Finally a warm day, with Michelle.

babowc

It was finally a nice and warm day in Atlanta!
My girlfriend and I didn't miss this chance, and went on a nice picnic at the park.
The clouds were great in letting us get some shade, and the skies opened up several times for few captures!

Any C&C is welcome!
I used LR4 for basic exposure corrections, slightly warmer color, and cropping, followed by CS6 for cloning/spot corrections.
I don't know how to use CS6 too well, so I only rely on it for content-aware :dunno

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Everything was taken with 85 1.4D on a D800 with no extra light sources.
I had to test out the 85, after micro adjust... and I'll say that it was worthwhile!
BTW, I don't know if it's user-error, but the 85 wasn't stellar at nailing focus, every time. Usually further the distance, the worse it got (especially wide open). So, I opted to stop down a little more and shot a few at f2, f2.8, f4, and so on... But boy does it improve sharpness! (maybe accuracy, too?)

Maybe I'll lug my 70-200 one of these days, and compare... but that's going to be awhile!

Dooginfif20

I like them but my only nit would be that they look a tad soft. How is the D800 going for you though??

babowc

Dooginfif20 wrote: »

I like them but my only nit would be that they look a tad soft. How is the D800 going for you though??

Could you let me know which ones?
There were some LoCA that may've attributed to the apparent softness.

The D800 outputs some gigantic files, but it's manageable.. I use JPEG+RAW for quicker culling, instead of accessing each 40-50mb files.

Are you using the D800 too?

Dooginfif20

It may be the compression of a large file onto here, but all of them her face looks soft.

I am not using the D800. I am on the fence with looking to upgrade to a D600 or 800

jonh68

My nitpick is it looks like you took the pictures while standing. The settings and the exposure look good but your angle is too high.

Hackbone

How come all the ugly guys get the gorgeous girls?????????? Just teasing!!!!!

Look at how chunky her behind is on 1 then look at two........what is the difference.......In #1 her weight is on the front foot which makes the chunkiness ( is that a word) and on #2 her weight is where it should be on the back foot.

Look at the overall effect in the first 5 shots as opposed to the last one. That bright walkway really pulls you eye away and makes the overall exposure look funny.
Over all some good exposures however the bkg is too bright for my liking and takes away from the subject.

Watch out for giving her only one arm in most, just looks odd to me but all of these comments are personal tastes so take what you want.

#6 cropped just below her front elbow to me could be a really awesome keeper.

Its really hard to see all of what needs to be seen while creating a portrait but you have to try and take your time and evaluate that viewfinder. Good stuff just keep on doing it.

babowc

Hmm.. I picked the sharper of the set..

That makes sense, about the perspective.. She is a bit shorter than me, I didn't think about that.

So, does a chunkier butt look better? Or less chunky? You know... There are the elect few that love a nice, chunky butt! Haha
I didn't think about the background brightness when I was editing.. The exposure bumps must've taken it a step too far...

I'll try another go at background editing and the crop!

Thank you guys for all the C&C, I'm just absorbing everything like a sponge!

jonh68

Hackbone wrote: »

How come all the ugly guys get the gorgeous girls?????????? Just teasing!!!!!

Look at how chunky her behind is on 1 then look at two........what is the difference.......In #1 her weight is on the front foot which makes the chunkiness ( is that a word) and on #2 her weight is where it should be on the back foot.

Look at the overall effect in the first 5 shots as opposed to the last one. That bright walkway really pulls you eye away and makes the overall exposure look funny.
Over all some good exposures however the bkg is too bright for my liking and takes away from the subject.

Watch out for giving her only one arm in most, just looks odd to me but all of these comments are personal tastes so take what you want.

#6 cropped just below her front elbow to me could be a really awesome keeper.

Its really hard to see all of what needs to be seen while creating a portrait but you have to try and take your time and evaluate that viewfinder. Good stuff just keep on doing it.

Got to disagree on 1 and 2. Theres more definition and curves. I would bet most women would like the look of 1 over 2 unless they have a really big behind. The ones I have worked with like the exaggerated look.