Trying to bridge gap from Amateur to Pro

[Ptography]

I recently did a photoshoot for a friend of mine who is a Hair stylist. We are cross promoting each other's work and I just wanted to get some feedback from the forum community on what they think of some of these shots. I shoot with a D7000, and I shot most of these with an 18-105mm as well as a f1.8 50mm. Just some critique on proper exposure and editing techniques are much appreciated.
-PTography.ca
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

 

[Patrice]

So you want to go from amateur to pro?

Get ready for some flak from the forum. Hope you have a thick hide.

1 is interesting but you failed on the framing: hands are cut off and too much space at the top.

2 fails for bad lighting and poor post processing.

3 another fail due to lighting, poor processing and bad crop.

4 best of the bunch.

5 not bad but too much green tint.

Tilt camera angles are good on only a very very few occasions. Big a$$ watermarks are amateurish. There you are, my opinion for what it's worth.

 

[c.cloudwalker]

Get ready for some flak from the forum. Hope you have a thick hide.

Yeah, definitely.

WOW!

Maybe I'll come back later but WOW is all I can say right now.

 

[jake337]

#4 is the only one I seemed to like out of the set because she doesn't look like a zombie. Not sure if its your post processing or your white balance but their skin tones do not look life like at all. Although, maybe you were going for that look and didn't post that information.

You posted you were working with hair stylist. These are not showing off the hair stylist work at all.

The way you posed the women in #2 and #3 are not helping these girls out.

 

[Ptography]

Patrice, I do have a thick hide, I can take a good brow beating in the intrest of personal growth

1 You're right about hands being cut off, I agree. The extra space was meant to be there though, that's what the hair stylist requested.
2 Again, you are right, the lighting was bad and I was working with no flash. Could have been better.
3. is a bit under exposed which can be modified in post processing. My monitor is not calibrated properly so some edits come out looking darker than I want them to be. I was really at a loss what to do with this photo in regards to a tint...
4. My fav too.
5. The green tint along with the tint in all photos is purposeful. The shots were generally meant to reflect the colors in them. In the Case of 5, she was "earth" so I wanted the photo to have a green hue. Just like 4 has a red hue for "fire" 2 has blue for "water", etc. Agin, that is what the hair stylist was after.

I have been weighing weather or not I want to use my logo as a watermark due to its size. I am re-evaluating my options at the moment. I want something where people can see my company name but I don't want the watermark blocking key parts of the photo. I find if you put your water mark in small text, people can crop it out when they get the digital copy for review.

Tilt is still in my opionion, in the eye of the beholder. It is making a comeback from what I have been reading. I have always used tilt since the day I picked up a camera. On purpose.

Thanks for the feedback its much appreciated. My issue is the fact I had to explain certain things which isn't good. Pictures are like a joke. If its a good joke, it doesn't need explanation.
P.

 

[jake337]

Patrice, I do have a thick hide, I can take a good brow beating in the intrest of personal growth

1 You're right about hands being cut off, I agree. The extra space was meant to be there though, that's what the hair stylist requested.
2 Again, you are right, the lighting was bad and I was working with no flash. Could have been better.
3. is a bit under exposed which can be modified in post processing. My monitor is not calibrated properly so some edits come out looking darker than I want them to be. I was really at a loss what to do with this photo in regards to a tint...
4. My fav too.
5. The green tint along with the tint in all photos is purposeful. The shots were generally meant to reflect the colors in them. In the Case of 5, she was "earth" so I wanted the photo to have a green hue. Just like 4 has a red hue for "fire" 2 has blue for "water", etc. Agin, that is what the hair stylist was after.

I have been weighing weather or not I want to use my logo as a watermark due to its size. I am re-evaluating my options at the moment. I want something where people can see my company name but I don't want the watermark blocking key parts of the photo. I find if you put your water mark in small text, people can crop it out when they get the digital copy for review.

Tilt is still in my opionion, in the eye of the beholder. It is making a comeback from what I have been reading. I have always used tilt since the day I picked up a camera. On purpose.

Thanks for the feedback its much appreciated. My issue is the fact I had to explain certain things which isn't good. Pictures are like a joke. If its a good joke, it doesn't need explanation.
P.

Its also a good idea to put information like that into your post. Explain what your vision is and what you did in order to, try to, create that vision. Then, the advanced folks on here can give you some help or direction.

 

[KmH]

To bad you didn't post in a forum section that is a gallery forum intended for C&C.

You pretty much rejected the honest, objective C&C you did get from a pro, so there's no need to add any more.

 

[The_Traveler]

I'm not a 'pro' so feel free to discard my opinion; my wife does routinely.

There is so much to pull the eye in each of these, the hair work seems way down in the list.
I would say that you should shoot the hair and let the rest of what's in the picture serve as support - and that's not happening in any of these.

 

[Ptography]

To bad you didn't post in a forum section that is a gallery forum intended for C&C.

You pretty much rejected the honest, objective C&C you did get from a pro, so there's no need to add any more.

I'm not sure I would say I rejected the C&C in fact I think I agreed with her on many points. I am new to this forum thing so I am learning the etiquette. As Jake has kindly added, I need to post a bit more info about the vision of the photos next time; that is important. In fact if you catch my quote at the end of my response to the 'pro', you'll find that I indeed admitted that too much explanation after the fact warrants her comments in the first place.

To add to that, I thought I did post in the right forum but maybe I was mistaken. My apologies.
P.

 

[MTVision]

I have been weighing weather or not I want to use my logo as a watermark due to its size. I am re-evaluating my options at the moment. I want something where people can see my company name but I don't want the watermark blocking key parts of the photo. I find if you put your water mark in small text, people can crop it out when they get the digital copy for review.

IMO the huge watermark is hideous. It takes attention away from the main focus (in this case the person). I get what you mean about people cropping out the watermark but...you could always create a small watermark and put it in places that can't be cropped out! This would only work for photos that you are putting online.

 

[gsgary]

You have a steep up hill climb but i think your friend will go out of business before you have started, most look like they have been dragged through a hedge backwards

 

[Tinstafl]

I have no issues with a style if you want that white faced zombie high saturation look but how can you showcase hair if they are laying down or against a wall. I have shot only one hair stylist for a competition and the hair was the object so we desaturated not increased it and we were a lot tighter on the crop... But the client asks for a certain thing you should talk about what it is that will work and try it that way.

 

[Aerr]

Gotta agree with #11 gsgary... her hair looks really fried/dry, and I don't think most people want funky dye, beads, and leaves in their hair on a routine basis. They're cool concepts for an editorial shoot but not for promoting a hairstyling business.

 

[cgipson1]

Don't mean to be harsh... but you asked..

#1. a shot Vincent Price would love... or possibly the bride of Frankenstein.
#2. looks like she is about to be arrested... not an attractive pose.. especially with that top, and her arms being so pale.
#3. reminds me of an 80's wannabe punker, but not in a good way. I can almost see needle marks in her arms...
#4. not bad.. I like it, even with the makeup....
#5. Looks like a homicide victim... I expect to see a chalk line around her.

My girlfriend walked by and glanced at the monitor and said "Halloween shots?".... lol! She is the one that gave the opinions above. Just an ordinary person looking at the shots... and her reaction to them.

All I will say.. is yes, drop the watermark... there are better solutions...

Edit: you might do well shooting for the Goth / Vampire scene...

 

[kashifkashu]

attractive pictures