My First Couples (Engagement Style) Shoot (Warning: 8 Shots)

MikeBookPro · Oct 1, 2009

I posted these in the beginner's forum, but since it was my first "pro" shoot, I figured I would post some here for C&C too. I'd love to get some thoughts from the pros. Comments appreciated.

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

camz · Oct 2, 2009

Mike I'm really happy about how you're progressing but I'll give my input on the overall shoot.

To me I think your clients are a bit too stagnant. Let them run around, stroll, jump and play while you shoot. When you run out of poses just start shooting away. Give your clients some generals like..."Hey I dare you to bite you're fiance's nose" or "Hey why don't you grab his butt real quick" or "How about you guys just start talking while you look at each other's eyes....smile" or "Hey why don't you guys start running towards the camera". These may sound silly however when you start shooting away with this approach you will get more natural looks from the clients rather then just purely posing them. It's not going to work all the time but the variety of your spread will improve.

This is the whole point of being an on location photographer. Otherwise a studio with strobes would've been the route we should've took..LOL. My favorite is #2 as far as the processing and #6 for composition.

Keep it up Mike :thumbup:

musicaleCA · Oct 2, 2009

Now that camz has noted the artistic side, allow me to gripe about two overall technical points. First off, if you aren't using Highlight Tone Priority (is it called...hmmm...D-Lighting on Nikon?), now's a good time to start. This feature would let you rescue just a little bit of extra detail from the highlights in shots 2, 4, 6, and 8.

Secondly, there's visible noise in quite a few of these shots, which would not be so bad, if it weren't on their faces occasionally due to underexposure. Mostly luma noise so you weren't shooting at terribly high ISOs I take it, but try to keep those ISOs down as far as possible, and be sure to expose for your subjects. Note that using HTP will increase noise in shadows, which makes this part all the more important.

MikeBookPro · Oct 2, 2009

camz said:
Mike I'm really happy about how you're progressing but I'll give my input on the overall shoot.

To me I think your clients are a bit too stagnant. Let them run around, stroll, jump and play while you shoot. When you run out of poses just start shooting away. Give your clients some generals like..."Hey I dare you to bite you're fiance's nose" or "Hey why don't you grab his butt real quick" or "How about you guys just start talking while you look at each other's eyes....smile" or "Hey why don't you guys start running towards the camera". These may sound silly however when you start shooting away with this approach you will get more natural looks from the clients rather then just purely posing them. It's not going to work all the time but the variety of your spread will improve.

This is the whole point of being an on location photographer. Otherwise a studio with strobes would've been the route we should've took..LOL. My favorite is #2 as far as the processing and #6 for composition.

Keep it up Mike :thumbup:

Camz, I was hoping you'd chime in. I am (by far) having the most difficulty with finding interesting poses, etc. I'm going to have to try some of your ideas. #8, which is one of my favs, was taken after I said "Ok, guys, I think we're all set. Let's get out of here.".

musicaleCA said:
Now that camz has noted the artistic side, allow me to gripe about two overall technical points. First off, if you aren't using Highlight Tone Priority (is it called...hmmm...D-Lighting on Nikon?), now's a good time to start. This feature would let you rescue just a little bit of extra detail from the highlights in shots 2, 4, 6, and 8.

Secondly, there's visible noise in quite a few of these shots, which would not be so bad, if it weren't on their faces occasionally due to underexposure. Mostly luma noise so you weren't shooting at terribly high ISOs I take it, but try to keep those ISOs down as far as possible, and be sure to expose for your subjects. Note that using HTP will increase noise in shadows, which makes this part all the more important.

I'll have to look into Highlight Tone Priority on my camera. I shoot a 50D. What's funny is (and I'd imagine this is the cause of the noise, as these were all shot at ISO 100), the exposure is (for the most part) upped in PP. To my eyes, photos look best when the white is as close to pure white as possible. I won't go so far to get "blinkies" on my histogram, but close. The vast majority of my images look a bit overexposed due to PP. I'm not sure it's a good thing or a bad thing, but it's just what looks "good" to me.

Thanks for your input so far, guys!

zerofourtwo · Oct 2, 2009

It's good that you are using a low ISO speed to keep a clean image, but if that causes you to underexpose by more than a stop then you have to kick up the ISO speed. When shooting raw (which i almost always do)i never shoot any lower than one stop underexposed. Also watch your histogram when adjusting levels, so that you do not over expose or underexpose parts of the image. I also agree highlight tone priority can be a life saver.

woojiebear · Oct 2, 2009

really nice set

good work!

Crimsonandwhite · Oct 14, 2009

First off, that dude out kicked his coverage.

#1 - I would give a bit more room in the crop.

#2 - Like it, watch your posing to help hide a guy's gut. All us dudes like to think we are still slim and trim.

#3 - I really like this one. Nothing to add here.

#4 - No, hate the angle

#5 - Might be my favorite. Nice artsy touch with the movement.

#6 - I like this one a lot too. You did a nice job of posing the girl. Her pose shows off her body and makes her look really hot, which she will love and dude will love. Overall nice work on this one.

#7 - What is up with the skin tone on dude? He looks gray....

#8 - I like the shot but I will pull back the vignette, it's a little much on that one.

Thanks for letting me CC your stuff!

bigtwinky · Oct 14, 2009

I'll just add my 2 cents on where I think it should be added...

#2 seems to be slightly over exposed. I don't mind the brightness, I'm more looking at the white of her teeth, seems clipped. Nice pose overall, except for his leaning and belly sticking out.
I'd also like to see her left eye fully visible and not hidden by that strand of hair.

#3 I really like the mood and post processing here. Great job. I like how he is looking at the camera, but I think you might of had her looking at the camera too. Him looking at and her looking away gives me a sense that she is not interested, bored, and thinking of something else. The mix of their two looks doesnt fully jive with me

#5 nice take on the traditional hand holding shot.

#7 his face is a bit under exposed

#8 very natural looking shot, I like it. Technically though, the vignetting is a bit much. Is his left side too dark or is that the vignette (or a mix of the two)?