6 months along - 9 images

jethibod

So I've been laid up the last while with a shoulder injury, and haven't been able to lift a camera, let alone anything else. Before I was out of commission, though, I had mentioned to some friends that if they wanted some 'belly shots' done, I'd be happy to oblige, and gee...wouldn't it be nice if we could do them outside while it's still nice enough, what with the trees changing color etc. So, finally, for fear I wouldn't catch one of the prettiest times of year up here, I asked them to come out, and I brought my dear hubby with me as my lovely assistant. I'm so happy with how these turned out - I know I haven't mastered the technical stuff yet, but they were a joy to shoot - perfect posers, good with direction, and happy to have the opportunity to capture their pregnancy. Oh, yeah, and the light!! From now on, I'm only shooting near sunset!!

C&C appreciated.

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8.


9. My lovely assistant in the bush with a reflector...poor guy has the patience of a saint!


I see that some are quite soft - next shoot I'm going to rent a 2.8 70-200mm, and see if that's the problem. Otherwise, I'm going to have to sit down and figure out where the soft spot is...

Thanks so much for looking!!

ivar

jethibod wrote:

I see that some are quite soft - next shoot I'm going to rent a 2.8 70-200mm, and see if that's the problem. Otherwise, I'm going to have to sit down and figure out where the soft spot is...

I agree with you that some are a bit soft, but it's not distracting in all of them for me. Not that I know much about Nikon lenses, but what lens were you using? maybe some of the Nikon shooters can join in and let you know if it's known for it's lack of sharpness, or not.

As far as your photos: In general, they all seem a bit darker than I would have liked them. I like #1, #2 seems a bit 'too much going on' for me; It's them, but also a lot of colors, detail, house in the back, etc. #3 I like, #5 I quite like, but I would have framed them a bit more to the right. I prefer #4 and #6 over #7, in which the angle just doesn't do it for me. #8 is one of the better ones out of this set I think

jethibod

Thanks Ivar for the feedback; these are far better than most of the people shots I've gotten in the past, and I found that a lot more of what I've been reading made sense during this shoot. I know I need to work on my exposure; I think I'm afraid of overexposing, so I'm usually a few stops underexposed. I was just reading The Hot Shoe Diaries, and he suggests setting the camera to Aperture priority and letting it choose the shutter speed. I think for the next while, this is what I'll do - it's possible I'm a bit too ambitious about working in Manual mode.

I used a couple of different lenses, and they were all f/4-5.6; I think that's why the softness - I also read somewhere that if you try to open the aperture up all the way, you'll end up with softness. So - renting an f/2.8 to see if it makes a difference - I have a feeling it will. (and I'm crossing my fingers!)

Thanks again - I appreciate your points.

dadwtwins

jethibod wrote:

Thanks Ivar for the feedback; these are far better than most of the people shots I've gotten in the past, and I found that a lot more of what I've been reading made sense during this shoot. I know I need to work on my exposure; I think I'm afraid of overexposing, so I'm usually a few stops underexposed. I was just reading The Hot Shoe Diaries, and he suggests setting the camera to Aperture priority and letting it choose the shutter speed. I think for the next while, this is what I'll do - it's possible I'm a bit too ambitious about working in Manual mode.

I used a couple of different lenses, and they were all f/4-5.6; I think that's why the softness - I also read somewhere that if you try to open the aperture up all the way, you'll end up with softness. So - renting an f/2.8 to see if it makes a difference - I have a feeling it will. (and I'm crossing my fingers!)

Thanks again - I appreciate your points.

I think you have a few problems here. In your portraits, you will need to get the DOF much more shallow and make absolutely sure that at least the subject matter is in focus. Use a tripod and put it in manual focus if you are having issues with autofocus.

If you are going to rent a lens for portraits, I really think you should use a prime lens like the 85 f/1.4 lens. This will help you out tremendously with controlling the DOF.

Trevlan

Your problem is camera shake. Your aperture is stopped down too much and you are not using a high enough shutter speed. Picture #5 demonstrates this perfectly. You DOF is about 5 feet in that shot. And at your shooting distance, of about 10 or so feet, you are giving up too much light to aperture. If I had to guees, it probably was f11 or f8.

Forget about renting lenses right now. You needs to focus on controling your exposure with more weight on the shutter than aperture.

All of your images at 6 pm, shooting with a 50mm or even a 100mm should be razor sharp without VR.