Sunny + Bright engagement session

jbrianne · May 1, 2014

My first engagement session of the season! The weather was beautiful and I wanted to take advantage of the sun peaking through the top of the trees. SO if you hate sun flares....you might hate a couple of these. I tried to use the tips I learned from my lasting posting to do better/tighter crops and really focus on whether or not a picture would benefit from a vertical or horizontal crop.

Sorry guys, can't for the life of me figure out how to separate pictures and add numbers. Gah. too late at night!

CdTSnap · May 1, 2014

Awesome! they are great, I cant see on my screen but are some of them out of focus?

jbrianne · May 1, 2014

Thanks so much! As for the focus...I don't believe so...? I am pretty good at getting my focus points right on the faces, etc. and toss any shots that are particularly fuzzy.

CdTSnap · May 1, 2014

jbrianne said:
Thanks so much! As for the focus...I don't believe so...? I am pretty good at getting my focus points right on the faces, etc. and toss any shots that are particularly fuzzy.

Must be my screen

tirediron · May 1, 2014

They would have been a great set... IF you hadn't posed them so that every single one except the last one (and that only misses by the merest fraction) has at least one of them with something "growing" out of one of their heads.

Derrel · May 1, 2014

I think you did okay with the flares...none are objectionable.

I know what Tirediron is saying about the growing out of the heads thing, but in areas with lots of trees like this, preventing any and all foreground/background attachment can be an onerous task. I'm not sure it's necessary to worry about it in cases like the second and fifth images....I mean, there are a LOT of trees there.IN shots three and four though, the fellow's got some pretty serious tree out of head action, and I think on those two it's kind of hurting the shots.

I guess it's a balance, between showing the hardwood trees and the location OR going longer-lens and really making the background "blown out", meaning severely defocused, which could be done by going to a pretty long lens and a wide f/stop.

BrickHouse · May 2, 2014

I LOVE #1. Her expression and the moment you captured is incredible. As for the tree thing, I'm a hobbyist, but that means I think as a consumer and not a professional photographer, and I can tell you that I have not once in my life, not even on these, sat there and thought "uh oh, she has a tree sticking out of her head". I asked my wife and she said the same thing. I kind of get the feeling that it's one of those things that photographers nit pick about their work but the general consumer will never notice. My 2 cents.

tirediron · May 2, 2014

BrickHouse said:
I LOVE #1. Her expression and the moment you captured is incredible. As for the tree thing, I'm a hobbyist, but that means I think as a consumer and not a professional photographer, and I can tell you that I have not once in my life, not even on these, sat there and thought "uh oh, she has a tree sticking out of her head". I asked my wife and she said the same thing. I kind of get the feeling that it's one of those things that photographers nit pick about their work but the general consumer will never notice. My 2 cents.

It's one of those things that the consumer should not have to notice because it shouldn't be there; I'm willing to bet too, that even if you didn't conciously notice them, were you to see a set of images identical, but for the trees being removed, you would like them better. Granted this is not the worst occurrence of it, but it's the sort of thing of which a professional should be aware when planning composition. As Derrel notes, in a location like this, it can be a challenge, but looking at the scenes, I'm confident that with just a little more effort these issues could have been avoided.

jbrianne · May 2, 2014

Thank you for the feedback! In hindsight, I realized I could have placed them differently, but I really wanted to capture the sunflare, and even moving them a few feet to the right would have completely removed it from the frame. But I will definitely harder to "look behind" the subject/frame rather than just my subjects. Thanks again!