need some fresh eyes

VayCayMom · March 26, 2009

I have been making great progress, since I began from scratch 12 months ago, I feel in my venture into digital photoart, getting small paid jobs at least once a month, my clients are happy. Here is my latest family shoot, mom selected these shots for PP. I just have been looking at my work for so long I need a fresh perspective. some of these I like better than others. I am a niche photographer, low key, grandma type. I have sooo much to learn yet, hope I live long enough!! next month I will have my own grandson to photograph, woo hooo.
please give me a little input, I do not feel these are good enough for the whipping post!

Mike J · March 26, 2009

Hi - you will probably get a better response if you link the photos to your post rather than just posting the link.

You just need to add before your link and

after your link... like this:
[img][/img]http://cottageink.smugmug.com/gallery/7719486_uuaEy/1/#498862786_GvCoD-A-LB

You will also need to make sure that you enable external links in your Smugmug gallery where these photos are located. See http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/1083138 for details.

Mitchell · March 26, 2009

It would help if you linked a few photos directly to this thread.

I just looked through your gallery.

My favorite shots were the girl with the cute tea set. Those were the best in the set. Unfortunately, she was placed in front of some large rocks which detract from these photos.

I don't care for the boy's smile in these. He seems so forced and stiff. Tough thing for the photographer. Looks like that's his "say cheese" smile. You would be better off trying to capture a natural, relaxed pose from that one.

Most of these photos would benefit from a bit of fill. The faces all look a bit dark in these bright surroundings. Did you use a fill flash or a reflector. Properly used, you could have improved many of these photos.

Most of these shots are overly photoshopped for my tastes. They look like some heavy handed DxO plugin filter was applied. IMHO, these gimmicks just detract from the photos. I'm not against these as long as they are subtly applied and actually enhance the photo.

Hope this was not too harsh.

What lens were you shooting and why were so many of these shot so stopped down?

VayCayMom · March 26, 2009

Mitchell wrote:

It would help if you linked a few photos directly to this thread.

I just looked through your gallery.

My favorite shots were the girl with the cute tea set. Those were the best in the set. Unfortunately, she was placed in front of some large rocks which detract from these photos.

I don't care for the boy's smile in these. He seems so forced and stiff. Tough thing for the photographer. Looks like that's his "say cheese" smile. You would be better off trying to capture a natural, relaxed pose from that one.

Most of these photos would benefit from a bit of fill. The faces all look a bit dark in these bright surroundings. Did you use a fill flash or a reflector. Properly used, you could have improved many of these photos.

Most of these shots are overly photoshopped for my tastes. They look like some heavy handed DxO plugin filter was applied. IMHO, these gimmicks just detract from the photos. I'm not against these as long as they are subtly applied and actually enhance the photo.

Hope this was not too harsh.

What lens were you shooting and why were so many of these shot so stopped down?

This feedback is what I was looking for, except for the boy's smile, but that did improve as the shoot went on!

My interest in photography began with photoshop, from there I decided to learn more than point and shoot, about a year ago. I was thinking the samething about the PP, not sure when to stop. I think maybe I don't think my photos are good enough without some "makeup"
I used a 18-200 and a 85 1/4 for most of the photos. I used fill flash on most of them. And I am not sure what you mean by "so stopped down".
It was a really bright Arizona morning about 10 AM.
Open to more pointers.

VayCayMom · March 26, 2009

Mike J wrote:

Hi - you will probably get a better response if you link the photos to your post rather than just posting the link.

You just need to add after your link... like this:
[img][/img]http://cottageink.smugmug.com/gallery/7719486_uuaEy/1/#498862786_GvCoD-A-LB

You will also need to make sure that you enable external links in your Smugmug gallery where these photos are located. See http://dgrin.smugmug.com/gallery/1083138 for details.

I tried that, doesn't seem to be working for me, the external links are enabled, I edited my post adding the [img][/img] but I just see a red x.

Mitchell · March 26, 2009

This shot just looks over processed. Their faces look almost plastic.

When I asked why you shot so stopped down, I meant your f stop. I see you are shooting in manual mode. Why did you take this shot at f22? This shot at f4 would have blurred out all of the distracting background.

Same here. You shot this at f14. I probably would have gone f4. You wouldn't even see the distracting light pole in the back.

This shot at f22, 1/30? If you are shooting in manual mode, why are you selecting these settings?

VayCayMom · March 27, 2009

The top photo is way over processed, that was bad lighting, back lighting.
I think I am relying too much on the ( oh can't think of the name !!) line that tells me if the exposure is over or under, that is maybe not the first thing I should worry about.
You have been very helpful, this has been great, I thank you for the time and effort you spent on this.
So maybe I shouldn't worry so much just on exposure. And I get nervous!!! It's hard to remember everything. for a while I was having a lot of trouble with focus, not sure if it is my bifocals or what, now I use autofocus because I can't seem to trust my vision with the view finder.

I have never tried bracketting, do you think that would be a big help to me?

Of course more classes will help alot too.

Scott_Quier · March 27, 2009

Mitch covered the bases pretty well. I see a few issues:

As a group, these are a bit (or more) over processed
It appears you either have no control over the camera or you don't yet understand why one would choose one set of exposure settings over another. A good starting point might be to set your camera to ISO 100 and your aperture to something between f/2.8 and f/5.6 (remembering that most lenses have their sweet spot somewhere between f/4 and f/8). Then set your shutter speed to get a good exposure - check your histogram for indications. The shutter speed should turn out to be quite fast, something between 1/100 and 1/1000, depending on the light and the other two settings. Using fill flash, you will have to watch the shutter speed. Anything over about 1/200 will require you use a special setting. I don't know what Nikon calls it, probably something like "fast focal plane shutter synchronization". Canon calls it High-Speed Shutter Synchronization (HSS).
Backgrounds - gotta watch the backgrounds. The tea set image, like Mitch suggested, the background captures all the attention - those rocks are a huge mass and are bright.
The smiles - need to work on a way to get your subjects to offer up a natural smile.

VayCayMom · March 27, 2009

thanks Scott!!

VayCayMom · March 28, 2009

Scott_Quier wrote:

Mitch covered the bases pretty well. I see a few issues:
As a group, these are a bit (or more) over processed

It appears you either have no control over the camera or you don't yet understand why one would choose one set of exposure settings over another. A good starting point might be to set your camera to ISO 100 and your aperture to something between f/2.8 and f/5.6 (remembering that most lenses have their sweet spot somewhere between f/4 and f/8). Then set your shutter speed to get a good exposure - check your histogram for indications. The shutter speed should turn out to be quite fast, something between 1/100 and 1/1000, depending on the light and the other two settings. Using fill flash, you will have to watch the shutter speed. Anything over about 1/200 will require you use a special setting. I don't know what Nikon calls it, probably something like "fast focal plane shutter synchronization". Canon calls it High-Speed Shutter Synchronization (HSS).

Backgrounds - gotta watch the backgrounds. The tea set image, like Mitch suggested, the background captures all the attention - those rocks are a huge mass and are bright.

The smiles - need to work on a way to get your subjects to offer up a natural smile.

Ahh. I think you hit on something, fill flash and shutter speeds, I noticed that my shutter speeds were locked into a narrow range, that was dictating my choices. As they say ( sorta) he who teaches himself has a fool for a student !

need some fresh eyes

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