Love them or hate? C&C please.

[Nautifish]

Well my neighbors bought home a new addition to they're home last weekend and of course i just had too grab my Camera. I really have not done alot of portrait shooting i am more landscapes and wildlife to be honest.

But i would like your thoughts and comments on these couple of photo's.

It was a really sunny day and sadley i do not yet have a polarizeing filter but am looking into getting one in the near future.

 

[tirediron]

You've got great subjects, but there are a few areas where they could be improved. First, portraits, whether two or four-legged sujbects, you need to shoot from their level. Try and look into their eyes, not down to them. In this case if they're going to be at two different levels split the difference. As well, try and avoid shooting in such harsh light; choose bright, overcast (diffuse light) days, or if you have one, set up an off-camera flash to provide fill-light. Even a piece of white card stock will make a good reflector and help. Try to avoid cropping little bits of body such as the right elbow and left toe in #1. Look for even, homogenous backgrounds and use long glass with a large aperture to allow for selective focus.

 

[PerfectlyFlawed]

I think 1 could have had some potential... but its quite over exposed, imo. Great subjects though. The second shot has a lot of clutter, especially what looks like a garbage bag in the background... and this shot is over exposed as well.

 

[SageMark]

overexposed. try a shallow DOF. it's all been said.

 

[Nautifish]

Man this is SERIOUSLY driving me crazy....lol....ARGGG!!!

I agree had the perfect subjects and i was not happy with these shots.

Tonight i got sarah and the Pup togeather again and took some more photo's....Out of the bunch i took these are my three favortite and honestly IMO, I think they are much better.

I honestly do not know why i keep screwing up so much....I have read about ISO,EXPOSRE, DOF, Fstops U name it. I have been reading the Digital Photography Mag that is issued in the UK. Lots of great info i follow steps yet they're allways seems to be something wrong...How does the saying go Its not the Camera its the person behind the Camera.

I am allways experimenting with different settings, I check my white balance before i shoot. my ISO, FSTOP, SHUTTER SPEED, u name it. I go through it all yet i am still getting mostly crappy shots......

Anyway these are some of what i took tonight. *sighs*

#1 Sarahs face is out of focus how on earth do i get them both in Focus at the same time?

Thank you so much for the feed back i really do appreciate it.

 

[Nautifish]

Wanted too add one more that i forgot.

 

[arcooke]

Man this is SERIOUSLY driving me crazy....lol....ARGGG!!!

I agree had the perfect subjects and i was not happy with these shots.

Tonight i got sarah and the Pup togeather again and took some more photo's....Out of the bunch i took these are my three favortite and honestly IMO, I think they are much better.

I honestly do not know why i keep screwing up so much....I have read about ISO,EXPOSRE, DOF, Fstops U name it. I have been reading the Digital Photography Mag that is issued in the UK. Lots of great info i follow steps yet they're allways seems to be something wrong...How does the saying go Its not the Camera its the person behind the Camera.

I am allways experimenting with different settings, I check my white balance before i shoot. my ISO, FSTOP, SHUTTER SPEED, u name it. I go through it all yet i am still getting mostly crappy shots......

Anyway these are some of what i took tonight. *sighs*

#1 Sarahs face is out of focus how on earth do i get them both in Focus at the same time?

Thank you so much for the feed back i really do appreciate it.

All of them) Find a better backdrop. There's a mailbox, a road, and a tree with someone-just-died-here tape wrapped around it. Try to find a background with fewer eye-catching subjects and more uniformity if you plan on blurring it all out. In other words, go somewhere other than the front yard. It also looks like you took these on a cloudy day.. which isn't helping the lighting situation much. They're also all cropped too close to your subjects. Give it a little padding around her arms. Let the pictures breathe a little.

1) Stand further back. I think your focus issues have to do with you being so close to both subjects. Also, the face on that puppy in #1 could make you a million bucks.

2) If you stood back a little further, had a better background, and fixed the dog's eye, this one could have some potential.

3) Puppy is a little out of focus and my eyes keep getting drawn to the yellow death tape around the tree.

 

[Nautifish]

Actually Arcooke what u see on the tree is halloween decor...lol.....
I hear what u are saying. If it does not rain tomorrow maybe i will give this another go. It is not easy trying to take photo's of a puppy that honestly does not want to sit still for the camera...lol
Thank you so much for the advice.

Nautifish.

 

[Jeatley]

Try looking into composing the shot more. Before you hit the shutter look at everything that is not your subject and make sure you either want it in the shot or not! What f stop are you taking these at. Maybe if you post all the info with the pics you will get a little more help. I think your on the right track thou!

 

[Nautifish]

Hi Jeatly.
Honeslty i cannot remember i have taken so many over the last few days. I went out again late this afternoon with the neighbors little ones and the pup and took some more shots...i WAS ON mANUAL SETTING WITH A f11 to 16 and shutter speed of 1/250. I kept going up and down with my Fstops.
Here are just a few of what i took today.

Are any of these looking any better?:er:

 

[Nautifish]

Anyone?:er:

 

[bazooka]

Be careful when shooting people with your back to the sun... you'll probably get squinting, as most of these have. The last shot in the shade could be processed to come out pretty good, except although I love dogs, it's not generally attractive to have their underside in the shot, at least to me.

You did a little better with the backgrounds, but anytime it's busy and in focus and there is strong contrast, it's going to be distracting. The background on the last one is the best IMO. The others still are distracting mostly because they are in focus. I would really like #3... natural poses, it feels like an authentic moment, but I can see way back into the background and nothing back there is adding to the shot. The red house, the gray/white building, the purple thing, the white stuff... there is too much detail there and it draws my attention. You fixed your shallow DOF issue by increasing aperture so now your eyes are in focus, but now everything is in focus, so I think you went too far. The DoF in the last shot looks good. You just need to color correct for the shady blue.

 

[tirediron]

My guess is that you're too concerned about 'capturing the moment' and you're not taking the time to go through all of the steps yet, and you're not yet experienced enough to do it on the fly. I would like to suggest a check-list approach.

1. Select the area you're going to use. Bad backgrounds kill otherwise good images. #s 3744, 3725 and 3726 all have the same flaw with the backgroud. A dark area with a distracting bright one. Let's look at #3725: If you'd removed the lawnmower(?) image left and then moved the subjects more to the left you would have eliminated the opening between the two trees and the distracting bright area.

2. Compose the image. Again in #3725 there's huge potential, but an awkward positioning and the dog is almost lost. Have them sit naturally, make sure they smiles, and "share" the dog between them. Zoom in to frame the image the way you want, and then zoom out just a little so you're not too tight. Double-check to make sure that nothing (limbs, heads etc) is cropped.

3. Now, position your camera, preferably on a tripod and adjust your settings.

a. ISO: Is it as low as it can be while still getting the shot?

b. WB: Is it set to Auto?

c. Metering: I would select centre-weighted for a scene like this.

d. Exposure mode: I would go with Aperture Priority and use your maximum aperture (but make sure that your shutter-speed stays above 1/125 to ensure that any minor movement is frozen).

e. Focus point. Select single point focus and place the active point where you want it (on the eyes).

f. Check your math using DoF tables. Given your lens, aperture and subject-to-camera distance, do you have sufficient DoF to have all six eyes sharp?

g. Do you have RAW selected?

4. Double-check the composition, make sure eyes are open, tell the children to look toward the camera, but not necessarily right down the lens, and use a treat, whistle or whatever to attract the puppie's attention.

5. Shoot now!

6. Review, repeat as necessary

Remember to use a long lens (minimal DoF) and to have the subjects well in front of whatever background you use so as to minimize the amount of visible detail in the image. Double-check your DoF tables to ensure that you've got all the depth you need. This might take 5, or even ten minutes for one image. Big deal, time is cheap. As you do this more and more this checklist will become a mental list that you can run through in just a couple of seconds.

Good luck!

 

[Nautifish]

Thank you so much for the Advice guys its appreciated and i have been taking notes trust me....Today i went out and bought Bryan Petersons 3rd edition of Understanding exposure and am loving it...

These next few shots i took this afternoon of a best frein of mine at her trailor. I think imo these are better. What do u think?

I am not too happy with the Glare on jos face here. But one thing i have been really trying to work on is my composition and DOF.

I CROPPED THIS PHOTO SO jO WAS TO THE LEFT OF THE PHOTO.
Mistake?

Thank you so much again.

 

[Nautifish]

Thank you so much for the Advice guys its appreciated and i have been taking notes trust me....Today i went out and bought Bryan Petersons 3rd edition of Understanding exposure and am loving it...

These next few shots i took this afternoon of a best friend of mine at her trailor. I think imo these are better. What do u think?

I am not too happy with the Glare on jos face here. But one thing i have been really trying to work on is my composition and DOF.

I CROPPED THIS PHOTO SO jO WAS TO THE LEFT OF THE PHOTO.
Mistake?

Thank you so much again.