Shoot today! C&C welcome.

elizpage · Aug 4, 2014

They may not be perfect, but this was a for-fun shoot so I could train my brother's girlfriend on Basic DSLR knowledge

She was super appreciative and took a few good shots herself, as I set all settings for her and let her snap away. I'm actually pretty happy with how these turned out, although they aren't 100% tack sharp. The main problems I had with the shoot were finding areas in the direct sunlight where I could manipulate the exposure correctly..That and focusing and using low apertures.. My main problems altogether... Not an easy task! It was a little embarrassing teaching someone when you **** up yourself sometimes. But nonetheless, it was a good day. I think the model is gorgeous and I'm loving her purple hair. Let me know what you guys think and what I know I could have improved on. It feels like I'm getting slightly better.. but I can never tell if I'm regressing or moving forward!!

Thanks ya'll

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tirediron · Aug 4, 2014

Nope... not perfect, but if there were such a thing as a perfect photograph, it wouldn't be art! These are pretty good.

1. Not bad at all for being in direct sun; you've got decent exposure on the face and you're preserved most of the hair highlights without blowing them to kingdom come. The overall tone of the image seems just a tad bright in the yellow/green range, and I think it would much stronger if you dropped the overall exposure a tad and cropped the empty sky off of the top.

2. Great expression, but the almost blown background being so much brighter is really pulling the eye away from the face. Off-camera flash / reflectors are your friend!!!

3. Perfect exposure (near enough, and good background control). Overall, a really nice image, but why is she so far image right that you've cropped her left arm???? NEVER crop limbs along a longitudinal axis unless you absolutely have to!

4. Another great expression, skin looks about 1/3 stop over-exposed to me, and the placement of her left hand is... well... awkward.

5. Fun!!

Overall, this is a nice set, and there's crisp focus on her shirt, but when viewed at full resolution, her face looks soft; are you using a skin-smoothing technique that might need further refinement?

Just my $00.02 worth - YMMV

~John

Trever1t · Aug 4, 2014

there's no such thing as a perfect image...imperfection is magic.

Fun set. Looks pretty good, I might compose the shots a little differently but they're natural and warm.

elizpage · Aug 4, 2014

tirediron said:
Nope... not perfect, but if there were such a thing as a perfect photograph, it wouldn't be art! These are pretty good.

1. Not bad at all for being in direct sun; you've got decent exposure on the face and you're preserved most of the hair highlights without blowing them to kingdom come. The overall tone of the image seems just a tad bright in the yellow/green range, and I think it would much stronger if you dropped the overall exposure a tad and cropped the empty sky off of the top.

2. Great expression, but the almost blown background being so much brighter is really pulling the eye away from the face. Off-camera flash / reflectors are your friend!!!

3. Perfect exposure (near enough, and good background control). Overall, a really nice image, but why is she so far image right that you've cropped her left arm???? NEVER crop limbs along a longitudinal axis unless you absolutely have to!

4. Another great expression, skin looks about 1/3 stop over-exposed to me, and the placement of her left hand is... well... awkward.

5. Fun!!

Overall, this is a nice set, and there's crisp focus on her shirt, but when viewed at full resolution, her face looks soft; are you using a skin-smoothing technique that might need further refinement?

Just my $00.02 worth - YMMV

~John

Thanks john. Appreciate your feedback!

Derrel · Aug 4, 2014

Based on the prior set I saw here, you're moving forward, Page. I noticed what John mentioned--shirt sharp, face soft, when viewed at the largest size. I do not think the full crispness of your camera is coming through: are you using some kind of noise reduction or skin smoothing? My comment on the talls would be that you're tending to leave excessive space above her head on them, except of course for the Superman shot, which has a total reason for the added space above her head. But yeah, I think this set is better than the last one I saw posted here.

JacaRanda · Aug 4, 2014

It gets a little tricky when you decide to shoot in portrait orientation. Your center focus point is often too low in the frame. You could focus and recompose by locking your focus on her eyes and then angle your camera downward, so her head is closer to the top of your viewfinder. Better yet, learn to change the focus points in your viewfinder to match your composition.

Some of the other guys will be able to explain that better than me.

KmH · Aug 4, 2014

All of the poses have her shoulders square to the camera. Also known as the 'football player pose'. That usually weakens a portrait photo. #5 would be an exception, because of the mural behind her.
Her skin tone varies quite a bit from photo to photo. Do you use a gray card and/or custom white balance?
Some of the compositions weaken the photo. #3 in particular.
The light quality was marginal. Learn how to use flash (preferably off-camera-flash - OCF) outside in sunlight.
The camera perspectives were good, with the camera slightly below the subjects eyes.

elizpage said:
View attachment 81276

Quick and dirty. All edits were done using Photoshop CC 2014.
I cropped so her lower eye (camera right eye) is on the upper right Rule of Thirds (RoT) power point.
I reduced the background exposure and reduced the background vibrance.
I added some exposure to her, and did a color correction to warm her skin tones and highlight the color of her hair.
I dodged (brightened) her sclera (eye whites), teeth, eye sockets, neck and ears. Then I darkened her lips a little (just the mid-tones).
I lightened the dark areas immediately under her eyes (I used the Patch tool).
I sharpened her eyes, nose, and mouth.
Last, i added a very thin black border.