Posing - Unedited

[NedM]

I had two photo-shoots today with two different girls.
Here is one shot from one of those shoots unedited.

Straight from the camera.
f.5.6
1/200 sec
ISO - 800
131mm

Fill flash used.

Thoughts?

*I know it's bit off focus.
I'm still working on controlling my DoF and focusing.

 

[striving4mediocrity]

Well, you know that it's out of focus.. If you are asking about the actual pose, I think her hands are are getting in the way of her face.

 

[Gavjenks]

Definitely way too soft, as you mention. But I'm a little confused what you WERE focusing on? Was this manual focus? If so that would explain, as you could just be focusing on mid air. If it's AF though, this is weird, since everything here is pretty high contrast and it shouldn't have gotten that confused.

Anyway, pose seems fine and interesting to me. Model looks happy and engaged. Hair/clothes/etc. all in order.

Lighting could stand to be a little less flat. I think you might've gone a tad overboard on the fill. More importantly, though, the subject as a whole needs to be more brightly lit than the background here, irrespective of the fill/key ratio. She doesn't pop out from the scenery. To address both things at once, you could just add a medium amount of light on the key side only and do everything else the same. E.g. a speedlight in an umbrella held a bit off to the side on camera right. OR if you only want to use natural light and reflectors, just move somewhere where the background is more heavily in shadow compared to the model, like a dark grove of trees instead of bright pavement behind her.

Also, the background is much too detail-busy. Could stand to use a faster lens (5.6 leaves a lot of room to improve), and/or move the model further away from her background if you can't afford one. And/or choose a less busy background, one without all those small thin sharp fence bars, etc.


Expensive option: a 135mm f/2 lens and a lackey with external lighting to boss around
Cheap option: hold the reflector further away and line up a background composed of some indistinct bushes under tree cover.

 

[NedM]

Definitely way too soft, as you mention. But I'm a little confused what you WERE focusing on? Was this manual focus? If so that would explain, as you could just be focusing on mid air. If it's AF though, this is weird, since everything here is pretty high contrast and it shouldn't have gotten that confused.

Anyway, pose seems fine and interesting to me. Model looks happy and engaged. Hair/clothes/etc. all in order.

Lighting could stand to be a little less flat. I think you might've gone a tad overboard on the fill. More importantly, though, the subject as a whole needs to be more brightly lit than the background here, irrespective of the fill/key ratio. She doesn't pop out from the scenery. To address both things at once, you could just add a medium amount of light on the key side only and do everything else the same. E.g. a speedlight in an umbrella held a bit off to the side on camera right. OR if you only want to use natural light and reflectors, just move somewhere where the background is more heavily in shadow compared to the model, like a dark grove of trees instead of bright pavement behind her.

Also, the background is much too detail-busy. Could stand to use a faster lens (5.6 leaves a lot of room to improve), and/or move the model further away from her background if you can't afford one. And/or choose a less busy background, one without all those small thin sharp fence bars, etc.

Honestly, it was 55-250mm IS lens. It was on AF, and you're right, the focusing should have been dead on. For some reasons unknown it didn't quite catch the contrast of her. (I was trying to focus on her eyes)

I used an external hot shoe attached with a small soft box to diffuse the light. Although, I do want to try using an umbrella with a speedlight soon. As soon I can learn more about strobe lighting.

I had a faster lens, I just didn't think of switching it at the time. I tried to pull her as far back from the background as much as I can.