stormy on Friday so we went there instead of the beach, I have a lot of other really awesome shots from there but I wanted to focuson the people.

While I can understand what you are saying about white balance, I have to say that your edit looks horrible, at least on my monitor.....

I will look into my white balance issues, you aren't the first to tell me that

I think TiredIron has told me a couple of times I need to be shooting a white card to work on it, I just haven't developed the eye for it yet I guess, I just don't see the issue. I always adjust the temp of my photos in Lightroom if needed, maybe I am messing it up there.

Thanks for the input

JoannaWilcox · Sep 26, 2008

If you shoot RAW you can correct the White Balance easily in post production without a grey card. Although you can save yourself some work if you use the grey card and get it right in the first place.

You'll figure it out I'm sure.

holga girl · Sep 26, 2008

most of these look really nice. i agree that the color images have some white balance issues, but i also agree that the second edit does not work... it is WAY too blown out and a bit yellow. a grey card will help with exposure, but will do nothing for white balance.

i have a white balance filter that i can put on my lens. ( although i rarely use it) i set the WB in the camera to custom, put on the filter and take a shot. the camera records the setting and adjusts the WB accordingly. you may consider something like that to help you.

my fav of the series is 3, although i'd like to see less head room and have a bit more definition in the shirts. perhaps up the blacks in lightroom?

3of11 · Sep 26, 2008

JoannaWilcox's edit looks great on my monitor.

Crimsonandwhite · Sep 27, 2008

I have to remind myself that I have only had a slr since June. Sometimes I think I know everything

Joanna, and everyone else, thanks for the advice, I will be looking into WB more! I want apologize for my remark about your edit, even if I didn't like it, there was no need for that response.

MelodySoul · Sep 27, 2008

holga girl said:
a grey card will help with exposure, but will do nothing for white balance.

Sure it will. A grey card is a great tool for setting proper white balance.

I agree that the edit looks much worse than the original. The original is a tad underexposed and looks a little green to me but I'm on my laptop so I can't really say for sure what the WB issue is.

hedonia · Sep 30, 2008

I think that your whites are blown out and the faces are underexposed. They're also super duper soft. You might want to try a different method of B+W conversion, because they look a little muddy. If you look at something like #6, you can see where just a touch of fill-flash would have made it look perfect. The beach is very tough, especially with white shirts. You really need to expose for the background (which is usually very bright) and then bring up the faces with some gentle flash. You could even use a reflector if you had an assistant, and the catchlights in the eyes alone would make it worthwhile. (That's what's missing from #10, and why the eyes don't "pop").

As far as the edit is concerned, on my monitor it appears that your version is underexposed and way too blue. The edited version is way way overexposed and way too yellow and green.

Here is a very quick edit that makes it a bit brighter. It could be a lot better with more time, however. Does it look better to you?

Crimsonandwhite · Sep 30, 2008

Yes that looks better, thanks for the advice on the fill flash. I have been using LightRoom to convert my B+W, would you say that I need to use a different method or am I just doing something in particular that is muddying it up?

Crimsonandwhite · Sep 30, 2008

I am also learning that I am not getting the best from my lens b/c I keep it wide open. I will be working on that with upcoming work

hedonia · Oct 1, 2008

I struggle sometimes with the black and white as well. I don't use lightroom, but I know a lot of people use it exclusively, so it must have some sort of curves or levels, or contrast slider. Sometimes that's all a BW conversion needs to help it along, but I've definitely had shots where I couldn't for the life of me get a conversion that looked halfway decent (usually very low key or high key shots that stylistically don't have a ton of contrast to start with).

Here, I just punched up the contrast a teeny bit. One could go a little further with it I think. My best luck with BW conversion has actually been a weird method... I find the best depth by using a sepia converter and "aging" it by 0 years. It puts out a really clean, sharp BW that usually only needs a bit of curves to be done.

There a ton of methods out there!

eravedesigns · Oct 3, 2008

JoannaWilcox - your edit completely blew out all the whites in the photograph. The originals white balance is only slightly cold, and a bit underexposed. Your edit I find a bit extreme.

Alleh Lindquist · Oct 14, 2008

This is off topic but Joanna I have a few suggestions for you. First remove the funky keyword titles on your website. Its a little overkill on the SEO and 2nd what is this?

"All photo sessions require a signed model release for each person who will be photographed. A PDF of the form can be e-mailed to you before booking your session. Forms can be printed and mailed to me with your deposit, or you can choose to fill out the forms at your photo session. A signed model release is a contract in which a model consents to the use of his or her images by the photographer or a third party. Without the model release I would not be able to use your photos in my brochures or on my web site. "

First your statement is false. You are perfectly in the right to use the photos for your personal promotion and even editorial usage without the release. The only reason you would need a model release signed would be to sell the images for advertising purposes which in your case I would consider extremely unethical given the pretence in which you get them to sign.

I must be out for blood tonight