First Couple Photoshoot (12 Photos)

Dianamarie1013 · May 19, 2014

So this is my 3rd photoshoot and my first one with couples. I tried paying more attention to focusing on the eyes, and I know I have a long way to go. I still have a lot of dappled lighting, but I wanted to post this to see if anone had any advice on what I could do better. So any advice and critique is welcome! And on a side note...I'm in love with couple photography. Something so romantic about capturing someone else's love story.

Rosy · May 19, 2014

very nice, I would incorporate some Off camera flash - some of them are too dark

ruggedshutter · May 19, 2014

I agree with Rosy. A little off-camera flash would help these a lot. The lighting in the first image is flat. It doesn't give it much depth. I'm not a huge fan of the lens flare. I know that a lot of people have adopted this style but I find it distracting when it's in most of the photos. That's just me though, maybe others like more of it. The woman has a blemish between her eyebrows that you might want to use the healing brush on. I like the photos and great job capturing their emotions

ronlane · May 19, 2014

^^^what they said. Although, you could use a reflector for fill light too. I like #4 best of this set.

TWright33 · May 19, 2014

What metering mode are you using?

e.rose · May 19, 2014

You 100% needed some fill light. Either a reflector, or off camera flash. Most of these are too dark.

You're getting a good start on composition and posing and whatnot though. There's a couple things here and there I would nitpick about it, but I think before you start worrying about that, you need to make sure you're lighting is better. Just my opinion though. Do what you will with it. :lol:

Designer · May 19, 2014

You have posted quite a few here, so maybe some general suggestions:

Most need more light on the subject's faces.
Some need a switch in frame aspect ratio.
Some poses aren't the best.
Watch your backgrounds and foreground objects.
Learn to use the light to your advantage instead of it working against you.

Dianamarie1013 · May 19, 2014

Ok..Thank You for all the help! Yeah Im still figuring out light and where to position them best. Im still learning..so one step at a time! Im going to read up on off camera flash right now

Keep it coming..and thanks again! Learning so much from this forum

vintagesnaps · May 19, 2014

It seems like you'd be good at working with people, but the exposures look off - the photos look like you need to learn how to use the sunlight and how to set your camera to get better exposures - maybe go out with your camera without people and practice more on figuring out how to determine settings. You could write down what you do, try different settings, different times of day, facing different directions, etc. and look at your results.

You might need to keep an eye on everything that's in the frame just so you don't get something like a sign or post or branch in the distance or foreground that either doesn't need to be in your picture, or should be where you want it to be in your photo. Looks like you were able to get some nice facial expressions in the photos, you must have interacted well with them and they responded to you nicely.

Dianamarie1013 · May 19, 2014

Yeah these aren't paying customers. Lol like I said I've only done 2 other photoshoots for friends and family. So I'm actually using them to get better with how and where to position them for lighting, and getting use to configuring my settings. The purpose of this shoot, was to get comfortable with the light, and focusing. I got another one next week to try and play with.

The_Traveler · May 19, 2014

You really need to actually look at the pictures before you post them.
Everyone says they are dark, but you can look at them and see that they are dark so, instead of useful remarks on composition, etc, you get only what you know and not nearly as much help as you could.
Post shots that you are happy with, then everyhting you hear will be useful and new.

Why are you shooting at iso 1000?
you get lots of noise
the faces in the shade look really flat.
The lack of light takes all the micro-structure and detail out of any picture.

Derrel · May 19, 2014

e.rose said:
You 100% needed some fill light. Either a reflector, or off camera flash. Most of these are too dark.
>>SNIP> you need to make sure your lighting is better.>SNIP

My thoughts as well. Reflector fill is the easiest for the beginner to manage, all things considered, since it is WYSIWYG, and there are absolutely zero flash synch speed issues to worry about.

Since most of these are VERY dark on the "people-side", I'd be strongly tempted to process them with a major shadow-side "lift" in post-processingkl, to brighten up the faces by a significant margin. Even if it means losing a lot of highlight detail.

IzzieK · May 19, 2014

Without reading any of the comments given above, I like #4 for the exposure. Composition is OK but most of the shots are on the dark side. It would have been nice to show them looking at one another and reacting to one another while you shoot instead of posing them and the woman looking at the camera at most times. That would take many shots but spontaneous. Love is spontaneous so why not make it so? Just my thoughts...