My Girlfriend and I

RubyMagic · May 27, 2008

As many of you all know, I have been working (VERY HARD) on my portrait skills. Over the weekend I found a farm (which I didnt hesitate to tresspass on), and I decided to stop and take some photo's with my girlfriend (who is a photographer as well).

Tell me what you think! Dont be afraid to get harsh!

Shibby! · May 27, 2008

I like the car shots best. The lighting is good, the subject (g/f) seems to be having fun and is casual, and the car adds an interseting background. I like the car, and your g/f is cute. haha.

Few things to note if you want:

1) Adding a simple boarder really improves the look of your images when posted on a forum with white background.

2) If you don't have a light, try to work the natural light. In 1/2, there simply isn't enough light and the pictures are under exposed. Your camera is metering the bright sky and darkening you guys. Spot meter will help, but you'll have a blown out sky. You can do do multiple exposures if you can hold the pose then stitch or add a fake sky.

3) Cropped body parts. You can use this to your advantage or not. I have mixed feelings on the last few pictures. Some are good, some I think are cropped a bit too much. Either way, they need some light work, but are a decent start.

4) Lastly, I love wide angle shots like the car. I like the added distortion, but maybe remember that longer focal lengths flatten the image. Steping back futher and zooming in might have helped with the last few shots (70+mm w/ crop factor)

Lyncca · May 27, 2008

Your GF is really cute. I like the ones of her sitting on the cars as well. I think with a little post processing they could look good.

I would be happy to give one a whirl if you say its ok...

KristinaS · May 27, 2008

In addition to the aforementioned things, I'd also recommend watching for stuff in the backgrounds. In the car shots, there are a few random poles around that I'd maybe clone out or something. I do like the car ones best, though.

Garbz · May 28, 2008

Looks reasonably good, the only thing that hasn't been mentioned but annoys me is the compressed dynamic range in each photo. In the process of lightening and darkening various photos they appear to have completely lost contrast.

schumionbike · May 28, 2008

I like the 5th one the best due to the interesting composition and I really like the lighting in that one. btw, it would help if you number your pictures so I don't have to count, lol.

Shibby! · May 28, 2008

Garbz said:
Looks reasonably good, the only thing that hasn't been mentioned but annoys me is the compressed dynamic range in each photo. In the process of lightening and darkening various photos they appear to have completely lost contrast.

I do agree, they don't have much depth in colour, but I think it goes well with the picture? Different yes, but different isn't always wrong.

shorty6049 · May 28, 2008

you should probably ask before you start trespassing on people's property.

having said that. i like the ones of your girlfriend because there is actually some framing and composition. the ones of you two just dont seem very captivating

Shibby! · May 29, 2008

Got RubyMagic's permission to edit one of his photo's.

After playing around for 10 minutes this is what I came up with. Not sure if it's overkill, or if the look goes with the photo. Either way, I think I like it. Just wish her face wasn't blown out.

I really like #4 as well, but I don't think my cloning abilities would be good enough to remove the power poll without looking edited. I wish more of the front of the car was in there, but I think seeing the feet would ruin the pose... Hum.. it's a toss up.

lessthan3. · May 29, 2008

to the OP, nice shots

and to the edit, whatever you did makes it look like a hdr image

i love it...if i can ask, how did you achieve that effect with just a 10 min edit?

i love it.

and also one more thing to the op, you listen to emarosa? i love the old music...i cant stand the new stuff at all

Village Idiot · May 30, 2008

The subjects are underexposed in most the shots and the shots are dark overall, even the one where you overexposed the subject. They're not something I'd ever give to a client.

Alex_B · May 30, 2008

as it looks you are in much better control of the light and exposure when you are not in the shot yourself. I suggest you take your meter readings while behind the camera, set it to manual and leave it set as it is, then enter the scene and take the shot with those settings.

Shibby! · May 30, 2008

lessthan3. said:
to the OP, nice shots

and to the edit, whatever you did makes it look like a hdr image i love it...if i can ask, how did you achieve that effect with just a 10 min edit?

i love it.

and also one more thing to the op, you listen to emarosa? i love the old music...i cant stand the new stuff at all

It's mostly playing with levels, contrast, saturation, etc. Lightroom makes quick work of it, then touched up with PS with some high radius sharpening, lens correction, burning/dodging, and removed the power guide line.

I used layers to overlay the edit onto the original with 100% exposure and masked his G/F off, then another layer of the edit and blended her so she's not as edited as the car and background.

I think it turned out well, the car anyways, but she lost what little colour she had which makes her quite ghostly. I like the other shot of her on the car and if I get some spare time in the next few days I might try to match that one up. She has more colour and not burnt out as badly as the one I edited. I just didn't like the power poll in the background and don't think my skills are up to the task of removing it.

RubyMagic · May 30, 2008

It is a good edit...just.... like you said, she looks a hot case of 6-feet under disease.

And the edit really brought out my crappy lens' vignetting. Haha.

Emarosa's new stuff is da bomb. Singing is ok too, ya know...

Shibby! · May 31, 2008

RubyMagic said:
It is a good edit...just.... like you said, she looks a hot case of 6-feet under disease.

And the edit really brought out my crappy lens' vignetting. Haha.

Emarosa's new stuff is da bomb. Singing is ok too, ya know...

Haha.

Well, with the burnt out areas it's impossible to bring colour back. I could saturate her more, but then it'll look strange I think.. Unfortunately not much I could do about it.

Vignetting was done in PP. Your lens didn't do that.

Funny how I buy all these expensive lenses to prevent vignetting (among other things), then in a lot of my pictures I add it in PP. Haha.