New to the "People" forum(Image Heavy)

RacinRandy

Meaning I have been "lurking" but never before had anything to post.

A friend of mine came over today to be my "model" for some in house testing and learning. Shot over 300 frames in the 3 hours or so that she was here. so after a round of culling(more of that to do) I thought I would try for some feedback and opinions on the days lessons. So I picked a large handful for C&C from all you wonderful Photogs.

1) we started here


2)


3)


4) went to this


5)


6)


7)


8)


9)


10)


11) and Finished up with


12)


13)


14)


All were shot with Canon EOS Rebel XS, 530 EXII, 430 EXII, 30" umbrella a 45" umbrella and radio triggers flashes on manual with a Canon 50mm 1.4 II and 17-55mm Kits Lens

These are SOOC images. only loaded here through PSE no retouching of ANY kind(yet)

Thanks

B Rock

You said this is SOOC so I'll try to keep that in mind with my critiques. I like lots of the poses but think the composition needs some work. You need to really be careful with cutting off limbs as this can cause the most issues being as it is hard to fix in photoshop if not impossible. Other than that once the exposure is fixed in PS (they all look underexposed to me) they will be nice.

Scott_Quier

These are a good start and, as an initial attempt are something to be proud of!

Things to keep in mind when you are shooting:

• Watch your exposure. These are all under-exposed by at least a stop.
• Open you lens and/or move your model a bit away from the background.
• The background needs to be ironed a bit
• You have composition issues in many of them. Taking a loot at #5:
  • She's quite centered in the frame - centering a subject usually has a limiting effect on the dynamics of the image.
  • Distracting items to both camera left and camera right
  • Background - distracting writing. Either make it more a part of the shot or clean it up
  • Cut off arms and the bear's face
  • But the light in #5 looks like it's been well done. You have a nice hair light going.
  • Turn her face a bit more to camera left would make this a bit more model-flattering - straight on into the camera - not so much.
• #7 - This one screams for a bit of fill light to open up her eyes just a bit - I'm not loving the shadows under her eyebrows.
• Watch for cut off limbs, hands, portions of elbows, etc

I think, if you can acquire one, a light meter would be a great addition to your kit - a light meter makes setting lights soooo much easier.

Like I said, these are a good start and they show a lot of promise for the future. Really looking forward to your next set.

RacinRandy

Thanks Scott, B Rock

Scott_Quier wrote:

These are a good start and, as an initial attempt are something to be proud of!

Thank You! I am quite happy with the days learnings!

Scott_Quier wrote:

I think, if you can acquire one, a light meter would be a great addition to your kit - a light meter makes setting lights soooo much easier.

One is very High on the list of "to get" items.

Scott_Quier wrote:

these are a good start and they show a lot of promise for the future. Really looking forward to your next set.

Thanks again Scott

The room we shot in is kinda limiting(found out the hard way).

I agree with a lot of the points you made, The one about the Background writings especially. This is my little sisters old bedroom in the attic of my house. She would get bored and doodle on the walls(sheetrock). I was using a plastic table cloth, I picked up at the dollar store, and it looked good until the flash hit it. Then everything showed through booooo. It is going to get painted in the next few weeks.

One thing I struggle with terribly is DOF. I wanted to utilize the great Bokeh of the 50 to kill the BG a bit but i was afraid of losing Crispness on her. I shot Most of these at 5.6, some were varied down to 4.0 but that fear of "losing her" drove me back up.

This is VERY outside my comfort zone and she knew that as well. But she is a lovely girl and a great friend who posed for 3 hours for free!!

I will do some editing and re-post a few thanks again!

LiquidAir

RacinRandy wrote:

One thing I struggle with terribly is DOF. I wanted to utilize the great Bokeh of the 50 to kill the BG a bit but i was afraid of losing Crispness on her. I shot Most of these at 5.6, some were varied down to 4.0 but that fear of "losing her" drove me back up.

Effectively blurring the background with DoF is actually fairly difficult. You quite a bit of space between your subject and the background to do it effectively. With fabric backgrounds I like at least 2m of clearance between my subject and the background. You can get away with less when using paper.

Also the DoF tables don't tell the full story when you are concerned about how blurry out of focus areas will be. The burring effect is stronger longer the focal length. There is a limit to how blurry you can make the background because the focal length is too short. I prefer a 135/2.0 or a 200/2.8 when I need significant blurring of the background.

RacinRandy

I understand what your saying there, The farther away the background is the better the blur will be.

DoF tables? Never heard of these, are they in a special restaurant for Photogs?

I had this nagging little thing in the back of my mine the whole time we were shooting that my DoF(5.6) was to much. It kept yelling at me to drop it and let the shots get bright but my inexperience kept beating it back. Inexperience is currently getting its but whooped and should conform better next venture out.

Thank for all the great C&C so far!!!!

Scott_Quier

RacinRandy wrote:

I understand what your saying there, The farther away the background is the better the blur will be.

DoF tables? Never heard of these, are they in a special restaurant for Photogs?

I had this nagging little thing in the back of my mine the whole time we were shooting that my DoF(5.6) was to much. It kept yelling at me to drop it and let the shots get bright but my inexperience kept beating it back. Inexperience is currently getting its but whooped and should conform better next venture out.

Thank for all the great C&C so far!!!!

Check out DOF Master

If you have the room to use it, your 50mm at f/2 or 2.5 would have worked nicely to blur the background (provided you had some seperation between you model and the background). The issue then would be that you would have to get the focus spot-on her eye(s) which might have been a challenge - depends on how much ambient light you had to feed the AF of your camera.

System

I don't have anything to add above what has already been said but in #1 there is a hand facing the wrong way. I am assuming it is her left hand circling around under the teddy bear to grasp her right hand. To ME, it looks "odd" or "out of place".

Mountainwoman

In addition to everything else that's been said, the first thing I noticed in pic #1 was the bears foot right in the front.

The 2nd thing I noticed was the distraction in her black blouse - your eye gets drawn down instead of up to her face.

Keep trying - practice makes perfect.

Karen