Friends in their natural habitat(looking for critques!)

[rawrasaur]

I shot these over the course of a few days while hanging out with some friends. The first few were shot in complete darkness with 98% of the light coming from my flash. In the first picture, I was having a really hard time focusing (since I could barely see my subject) and I cant tell if I like its blurry quality. I intentionally left the first picture warm; the others are intentionally cooler then they "should" be.

Looking for the harshest of critiques!

 

[rawrasaur]

Awww, come on guys! I know there are things I could have done better, I just don't have enough experience to know what they are.

 

[Shibby!]

Truthfully, were drugs involved?

You guys look like you just finished smoking a splif, then turned on the camera and clicked away while munching out.

I'm by no means an expert, or even any good, but a picture has to do with the location, the pose, the idea your trying to get across. Lots involved. Look at others pictures on here and ask yourself what makes you like the picture. You don't have to copy it by any means, but learn what you like and then put your own spin on it to make it yours.

It's not easy. I am terrible at taking pictures of people. I bought some studio lights and hope to improve, but like most people on here, it's a learning experience.

 

[sarallyn]

honestly, the 2nd picture really catches my eye. the rest of them are plain.. but the guy's face on two is really clear... I like it.
I don't really like his face in particular, but I like the picture.

 

[cameramike]

they all say "drugs and alcohol" to me.. very snapshotty. weird thing is, i've seen the pictures my friends take when they do drink and they are of much better quality and much more exciting then these. sorry these do nothing but make me want to not look at them.

 

[Shibby!]

they all say "drugs and alcohol" to me.. very snapshotty. weird thing is, i've seen the pictures my friends take when they do drink and they are of much better quality and much more exciting then these. sorry these do nothing but make me want to not look at them.

haha. I don't think we're saying this is a bad thing. I like gritty pictures, but I feel these only show half the story?

If you don't mind, I did some black and white edits on PS. Hopefully you don't take offence, but I darked the images and increased the contrast to make it more moody I guess? Hell I don't know what I'm doing, I just play around. Lots of burning/dodging.

 

[Kyuss]

The guy in #4 looks like hes related to Kid Rock! ha ha... Sorry couldn't resist.

The one thing about these photos is they don't look like much thought was put into composition. It looks like you took the time to put your subjects in the rule of thirds, but theres too much other distractive things going on in the background.

I would say that #2 is the only one I like. The others just look like snapshots to me.

Maybe, get everyone out side at night, get a tripod and take some group shots and see how still your friends can be during the shots. Bet you might get some interesting/moody shots!

 

[rawrasaur]

Drugs and alchol? Its because of the long hair isnt it?!

I was trying to make some sort of cohesive collection of minimal shots. Is the simple composition the thing that most of you dislike? To me, I could imagine making them into large prints (several feet on a side) and framing them on plain white walls.

I happen to really like number 3 quite a bit, 2 is pretty good, but 4 is by far my least favorite.

For the most part they were "snap shots", yes.

 

[Kyuss]

I think that #3 would have worked better if the subject was on the right of the image with maybe something on the wall to his left.