Taylor

minicoop1985 · May 16, 2015

This is the very first attempt I've made at actually doing a senior (prom) photo, so if you could, please let me know how I did on a scale from one to donate my camera to Goodwill. Thanks.

Taylor by Michael Long, on Flickr

snowbear · May 17, 2015

Overall, I think it's fine.

The natural lighting gives her skin both warm and cool areas; fill flash might have been good to help even things out. I would like to see it with a slightly shallower DoF, though she is not really blending in.

sashbar · May 17, 2015

i think it is a fine picture, but if you want some critique, you know what buggers me about this kind of composition?
there are lots of trees there in the background, it is all vertical. And then we have yet another vertical in the shape of this girl. It is almost another tree if you know what I mean. my eye cries for some horizontals here, those wooden planks are trying hard but my eye is glued to the girl and the trees...
Not really a critique of the image, just some food for thought

Designer · May 17, 2015

Besides agreeing with sashbar, I will add that the background is demanding too much attention from your subject. If you had framed tighter and thrown the BG out of focus, it would be a better informal portrait, IMO.

Rgollar · May 17, 2015

less depth of field and a tighter crop. It just seems to the background distract from the person thats why a tighter crop and less depth of field I think would help. Take my opinion with a grain of salt as I am novice as they come.

bribrius · May 17, 2015

you're holding out.
Ain't no way you just took one photo. You at least have a few for her to choose from.
wheres the rest.

Agree with above, besides...

minicoop1985 · May 17, 2015

You guys are right, this was just the best of the bunch. Thanks for the feedback, everyone.

frommrstomommy · May 17, 2015

Nice and sharp, good expression, very pretty young girl.. just need to lose some of the background IMO... as already mentioned. The trees are definitely competing for the attention here.

Donde · May 17, 2015

I think she's quite lost in the forest so agree with suggestion of tighter crop.

bribrius · May 17, 2015

minicoop1985 said:
You guys are right, this was just the best of the bunch. Thanks for the feedback, everyone.

posting just your best doesn't really help you. it means you have other hidden problems no one can advise on. You might be better off posting your worst or more than one. So you can get more adequate cc for what you are doing. You could have a minor consistent issue across your photos, with only a small correction needed but on one will know, and it could be a easy fix. But you never posted them.

minicoop1985 · May 17, 2015

I didn't because I know what I did wrong on most of them. I'll show my boss the worst ones, since I'm a bit too nervous to post them here.

annamaria · May 17, 2015

I agree with frommrstomommy

minicoop1985 · May 17, 2015

I do wish I would have backed up and used a longer focal length. That would have helped to kill the background a bit and give a thinner DOF, too.

minicoop1985 · May 17, 2015

Taylor 2 by Michael Long, on Flickr

What the hell, here's another. This one I know I had her face too much to the sun, which made her squint a bit. Also done with high speed sync so I could shoot wide open and fill shadows a bit at 1/2000.

Are her highlights blown out? I can't really tell on this monitor.

crimbfighter · May 17, 2015

I definitely think you're far from "donate your camera to Goodwill" on this one. :lol:

In the first one, I think the main issues have already been identified. It's really a good image, just needs those few tweaks. I hope you don't mind, but I did a quick couple of edits to see how it would look with a couple changes. I cropped in, added a GND filter to bring some light to the bottom of the frame, added a radial filter around the girl adding contrast and bringing down the highlights of the background.

I also tried it in a horizontal crop, which I know many don't like, but I do. I thought it added some of that horizontal dimension people were mentioning.
https://flic.kr/p/t6N2ER

As for your last image, I don't think anything is blown out. The highlights might be a tad bright, though. I also wish her hand weren't cropped off.

Hope that helps.