Giving this a go

[NebraskaNewGirl]

I know I need to learn so I'll just dive right in. All images were shot with a 50m/f1.8 lens. Critique away.

 

[KmH]

'Fill Light'

Reflected or strobed.

 

[dxqcanada]

Too much cut out of the image. Better to keep a space around the subject to be able to crop later.

I would crop this second shot to show person on bench in a close crop panoramic format.

Last shot I would also suggest cropping of the left.

Focus seems a little off ... look at the eyes.
Colour balance is a bit blue ... does it look that way on your computer screen ?

 

[NebraskaNewGirl]

Great. Thanks. I've been looking into a flash. Any recommendations?

 

[NebraskaNewGirl]

Thanks dx. I do see the blue. I was shooting under WB sunlight with nothing but sunny, blue skies over head. What would you recommend to correct the color? And I agree with cutting too much out of the image. My style tends to be more close up and personal so it's hard to pull back when I know that I'm going to end up cropping in close.

 

[davisphotos]

Overall quite nice, good job putting the sun behind the subject. The 50 f1.8 isn't the best with backlighting, so there is some green fringing around the trees in the second shot, also known as Chromatic Aberration. If these were shot in RAW, you could use the Adobe converter setting for CA reduction, or you could use a slight desaturation brush over the background.

 

[dxqcanada]

Thanks dx. I do see the blue. I was shooting under WB sunlight with nothing but sunny, blue skies over head. What would you recommend to correct the color? And I agree with cutting too much out of the image. My style tends to be more close up and personal so it's hard to pull back when I know that I'm going to end up cropping in close.

Do you use any Editing software ?

 

[NebraskaNewGirl]

Oh wow. I do see that now. Thanks for the tip davis. Would you suggest to always shoot in RAW?

 

[NebraskaNewGirl]

Yes dx. I have Photoshop CS5.

 

[dxqcanada]

The nice blue sky that you are shooting under makes for a really large reflector of light ... so areas that are not under direct sunlight will be affected by the reflected blue sky.

 

[dxqcanada]

Yes dx. I have Photoshop CS5.

OK, you are very well armed for Editing ... now all you need is some tips from those others in the forum that are better than I am with using Photoshop.

 

[NebraskaNewGirl]

Makes perfect sense DX. But the newb in me has to ask....how do I fix it?

 

[dxqcanada]

I found this link: Adjust White Balance Using Photoshop | Psdtuts+

... as I mentioned, I am not a Photoshopper ... so I cannot say much about that ... so I am leaving it to others to fill in the gaps.

Oh, and what davis said ... shoot in RAW to get the most out of post processing in CS5.

 

[Austin Greene]

Great. Thanks. I've been looking into a flash. Any recommendations?

Your camera likely has one right on top of it Unless your looking to spend some dough, the flash on your camera usually works quite well

 

[NebraskaNewGirl]

togalive, I've been very leery of using the onboard flash for fear of washing out the image. To use as a "fill" would I just delay the flash from going off?

Also, I cropped two of the pictures as suggested above. Thoughts?