first post for c&c EVER

sbakewell0508 · May 10, 2011

A senior session i did for free to get some practice in.
 Photo 1 should of left her elbow in is my own c&c

_DSC0161 by 05miller08, on Flickr

 Photo 2 maybe a little to much skin smoothing.. but i love it.

_DSC013 51 by 05miller08, on Flickr

 Photo 3 love the lens flare i got with my flash.

_DSC0082_filtered by 05miller08, on Flickr

chaosrealm93 · May 10, 2011

i like the second one. her expression is more interesting. the lighting is nice too

Kerbouchard · May 10, 2011

I like the third, except for the extreme vignette. The first two are over exposed or over processed for my tastes, probably both.

sbakewell0508 · May 10, 2011

these are exposed correctly i brought up the brightness on purpose cause thats the look i was going for... i agree with the vignette now that i look at a little closer, little to dark

Kerbouchard · May 10, 2011

Don't get me wrong...I think you nailed the third shot and I love the concept, I just think you should feather the vignette and be a little less extreme with it. As far as the first two, if that is the look you were going for, so be it...just not my cup of tea...that's why they call this an art instead of photo-replication. Different strokes for different folks...

But the third could be great with a little more subtle processing. Nicely done. Hopefully, you will share a re-edit with us.

sbakewell0508 · May 10, 2011

thanks i appreciate the feedback the black is a little harsh compared to the rest of the scene.

Kerbouchard · May 10, 2011

So, what was the third shot with? You removed the EXIF data, so I can only venture a guess?? The 50mm 1.8 at about f/8?

sbakewell0508 · May 10, 2011

whoops i am not sure why the exif data is gone... no this was shot at f13.. i should of shot it at a wider aperature would be been alot better, but i am still learning how to do manual with flash and how to meter that scenario, i dont have a light meter yet so it is about me judging the scene using the in camera light meter to get exposure and then go from there. i am also always afraid of using wider numbers as i dont want to have to narrow a dof, but i recently landed on the dof calculator and learned that i would be ok as long as things are on the same focal plane.

side question: what do you recommend as a aperature for bigger groups? f8? 5.6? single point focus on the 2 nd row or 3rd depending on how many people?

Kerbouchard · May 10, 2011

Side answer: Depends on your lighting gear. In general, when you have several rows of people, you want your flash to be pretty far away so that there isn't that much fall off from one row to another. The SB600 isn't that powerful of a flash so I doubt you could get away with more than about f/8 at 20 ft even at ISO 800 although f/16 or f/11 would be better. As far as focus, you should generally focus about 1/3 of the way into the frame...so if you have 3 rows, either the first row or the second row should be fine. I typically go with the second row. Of course, the wider your lens or the further away you are, the more depth of field you will have. The biggest problem people come across when shooting multiple rows is trying to keep the flash too close. When the flash is close to your subject, there can be a significant exposure difference between the first and third row resulting in the the back row being too dark and the front row having that 'flashed' look.

MWG · May 10, 2011

I like the 3rd one alot, minus the vignetting

Sharfy · May 10, 2011

3rd one is nice but yeah vignetting is bad (I am fun of using that before and i saw the bad side of using it :sexywink:

)

Kerbouchard · May 11, 2011

Sharfy said:
3rd one is nice but yeah vignetting is bad (I am fun of using that before and i saw the bad side of using it )

It's not that vignetting is bad...I actually think this photo can benefit from it...it's just this particular treatment is very extreme and calls attention to the vignette instead of the subject. This particular photo would be amazing with a proper vignette, but at nowhere in the photo should the vignette be more than about 65% opacity. We should still be able to see the bricks and the surrounds...It should just be darker to help concentrate on the subject and the, IMO, well done halo effect.