How to hone my skills?

[domd]

Hi guys, I'm a beginner. I got my first camera in November last year with a set of strobes and have dragged them out for 7 or 8 shoots since then to practice. I'm interested in what you more experienced types see when you look at my shots and what you would consider would be the best learning for me to pursue to up my skills in the fastest possible way.

Now I tried to post this same thread at another forum and no one believed that I was a beginner. Which is absurd, I'm proud of my work so far but it still pretty raw compared to some of the stuff I come across here on a quick peruse. Anyway it became a total witchhunt with them trawling through my photobucket to drag out old shots taken with expensive cameras to prove I'm not new. Suffice to say that as a show and no budget film producer I've paid for a lot of shoots over the years by some very talented photographers and I own the rights to all those shots but these are the first ones I've taken myself. So be kind! But not too kind!

From my first shoot:



From my second shoot:



From my third:



Fourth:



Fifth:



Nothing of interest from my sixth so lets skip to seven:

 

[Jetmugg]

Just because you haven't been doing it very long doesn't mean you aren't good at it. Those look very nice to me. I especially like #1,2,3, and the last one.

I'm a rank amateur, but for #1, I might suggest cropping some of the wall off the left hand side of the photo. The lighting through venetian blind is cool, and the model is clearly talented.

#2 looks great.

#3 is a fun bit of editing.

 

[Designer]

I'll give it a shot. There are quite a few, so pardon the shorthand.

#1 Color looks strange, but if that is intentional, then so be it. The geometry is off, meaning that the model's eyes are looking at one of the slats, not through the space.
#2 Excellent!
#3 big girl's eyes are off target, and the little fake shadow could just be skipped rather than being incorrect.
#4 Not bad, but you should have included all of her fingers.
#5 Nice pose and lighting, not a fan of maternity shots anyway.
#6 (or #7, ATCMB) Trying to understand it, really I am, just not getting there.
#8 Model's expression hints that there is something missing from the scene.

 

[Braineack]

you missed the focus on a lot of these.

 

[domd]

you missed the focus on a lot of these.

Yes how do you guys go about setting focus? My eyes arent good enough to set it accurately through the viewfinder and using live view is too slow so I have it set to auto. Often it misses its mark. Is there a trick to this?

 

[Braineack]

aim for the eyes, shoot more than 1 frame.

 

[frommrstomommy]

I think for when you started these look really great. #2 is my favorite here.. what I would suggest is to read up and practice on some basic general "rules" or "guidelines" on photography composition and go from there. A lot of these look nice, but are not composed the best necessarily IMO.

 

[domd]

I'll give it a shot. There are quite a few, so pardon the shorthand.

#1 Color looks strange, but if that is intentional, then so be it. The geometry is off, meaning that the model's eyes are looking at one of the slats, not through the space.
#2 Excellent!
#3 big girl's eyes are off target, and the little fake shadow could just be skipped rather than being incorrect.
#4 Not bad, but you should have included all of her fingers.
#5 Nice pose and lighting, not a fan of maternity shots anyway.
#6 (or #7, ATCMB) Trying to understand it, really I am, just not getting there.
#8 Model's expression hints that there is something missing from the scene.

Thank you!

With the shadow could you expand on incorrect. It doesnt look quite right but I was unsure on how to improve on it. What do you specifically see as being incorrect?

I would like to have the fingers in 4 but they werent in frame as that wasnt the shot I was there for I didnt stop to get a better version.

In 6 shes putting on lipstick in front of the mirror. As the lippy is at an awkward angle Im told its hard to see what she is doing. Fortunately Ive got plenty of others where its clear.

 

[e.rose]

That's totally ridiculous.

Even if you weren't a beginner, there's no reason that you couldn't still just want to improve. :roll:

ANYWAY... welcome! :sillysmi:

Without looking at what anyone else said... here's my gut reaction to what you posted:

1. I like the feel of what you were going for here, and appreciate what you're doing with the image. I feel as though you could have cropped it better, however. You needed to bring the camera down a little (so there's less space up top and her elbow isn't cut off) and maybe to the right a little (so the leading lines of the blinds pull you to the left "third" of the image, rather than the center) -- Although the way you *use* the blinds to lead to the woman's face is great.

I also love the way you lit and processed this. May not be "conventional", so I'm sure some people here are probably complaining about it (although I could be wrong... I haven't read any responses yet, haha), but I think it's awesome.


2. Her eyes seem out of focus to me. - I would have thrown this out for that reason alone.

Other things: Too much dead space to the right of her. I'm not sure how I would have cropped it differently, but it just feels off to me. I'm almost tempted to say a square crop would have felt better, but then she's looking off to the side of the frame where there isn't any extra space. -- That being said, I've done that in a few shots just because I liked the tension of it. So. You know. Opinions may vary.


3. Not into it. Highlights seem blown, and the smaller figure blends too much in with the figure behind her and the background. It feels cluttered to me, and immediately upon looking at the image, I want to look at the bigger figure's eyes, but they're blurry. Maybe a different composition of this would have made it stronger, and bringing down the light power a little bit... but even still, I'm not really getting the message or concept of this photo. It just seems like you did it because you could, and you wanted to play in photoshop. Haha.


4. Eh. Again, eyes seem soft. Could be the compression of the upload, but they don't seem in focus. You're also using her arm to lead into the photo, but you've cut off her fingers. Exposure and lighting is alright though. You may get some complaints that her shirt is too black and has no detail, but in this case I think it's okay, because the focus is her face, the background fades into black, and I think it kind of lends to focus on her expression.


5. Crop through her upper thigh, or show her whole body. Where you cut it off is weird. Lighting is cool, I guess, but I feel like it could be stronger. Rather than highlight just the top flat of her stomach, I think I'd want to see the entire... round... portion of her stomach (top, sides, and bottom)... more of a rim light there, I guess. I'm not into maternity though, so ... you can just kind of take this or leave this comment.


6. Her arm is in focus... her face is not. I'd also pull the camera framing out a bit. There's not enough of her shoulder present, or her hand, in my opinion. Lighting is cool though.


7. Really not sure what's going on here. Crop is too tight. You need to pull it out so we see more of her arm, neck, and chest so she's not just a floating head. It'd also be nice to maybe see what she's looking so coyly at, haha.

I would have put the light on the other side of her. She has no catchlights and her left (our right) eye just goes dark. I would have maybe also popped in a reflector underneath her face to fill in some of that shadow too, but otherwise the exposure is nice.


Keep posting! Keep working! I dig your ideas. :sillysmi:

 

[e.rose]

you missed the focus on a lot of these.

Yes how do you guys go about setting focus? My eyes arent good enough to set it accurately through the viewfinder and using live view is too slow so I have it set to auto. Often it misses its mark. Is there a trick to this?

Set your camera to one point auto focus.

Use the point that's closest to her eye... place that point OVER her eye... focus the camera, and recompose to where you want the framing to be. Just make sure to move the camera along the same plane, especially if you're using a wide aperture (to get a shallow depth of field), because otherwise shifting the camera, even a little off the plane, will result in missed focus still. -- Takes a little bit of practice. I still don't hit it every time.

Learn to back button focus... that way the camera won't focus every time you hit the shutter button half-way.

 

[vipgraphx]

Great shots especially for a beginner! You are on a great path.

Fous tips. Use AF-S and use your dial to select your focus points (always selecting the eyes). Try manual focusing and see if that helps any.
Many people will focus and recompose. YOu do this by focusing on your subjects eyes when you hear the beep hold AEL and recompose. THis is a great method when shooting adults as they have more patience. There are people that are really good and fast with this method.

Helpful tips also would be to practice on toys and stuffed animals. They do not move and a great way to get your focus method down. Last thing do not use such a shallow DOF until you can nail focusing. IF you use F4-5 and have focus on the face most of the time you should have it all in focus. If you use F8 and above you would be able to get all in focus. Shallow DOF is great but also tricky.

 

[domd]

E.rose great thoughts. Thanks. And thanks again to you and vipgraphix for the tips on focus. Brilliant stuff. I'll practice that tonight.

 

[DiskoJoe]

you missed the focus on a lot of these.

Yes how do you guys go about setting focus? My eyes arent good enough to set it accurately through the viewfinder and using live view is too slow so I have it set to auto. Often it misses its mark. Is there a trick to this?

See if your camera has a focus zoom. Alternatively you can use a smaller aperture that would have a larger DOF. You can tell you are amatuer still. A lot of the shots have hot spots from the lighting where pros would have diffused or bounced the light to prevent this and made things smoother. Still somewhat impressive for your sort time as a photog.

 

[Designer]

#3 big girl's eyes are off target, and the little fake shadow could just be skipped rather than being incorrect.

With the shadow could you expand on incorrect. It doesn't look quite right but I was unsure on how to improve on it. What do you specifically see as being incorrect?

It is obvious that the "shadow" on the hand was not cast in real life by the smaller figure's costume. Composite tricks fairly scream "try to find the mistakes here", so naturally I do.

 

[JerryVenz]

The first two images are so vastly superior to all the others it's as though a different photographer did them!

That being said I really like the cinematic quality in the first image. Great window light with the added difficulty of the blinds. In addition your placement of her hand and it's pose together with her expression create a nice dramatic scene--it looks like a production still from a film.

The second image has nice theatrical lighting and I like the inclusion of the hot lights with gels as part of the set. Nice work.

The remaining images, except for the B&W prenatal, look more like an amateur's work--flat lighting and awkward poses.

Keep at it and post more for us to see how you're progressing!