My First "Real" Shoot

printergirl

So, I tried my first "real" photo shoot, which I did on location at a local county park where there was a spring. My daughter-in-law and her little sister were my "models." I think I shot over 600 pics in a three hour period. Is that normal? I just wanted to get as many as I could since I wasn't sure how it was going to go.

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They scared the heck out of me here. The green background is actually the ACTUAL spring! There was a tree that juts out over it and they decided they wanted to climb out there for this shot! I had been here the weekend before and there was an alligator in the spring, so I was totally freaked out by them doing this and tried to stop them...but they are daredevils.



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This was shot on the playground at the park.



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Here's a better view of the tree over the springs.



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My exposure was really bad on this shot, so this was my attempt at trying to salvage the shot. Not sure if it worked or not. I really wanted it though, because the look on her face makes me wonder what she was thinking.

Frog Lady

hi Nora,

welcome aboard

Looks like you had a good shoot w/ some fun models - the girls looked like they got into it. Most of the shots look good, but could use a bit of post-processing. The first few in particular look a bit dull/flat.

I really like #6 and I like the expressions/laugh in #9. The last one looks a bit to yellow and rather than wonder what she's thinking, I thought she looked like she was about the cry...

hope to see more,

cheers,

C.

Scott_Quier

- you have the building blocks from which you can put together a good shoot - you have the images. They just need to be finished. The first few (most of the color) images need some work to boost the contrast - to get them to pop. You may find this SmugMug Make Your Image Pop tutorial a good start on learning the technique.

As for #4 - you gotta love models who will risk a bit to get the shot! Thanks for sharing - I enjoyed looking at your photos!

Mitchell

Learn to use levels and contrast adjustment. Those tweaks alone would make a big difference in these photos.

printergirl

Thanks. I will go back to the drawing board and try again. Thanks for the tutorial link, that will be helpful.

printergirl

Okay...I only worked on one to see if I am heading in the right direction here, or going out into left field.

Original:



Revised:

printergirl

I went ahead and did another one anyway.

Before:



After:



Interesting, the second one does look MUCH more like her in real life.

Scott_Quier

Here's a quick edit using a series of 3 adjustment layers.

• Boost saturation a touch
• Curves to enhance the contrast a touch
• Levels - spread the histogram a touch to get good solid blacks and whites and boost the mid-tones a touch.