I'm ready for you guys to C&C a couple of my photos. How am I doing ?

[kc4sox]

Just as the title states, what do you think ? Advise ?

Numbers 1,2 and 3 were shot with fill flash. #4 was ambient light alone (I didn't have the flash on the camera when the shot presented itself Duh !



1.


2.


3.


4.

 

[CdTSnap]

Bit more fill flash in 2, 1 & 2 feel like they need to be a little less cropped (cutting the fingers and the leg) and fe fill flash in 4 but all in all I think they are good. 1 would be my fav

 

[kc4sox]

Thanks CtDSnap. that's why I love this forum even though I haven't used it much. The little details are so important and, I hadn't even noticed the cropped fingers. and I agree I think I cropped them a little too tight.

 

[CdTSnap]

Thanks CtDSnap. that's why I love this forum even though I haven't used it much. The little details are so important and, I hadn't even noticed the cropped fingers. and I agree I think I cropped them a little too tight.

Still good though, were you using TTL on the flash? and which flash?

 

[kc4sox]

All manual, camera and flash (Canon 600ex-rt) Don't remember the settings right off my head.

 

[jenko]

Hmmm, unfortunately, not good news.

#3 is probably the best of the batch. The others have too many issues IMHO.

I cannot tell where you had the flash in these shots? On camera, I am assuming?

#1: Hair is blown out, exposure looks off. I think the sunlight was too intense in this particular shot. Do you see the shadowed part of the tree trunk? It is properly exposed, but everything else looks off.

#2: Face is underexposed, eyes are dark.

#3: Strongest of the series. Not bad. Could use some basic post to make it pop a little more, like curves adjustments, etc.

#4: Light is too dappled and faces are dark.

Hope this helps.

 

[Braineack]

1. Focus is on the tree/hand. Tree poses are cliche and boring.
2. the framing isn't great here; it's cropped in odd. it either needs a lot more space to see her entire body, or in further a bit. Her face is underexposed, the fill flash wasn't used well here. the angle of your shot gave her a double chin.
3. a little post could make this a lot better. lacks saturation, contrast, and warmth.
4. nice candid, but the faces are still underexposed. im assuming matrix metering mode? You could experiment with spot metering in these situations, letting the background blow out completely, but getting the proper exposure on the face.

 

[kc4sox]

Thank you for the input guys. And, I have no problem with bad news. If we don't get honest C&C we never improve.

 

[KmH]

IMO all of the subjects in all the photos are under exposed.

A basic tenet of the visual arts is that 'light advances, dark recedes'.
Or in other words you direct the viewers eye to your subject by having your main subject brighter than background secondary or tertiary image elements.
Reduced to a single word 'light advances, dark recedes' is known in photography as 'pop', which means there is a strong sense of depth in a photo with the subject having more visual weight (advanced towards) the viewer.

To shoot back lit subjects requires quite a bit of flash power because the flash has to be brighter than the sunlight.
You may even need to use Canon's HSS (High Speed flash Sync) so you can get sufficient shutter speed to make the backgrounds darker than your subjects.
That is part of what is known as having a portrait photgraph lighting ratio.

dg28.com - photographer education

 

[kc4sox]

KmH thank you so much. I'm learning so much from these forums.

 

[KmH]

To expand a bit more.

When you use flash (strobe lighting) you are able to control the ambient light exposure separately from the strobe light exposure.

Shutter speed controls the ambient light exposure while lens aperture and flash output power controls the strobe light exposure.
The duration of the flash of light is short enough that the flash can take over the motion stopping capability we usually expect shutter speed to take care of.
If the lighting ratio of ambient light to flash is small, and shutter speed is slow enough the ambient light can cause some ghosting of a subjects motion.

But the way we make a background darker is by using a faster shutter speed so less ambient light is used to make the exposure. In that case we usually don't have to worry about ghosting.

 

[DiskoJoe]

To be honest, not good. But that little girl is hilarious. So you have that going for you.