Fun, quck shoot. C&C please

[Sachphotography]

I played with #1 and achieved this.

Cheers

 

[JamieR]

I don't mean to be rude, but i think you made it worse. They look like they've been tangoed.

 

[JamieR]

I hope you don't mind, but i did a quick edit also...

 

[Sachphotography]

I don't mean to be rude, but i think you made it worse. They look like they've been tangoed.

Hey in the end we all have our own style and opinion. You choice of words cracked me up though. lol. Yeah they are a little orange. I went with the oversaturation of color he had already done. I have found that it is my style that sell my work. If the clients like it that whats matters. I wonder what they would like? hm oh well. Were all here to teach and learn some more for the teaching and some more for the learning. I consider myself in the middle.
Cheers!!!

 

[GeneralBenson]

I can't believe no one has mentioned the evil on-camera flash! These pictures all look very over-exposed and have a very flat on-camera lighting look to them. things that would have helped: off camera lighting, reflectors for fill from one side of the other, shooting at a different time of day, shooting at a different angle relative to the sun, shooting in the shade, using ambient light only, not using on camera flash, watching you histogram to make sure you're not clipping highlights, and so on.

I like the poses and the expressions, and the scenes, but the exposures need some help.

 

[Sachphotography]

I can't believe no one has mentioned the evil on-camera flash! These pictures all look very over-exposed and have a very flat on-camera lighting look to them. things that would have helped: off camera lighting, reflectors for fill from one side of the other, shooting at a different time of day, shooting at a different angle relative to the sun, shooting in the shade, using ambient light only, not using on camera flash, watching you histogram to make sure you're not clipping highlights, and so on.

I like the poses and the expressions, and the scenes, but the exposures need some help.

If you go to my website I have an article I wrote about outdoor photography. I told him about it in an earlier post. Rather than try to write the whole thing here I referred him to the article to read everything. I agree with you in everything you wrote to though I already wrote 99% of it in my article. Good thoughts though mate.
Cheers..

 

[Sirashley]

Sorry but I too am not a fan of the edits. I think they kinda look over-processed. I took a stab at an edit to tone it down a bit.

Anyway, Just for the record, I fixed the levels, lowered contrast and brightness, cropped it, blurred the trees in the background, ran an unsharpen mask on the couple and the foreground, then ran a wavelet sharpen on them again. Lastly, I used the heal tool to fix the light on both of their faces, I could do better with the full size file, its hard with a low res image.

As far as when you are out there, obviously the time of day hurt you. I would suggest shooting at the lowest F-stop possible. The kit lenses are usually f3.5, this will allow you to lower your iso (you should have been at 100), and it will also help to isolate your subject from your background. The pose is nice, and the background is not distracting, so you had the right idea with setting up the shot. Lastly, if you have a wide angle lense, also try getting close to the couple, it will kind of distort perception and give you a really cool effect. It can help make a shot interesting. Anyway, I'm still new at this myself so if you have any questions drop me a PM or reply. Good luck and post future results

 

[wh1ppet]

Thanks for all the comments.
How do you keep from overexposing the background while properly exposing the subject?

Any tips on camera settings I should have used?
I used a 50D on an AV setting.

 

[Sirashley]

How do you keep from overexposing the background while properly exposing the subject?

Well, I would tell you to get a flash. The one on the camera generally isn't powerful enough to get the job done. I bought a used Nikon Speedlite for like 70$ on ebay. It's freakin awesome.

First, shoot in all manual, I have noticed that in Av mode on my d200, some of the photos come out underexposed. Then what you do is set the camera to properly expose the background, then use the flash to illuminate the subject in front of you. With an all manual flash, you can play with the power so that you properly expose the subject. Allot of times, you will also need a diffuser for the flash, but that you can make at home. I have used a tissue or paper towel rubber banded around the flash to diffuse the light and that has worked just fine. As far as settings go, I would tell you to shoot at a low f#, say f3.5-5.6 Also, shoot at a low iso... 200 max... shutter speed will depend on lighting conditions, but try to keep it up if you can. Any other questions, just ask Oh yeah... one last thing, Focus on their eyes! Eyes are the first thing people notice...