Engagement Shoot

Morris On Location

d and j are getting married in October.. they wanted to get a lot of pics prior to the big day to make albums for their parents..
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Morris On Location

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any thoughts?

Scott_Quier

General comments:

1. You need more practice getting your flash/ambient balanced. You're almost there in a couple of these but more practice will greatly improve your technique.

2. Watch your backgrounds.

3. Consider the focus of your shots and whether the setting is stealing attention.

Now for the C&C on the individual shots. Some may sound harsh - sorry for that. Not my intent.

1. Flash on corner of building distracts from couple. Light fall off is quite extreme - the point that the couple are under-exposed. And, you have dappled light on him. It's just not working. The pose and angle are good. Distortion here is something else again - not working for me.

2. Flash intensity looks good here. Positioning could use a little help - not liking the side shadows. If you are going to use on-camera lighting, you need to also invest in a bracket to avoid these kinds of shadows. I like how they are together and interacting with each other - he's obviously got his hand on her. What's not obvious is the location of that hand - put his hand in her's maybe?

3. They are dominated by the chimmney. Flash intensity is good, but not well balanced with the sky (sky got blown) and you have a very hot spot in the grass behind them. Clone out the path behind them, maybe? To fix, maybe get a little closer, slightly higher, and a more appropriate crop?

4. The sliver of the trees ruins this shot. Take two steps to the left and do it again! The rest looks quite good! Good light, good flash work, nice pose, nice hand position (especially his right hand) though they could have been holding hands here or had his hand on her waist.

5. This is a nice pose and some very good interaction between them. Too bad the flash is on-camera; the light is too close to them and too low (see bright grass in foreground); and the light is quite flat (no depth to their faces). Take a step to the right to get rid of the bright spot in the background. Looks like a small section of her bra is exposed as well (her right breast).

6. This is all cool except for his hand position and the shutter speed - much too long as your sky is blown out. A better balance of flash and ambient would have allowed for a blue(er) sky and more interesting background.

7. This is goooood! Clone out the white of her shirt and you have a winner!

8. This is good. The flash is maybe 1 stop too bright and the FOV would have been better had it been wider, but this is quite good.

Morris On Location

Thanks!
Thank you for your comments. I unfortunately have the type of friends and family where everything looks "good" to them; hence I enjoy getting others input. I am considering purchasing a wireless trigger and putting my flash on a stand. Do you think this would be beneficial or possible to cumbersome to carry around? I'm going to check into the bracket as well now. Thanks Again.

jeffreaux2

Morris On Location wrote:

Thank you for your comments. I unfortunately have the type of friends and family where everything looks "good" to them; hence I enjoy getting others input. I am considering purchasing a wireless trigger and putting my flash on a stand. Do you think this would be beneficial or possible to cumbersome to carry around? I'm going to check into the bracket as well now. Thanks Again.

Your flash is WAY too strong in what you have shown here. My advice would be to get a handle on controlling the flash on camera before attempting to move it off camera.

dangin

Morris On Location wrote:

Thank you for your comments. I unfortunately have the type of friends and family where everything looks "good" to them; hence I enjoy getting others input. I am considering purchasing a wireless trigger and putting my flash on a stand. Do you think this would be beneficial or possible to cumbersome to carry around? I'm going to check into the bracket as well now. Thanks Again.

i'm a big fan of having controlled, directional light. a strobe on a remote trigger is highly recommended. don't be afraid to pop the flash full bore; but do be mindful of recycle times and overheating. this is easier to do when the flash isn't on camera and you can't see if it's fully charged before you try to pop it again. learn to be critical of your own work; always ask, how could i make this shot better? then do it. then do it again. ...and again.