First intentional shots

[TheLibrarian]

I know you all can be mean and destroy me but tell me what you think and grade my photos.

 

[waday]

I like them.

I like the concept in #1. It might look better in portrait orientation to get more of her face in the shot. I wonder what it'd look like with either a shallower DOF or a wider DOF.

#2 is good. I'd like to see it in portrait orientation without her feet cropped. Lovely expression.

#3 is pretty good. IMO, it's a tad busy at the bottom, and she needs a little fill light. The background is overexposed, but I still like it.

 

[robbins.photo]

All in all pretty good, a few issues I see where at least in my mind some improvements might be made:

#1 - The white balance here seems off. Also the crop seems extremely tight, the very bottom of her chin is pretty much right at the bottom of the frame and her eyelashes are cut off on the top. I think I get what you were going for here and I understand you wanted a closer crop on this, but backing off the crop ever so slightly would have made for a better image IMHO.

#2 - Again the composition here seems a bit off to me. You've got plenty of space at the top, so much so that you've got sky above the trees - but at the bottom of the frame you've cut off part of her feet. The sky is blown out and there appear to be some blown out areas in her hair as well, and there's a lot of space on either side of her that really doesn't have much of interest in it.

#3 - The cropping here is just way too tight for me, makes her look very cramped in the frame. At the bottom of the frame the crop is too close to her elbow joint. Also again the WB seems off, and the whole picture seems washed out without enough contrast. I think the backlighting is too strong and a fill flash would have helped a lot here.

Just my 2 cents worth of course. And no, my intent is not to be cruel or destroy, just to point out areas where I think improvements can be made. YMMV, offer not valid in all states.

 

[TheLibrarian]

That's fine thank you, you are professional about it. I'm still just taking pictures of the girl without much background or composition. I'm intending to learn about lighting as I go.

I had a lower crop on the girl with the boots but must have grabbed the original. The boots were cool I did want more of them.

I had a few bubble gum shots but her nose looked weird. I'd heard you can cut it at the forehead but this was too low and I need the raw shot with everything to work with.

Lighting totally trying to learn about it and the manual settings. Could still crop up to the midriff on #3.

Thanks.

 

[robbins.photo]

Well in the interest of full disclosure:

1. I'm not a professional photographer, just an amateur shutterbug.
2. I don't do a lot of portrait photography. I'm more of a zoo guy. Most of the "portraits" I shoot are of critters. Most of the same rules apply fortunately, but odds are good if it's not covered in fur or feathers I'm probably not pointing my camera at it.

 

[vintagesnaps]

Exposures look off in #1 and 3. It looks like you need to just get out with your camera and practice taking pictures and getting proper exposures consistently before you get out there with people.

Get the entire subject in the frame including feet (boots), or if the photo isn't going to be of the whole person figure out what's going to be in the frame. Check and comb/arrange hair (or have subject do it) - if it's going to be a tousled windblown look still think about where the hair is laying so it's not straggling and creating awkward looking lines across the face or in the composition.

When you can frame keeping the backgrounds in mind that should help. The idea is good to use that stair railing, but think about where to place the subject in relation to the background, Do we want to look at the crack in the pavement to her left with grass growing out of it? probably not, if the subject wants to look pretty in her portrait, because that looks less appealing.

Think about what looks better, the sky? the bush? the scenery way off in the distance? That might vary by time of day and weather conditions; if it's hazy it might be better to frame lower and minimize it in the picture, or use the trees etc. in the background instead of sky.

 

[Designer]

.. grade my photos.

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