New engagement photos, what can I do to make them better?

scotthofferphotography

It was 32 degrees when we took these, they were really cold, what can I do to make the pics look better? They just dont have enough pop to me, I am shooting with a rebel t2i with a 28-135 kit lens and a 580exii flash with a westcott cloth diffuser.

scotthofferphotography

Wow. Not a single comment? This sure is a friendly bunch lol...

klickingkat

Pics
All I see are red X's.

scotthofferphotography

Thats weird? I can see them.

Bryce Wilson

I can see the images just fine.

I really like the concept and colors of the first pose. What my feeling is that could/would make this shot better is the use of opposing angles. Imagine his body coming in from top camera right and her legs coming in from bottom camera left. Their bodies would make a diago....oh the heck with it....Here I'll post a crop of your image number one to explain my thought.

If you would like me to remove it from your thread I certainly will. Just thought this would be an easier way to get my thought across. See how the angle of the bodies vs the angles created by both of their heads oppose each other?

Bryce

Foques

took me 5 hops through different networks till I could see the images.. looks like host is blocked on many levels..

her head looks... awkward.

zoomer

Encourage couples to act naturally...capture that, from flattering angles against flattering backgrounds in good light.
Less posing.
All have a green tint, shaded park lighting will give you that.
They look awkward and uncomfortable in all of them but 3, in 3 the angle from the camera to their faces does not work.

scotthofferphotography

Thanks for the compliments, I will try to do better.

Leonie

I like the ring photo, it's nice and sharp. The others I'm thinking that the focus on the eyes is not very sharp, that aside I think the last photo is the one I like best because they look relaxed and happy with nice eye contact to the camera.

scotthofferphotography

do you think its me or the camera? im using a canon t2i with a 28-135 kit lens.??

zoomer

What was your f stop iso and shutter speed. Looks like a combination of these three at less than ideal settings.

scotthofferphotography

F3.5 Exposure Time 1/50 Iso 250 Focal Length 28mm Metering Mode Pattern No Flash

zoomer

That lens is not sharp wide open, so 28mm at 3.5 is part of why they are not sharp. Shutter speed of 50 is another part.
Next time try F 4.5 and iso 500.

Leonie

I would say the shutter speed you used might cause some camera shake and also blur from your subject moving, I would try to set a faster shutter speed and increase the ISO to allow this. Noise can always be filtered out during post processing, blur can't really be fixed much. I'm not sure about your lens as I don't have any experience of that one. Bear in mind I don't do a lot of portrait photography, but when photographing a couple I would also want a smaller aperture than f3.5 so that both people are in reasonable focus, particularly if you use a longer focal length. I would always choose the focal point to be on the woman's eyes rather than the man unless you want her blurred on purpose for artistic effect.

scotthofferphotography

THanks for the tips, what shutter speed would you use?

Foques

holy crap! 1/50?
I can't use anything below 1/100 to get a decently sharp shot..

scotthofferphotography

Foques wrote: »

holy crap! 1/50?
I can't use anything below 1/100 to get a decently sharp shot..

Maybe that is my problem as well?

GSWayne

Am I the only one that noticed that the black sweater makes her head look like it is disconnected from her body? A sweater color or texture that allowed the shape of her body and arm to be defined would avoid what looks kind of spooky to me.

Impressive you got such good smiles while they were laying on freezing ground, it must be true love

BrettDeutsch

Try getting your flash off camera. These are all a bit flat. I don't know what the Westcott cloth diffuser is, but in my experience all the diffusers you put directly on a flash do just about nothing outdoors. They mostly just spread your light around into the atmosphere where it does no good unless you have something to bounce that light back at your subject. The only way to make a light softer is to make it bigger (or bring it closer to the subject, which makes it larger relative to the subject). The softboxes work to do that as does a small umbrella.

scotthofferphotography

THanks.. the diffuser is like this one..

threecubed

Foques wrote: »

holy crap! 1/50?
I can't use anything below 1/100 to get a decently sharp shot..

I agree. 1/50 is really slow unless you're using a tripod. And, if shooting young kids, 1/250 is about the slowest I've found I can go, or they will move and leave blurs in the picture. Nothing ruins a cute kid picture like a big blurry hand.

babowc

For what it's worth,
#4 is my favorite out of the set.. what kind of PP did you do?
#1 and #5 has a weird look to it.. I understand where the pose is coming from but the girl's pose makes it look very unnatural, like her neck is on her shoulder bone!
#2, the angled approach doesn't work.
#3 would be much better with the background OOF and hands less exposed!