Please: Who do I improve?

[DiskoJoe]

Dont chop parts of heads.

I would

Cut heads or other body parts.

Like rule nr 2 or 3 in these examples:
10 Ways to Take Stunning Portraits

Probably depends on the taste of the photographer... But I like it when not all stuff is visible and you have to imagine how the rest of the body or head would look like.

Its best to start out wide then crop down as needed. But what I meant was to frame people badly and as a result they have limbs that get chopped.

 

[DiskoJoe]

Manual- I'd love to hear your thoughts on the photo, but as not to hijack the OPs thread, perhaps in PM?

So you decided to master the art of the watermark before the art of photography. I hear thats the best way to go

lol

 

[Vtec44]

Au natural baby!

 

[ManualMode]

Au natural baby!

What a cool fricken' setting man.. nice!

 

[dinamaria]

I have accepted that I will need to take a hands-on workshop in order to master OCF. In the mean time, I've been working on mastering "natural light," meaning whatever I've got around me. There are ways to modify and diffuse the sunlight without additional flash. Take a look at the photo below. Taken around 2:00PM, very harsh lighting. The tall trees helped to soften the light, and was even able to retain some detail in the sky. Processed the RAW file, slight crop and a tiny exposure adjustment to compliment the haze already provided by the local conditions.
View attachment 27528

That's a nice shot given the conditions. I guess the other point to make is these conditions limit you to certain types of shots. For example, backlight them and add a reflector in front to fill their faces. That shot works in bright sunlight. However, you don't have much flexibilty.

I took this in the middle of the day on the beach in full sun:


untitled-7992 by JChick526, on Flickr

I used an umbrella high and camera left. The sun was camera right. Without that flash I don't think I could of gotten that shot (now I get to sit here and wait for someone to tell me I'm an idiot and tell me exactly how to do that shot without flash).

I feel like introducing light just opens up a ridiculous amount of possibilities in less than ideal conditions. I still have sooooo much to learn though. It is somewhat daunting.

That is a beautiful shot!

 

[JAC526]

^^^Thank you sir.

 

[dinamaria]

ManualMode: What a beautiful shot. You picked a much better time of day that I had. Are you using a polarizing filter? The colors are amazing.