The S Family Kids...Vanessa and KC

Leo · Oct 12, 2007

#3, #4 and #8 are my favorites, great shots. I am assuming you are using your 50mm f/1.8?

EJBPhoto · Oct 12, 2007

Great work!

Love that your style is a combination of classic and contemporary

Much like my own style!

skieur · Oct 12, 2007

Pretty good shots. My main criticism is your framing. Portraits should never be cutting subjects at joints such as elbows, wrists, ankles, and feet and hands should not be at the very edge of the frame either.
Loosen up or in some cases, tighten up your framing.

skieur

Anita · Oct 12, 2007

I keep coming back to these shots! They are SOOOO good. I just love what you do with available light.

And, thanks for the post processing tip. You're very generous!

NJMAN · Oct 12, 2007

Thanks so much again everyone for the great comments.

Leo said:
#3, #4 and #8 are my favorites, great shots. I am assuming you are using your 50mm f/1.8?

Hi Leo, I used the 50mm in about half the shots, and the 28-135mm in the other half. Thanks for the nice words as always!

EJBPhoto said:
Great work! Love that your style is a combination of classic and contemporary Much like my own style!

Ah yes, about your work Erin. I have to admit that when I look at your images, I sometimes throw down my mouse and walk away in frustration from my editing (its from jealousy).

Seriously though, you have no idea how much of an inspiration you are to me, and I really mean that.

skieur said:
Pretty good shots. My main criticism is your framing. Portraits should never be cutting subjects at joints such as elbows, wrists, ankles, and feet and hands should not be at the very edge of the frame either.
Loosen up or in some cases, tighten up your framing.

skieur

Very good critique skeiur. You are correct. I ought to know better by now about the limbs. In some of these shots, I had a very hard time deciding how to crop them, and had to sacrifice some limbs for the sake of the shot (if that makes any sense). But I know that I need to work on technique more so that I dont need to crop so much.

Anita said:
I keep coming back to these shots! They are SOOOO good. I just love what you do with available light.

And, thanks for the post processing tip. You're very generous!

I am so grateful for your kind words Anita. Many many thanks.

EJBPhoto · Oct 12, 2007

NJ- That's really kind of you- that feels really good for me to hear!

You have some great compositions here. Feel free to send me a full res at some point and I will edit it and type out my exact work flow for you! You can PM me the file (maybe upload it to tinypic.com?) or something. You have great work! Don't feel frustrated, you've got a lot of talent you're going to continue to grow as a photographer because you seem to be very open to learning and growing!

I really love your attitude, thanks for posting!

Ps. Look at my very first posts on here

It's very inspiring to see I've come far in a short period of time.

JimmyJaceyMom · Oct 12, 2007

Hey I never saw these - what the heck????
Great job I like the lighting.

And about EJBphoto - I feel the same way! But she's so awesome cause she is willing to take time and teach - what's better than that.

NJMAN · Oct 12, 2007

EJBPhoto said:
NJ- That's really kind of you- that feels really good for me to hear! You have some great compositions here. Feel free to send me a full res at some point and I will edit it and type out my exact work flow for you! You can PM me the file (maybe upload it to tinypic.com?) or something. You have great work! Don't feel frustrated, you've got a lot of talent you're going to continue to grow as a photographer because you seem to be very open to learning and growing!

I really love your attitude, thanks for posting!

Ps. Look at my very first posts on here It's very inspiring to see I've come far in a short period of time.

Thanks Erin. I may take you up on that. :thumbup:

JimmyJaceyMom said:
Hey I never saw these - what the heck????
Great job I like the lighting.

And about EJBphoto - I feel the same way! But she's so awesome cause she is willing to take time and teach - what's better than that.

Thanks Kathi! Yes, Erin is one of a kind, and we are lucky to have her.

Sideburns · Oct 12, 2007

girl reminds of me denise richards for some reason.

All are really great shots. Nice work.

I kinda wanna find that shirt for my girlfriend now lol

roxysmom · Oct 15, 2007

These are amazing.....

Someone earlier made a comment that you have a wonderful feel for depth of field. I'm in a photo class right now trying to get a handle on DOF and using it in the Aperture mode. I've been taking a lot of photos but most of them are in auto mode while I continue to learn. Can you tell me how you get your background to blur so well? I tried it this past weekend but for some reason I can't get that effect. I tried to have my subject sit on the grass and do it but they were either not blurred or really dark. Any suggestions or tips?

Christie Photo · Oct 15, 2007

hammerhead_05 said:
Question. Notice that SUPER slight shading around the edges of every shot. How do you get that? I think i could rig something up in photoshop....but is there a way through lenses?!?!?!

|Brock|

Yup. I used a vignette on every portait back in the film days. Hmmm.... that really makes me sound old, huh?

-Pete

NJMAN · Oct 17, 2007

Sideburns said:
girl reminds of me denise richards for some reason.

All are really great shots. Nice work.

I kinda wanna find that shirt for my girlfriend now lol

So, you like the polka dots...hmm. Yes, they are starting to grow on me too now.

Thanks for the nice comments Sideburns.

roxysmom said:
These are amazing.....

Someone earlier made a comment that you have a wonderful feel for depth of field. I'm in a photo class right now trying to get a handle on DOF and using it in the Aperture mode. I've been taking a lot of photos but most of them are in auto mode while I continue to learn. Can you tell me how you get your background to blur so well? I tried it this past weekend but for some reason I can't get that effect. I tried to have my subject sit on the grass and do it but they were either not blurred or really dark. Any suggestions or tips?

Again, sorry for not replying sooner. Ive been swamped with photo shoots lately, but Im not complaining.

The trick to shallow depth of field as I understand it is to put a lot of distance between the subject and the background. In this particular shoot, I am at a park that has lots of wide open green areas, so getting a very blurred background was fairly easy for me.

I also stand about 15-20 feet back from my subjects and zoom all the way in just about all the time. Using the 28-135mm lens, I use a focal length of 135mm most of the time, which equates to roughly 216mm on a cropped sensor. If I am using the 50mm f/1.8, I am obviously closer to the subject, but I set the aperture to 2.8 a lot of times, which still gives me very shallow depth of field, but also gives me a sharper focus than 1.8. If you have a really sharp focus and a very shallow DOF, you can imagine how nice these look together.

Hope this helps.