Kind of intimidating to post my own pictures, but I'd love to hear opinions

[K8-90]

Woah! Is that her horse? He's gorgeous!

I like the last photo. Simple background, nice smile. I think it needs some adjustments to the colour - maybe warm it up a bit?

 

[jasonkt]

Hi!

Good job with your shoot, and good luck with the learning process. Think you're overwhelmed now? There is so much to know! I don't know a drop in the bucket yet.

One thing that I might add, though, is about bright backgrounds and shaded subjects. Usually your eye will go to bright spots in a picture first, so if there is a large difference then it takes attention away from the subject. If both your background and subject are in light shade, your exposure will be more even. Big Mike is definitely right about fill light, too...and when you see it for the first time, it's almost like magic.

Get your daughter to stand a few feet away from a light source. Look at the shadows on the other side of her face. Get a white piece of paper (or posterboard if you have it) and hold it next to the side of her face with shadow. Play with the angle of it until you see the shadows lighten. There's fill light! Bigger reflectors mean more light, and different surfaces reflect light differently. Something white will have a softer light than something silver, and something gold will have warm tones. Also, if you use black, you get the opposite effect...the shadows get darker.

Have fun!

 

[joeysmom]

Again thank you for the comments and advice.

So how would you shoot that big black thing? The horse is my friend's, and Christina has worked on training him. She has her own black horse, who would freak out if we tried to do portraits with him right now (still a baby and jumps at new things)... so I would like to know how to better capture dark horses.

I will be reading my camera manual... I need to make time because I'm leaving for Japan on the 10th and I really really want to take good photos while I'm there! I do have the book "The Digital Photography Book" by Scott Kelby. My sis got it for me for Christmas....I have read it a bit. Can't afford a tripod right now.

Have a great weekend, everyone...

 

[Plato]

Again thank you for the comments and advice.

So how would you shoot that big black thing? The horse is my friend's, and Christina has worked on training him. She has her own black horse, who would freak out if we tried to do portraits with him right now (still a baby and jumps at new things)... so I would like to know how to better capture dark horses.

I will be reading my camera manual... I need to make time because I'm leaving for Japan on the 10th and I really really want to take good photos while I'm there! I do have the book "The Digital Photography Book" by Scott Kelby. My sis got it for me for Christmas....I have read it a bit. Can't afford a tripod right now.

Have a great weekend, everyone...

You need to open up your lens a bit more but, unfortunately, that will probably over-expose your daughter. My earlier suggestion involves post-processing in the computer to get better range from light to dark. However, as I indicated previously, you don't want to do post-processing until you know how to snap the shutter!