Some honest feedback would be great!

ecphoto · Apr 8, 2014

I'm posting these here cause they didn't really fit with the other's I just posted.
Some honest feedback / CC would be much appreciated.
#1

#2

Thanks in advance!

Ec1981 · Apr 8, 2014

Both images are great, the rose I like the best very colorful, bright, clear

Austin Greene · Apr 8, 2014

I'm not a fan of number two. The subject might be big, but it isn't clearly defined. It's over-saturated, and a tad bright. There's too much that is out of focus for my tastes.

Number one is good. He has a good expression, I get the sense that he is a kind old guy. Good catchlights in the eyes. That said you need to work on your burning/dodging, it's way too obvious in the area around him and takes on the look of a poorly executed vignette. I could also do with him just slightly more off-center, but the height is good imo.

A good start!

sashbar · Apr 8, 2014

No 2 is boring. The first one I would try to b&w.

ecphoto · Apr 8, 2014

Great feedback, now I have somewhere to go with it. Thanks guys!

Sent from my MB886 using Tapatalk

dxqcanada · Apr 8, 2014

First shot ... missed focus, camera shake, wide open ... it is not sharp. I find it odd to see him projecting out of the image by the angle shot down at him.
Second ... not exciting, maybe just crop to foreground flower only.

AlanKlein · Apr 8, 2014

#1 has good eye contact and the catch light in the eye is a single (outside lighting?) and at 2pm (10am would be good too.) making it look realistic. The face is well centered in the frame which looks good. As others have said the chin is out of focus. It appears you were shooting too slow and by hand. Make sure your shutter speed is high enough. Use a tripod if you can but this may have been extemporaneous. There's no reason his ears and back of head are out of focus. Use a smaller aperture to increase the depth of field. The nose appears too large for the face caused by fore shortening. You may be using a too wide lens. (What lens were you using on what camera?) Wide angle lenses are usually not good for portraiture for this reason. You want a moderate telephoto lens that will compact the depth eliminating fore shortening and facial distortions.

#2: Is very colorful. Back roses are out of focus yet "attached" to the main flower detracting from it. There's too much negative space on the right. Crop out the little pink flower spot in the upper right corner. It pulls your eye away from the subject.

Nice shots.

ecphoto · Apr 9, 2014

dxqcanada said:
First shot ... missed focus, camera shake, wide open ... it is not sharp. I find it odd to see him projecting out of the image by the angle shot down at him.
Second ... not exciting, maybe just crop to foreground flower only.

I focused on the eyes, in LR I zoomed to 100% and the eyes looked crystal clear. I'll reexamine it. He was sitting and I was on my knees taking the shot. I don't know of I could get lower without making the subject his crotch or kneecaps lol.
I'll process them again, thanks for your input.

AlanKlein said:
#1 has good eye contact and the catch light in the eye is a single (outside lighting?) and at 2pm (10am would be good too.) making it look realistic. The face is well centered in the frame which looks good. As others have said the chin is out of focus. It appears you were shooting too slow and by hand. Make sure your shutter speed is high enough. Use a tripod if you can but this may have been extemporaneous. There's no reason his ears and back of head are out of focus. Use a smaller aperture to increase the depth of field. The nose appears too large for the face caused by fore shortening. You may be using a too wide lens. (What lens were you using on what camera?) Wide angle lenses are usually not good for portraiture for this reason. You want a moderate telephoto lens that will compact the depth eliminating fore shortening and facial distortions.

#2: Is very colorful. Back roses are out of focus yet "attached" to the main flower detracting from it. There's too much negative space on the right. Crop out the little pink flower spot in the upper right corner. It pulls your eye away from the subject.

Nice shots.

It was about 9:45am lol, natural light from a screen door about 10ft away. I was using a dx nikkor 35mm prime, it was at f1.8. Should I have done maybe to stops smaller? I noticed that after and it did look a little funky.

I'll do that for the flower. Did I over do the vibrance and clarity?

Thanks for the great feedback.☺

sm4him · Apr 9, 2014

#1 is promising. Others have already pointed out some of the main things about it, but I'd add that his posture seems odd to me. The way he is very slightly leaned forward, with the head tilted slightly down and the left arm extending out of the photo makes it look like he is either taking a "selfie" or about to lunge at you and your camera. Get your subject to sit up a bit straighter, and then shoot either straight at them or very slightly lower than they are; I think you were actually TOO low here, personally. (Although, I think that's a very individualized decision--but just be aware that the ANGLE from which you shoot a person can totally change the image).

The second one: Yes, you overdid the vibrance and clarity, and either overdid upping the saturation, or need to actually DEsaturate a little. I find with extremely colorful flowers, especially orange and red ones, I actually need to desaturate them a little to keep the color from overwhelming the details.
But the REAL problem with that shot is that it's just tough to get a truly interesting composition pointed straight-on at a flower. It ends up just being an ID kind of shot. Yep, that's a flower all right. Look for different perspectives, interesting angles, when shooting flowers.