Today's e-shoot

divamum

C&C Always welcome!

Another dip into the nuptial world - a former student asked if I'd do her e-shots, so we got together on a pale wintery day to go play at a local park. They were SO much fun!!!

1. Got "the boring shot" out of the way first



2. They were ridiculously adorable and the willow tree was ridiculously convenient. And we even had some sunlight! COuldn't believe it, as cloud/drizzle had originally been predicted.



3. They demanded to climb the tree



4



5.


6.




7.


8.

9/

10.

Matthew Saville

Thanks for posting! Good solid stuff, my only input / CC would be to keep working the compositions and perfecting the angles. Small framing issues here and there, (I'm sure you could point them out yourself if you wanted to call it an exercise in self-critique, instead of me being lazy and rushing to work right now) ...as well as a couple minor details to pay attention to such as stray hair and stray sunlight... :-)

=Matt=

Foques

1 and 4 stick out at me.
#1 they seem stiff
#4 just looks odd. Had it been a child and mother, that'd be a great shot.

other ones are great

divamum

Thanks, Matt!! We had a good time, which I hope comes across - that's what e-shoots are supposed to be about, right?

Stray hair doesn't bother me - in the moving ones, it's just part of the scene and I actually like it, and in any others I simply haven't edited them fully yet lol I may tweak the comp on a few crops, too - still deciding what I want to do; these were just first picks as I started culling.

By "stray sunlight" you mean the first one? Because I'm a complete and utter TOOL, I forgot that the 7d (which I was using with that lens at that point) was set to jpg from something I did earlier in the week. Because I have incredible problems seeing in bright light - both through the viewfinder, ie the exposure ticker, and chimping onscreen - I tend to go for a "close enough" exposure in raw in that kind of lighting, and adjust as needed in post. Except they weren't raw, so I couldn't recover the highlights the way I would normally do.

Fortunately, I did notice my error after the first 20 minutes or so and reset to raw, and even among the jpgs plenty of them will work. Had to laugh - as soon as I noticed my mistake I thought, "THANK GOODNESS the GFDG (good folk at dgrin) have taught me how to shoot well enough that even if I lose a few, I am close enough that these will be ok regardless" There are some nice ones where I blew the highlights alas (that would have been FINE in raw - grrr), but enough will make the grade that it's not catastrophic, simply annoying and an "oops". Ah well.................

michaelglenn

It's nice to see you throw an e-shoot on here! I'm really diggin it. Here's my critique:

#1 - Great expressions here. Did you clone something out of the frame? I see some repeating patterns to the right of the frame, but maybe it's just my eyes. Other than that, it's a winner.

#2 - Love the bokeh! Great framing, but it feels a little posed. Did you tell them to smile at each other? A little more small talk can get them to communicate more naturally here.

#3 - Cool concept, but they look uncomfortable.

#4 - Love the colors here! I'd love to see this in BW too. Nice natural capture.

#5 - I'm really diggin this, but I'm not a fan of the hand placement.

#6 - Fun shots and great light!

#7 and 8 - Nice fun captures.

#9 - Definitely your best of the set. Love the emotion you captured here. They feel very relaxed and in love with each other.

#10 - Another solid shot, but I'd like them in the frame a bit more. This might also look cool in BW

Overall, a solid set. The hardest part about e-shoots is getting them comfortable. You did a great job with composition and your ideas, but there are a few shots that I can tell are more staged than natural. I nitpicked hard, but take it with a grain of salt. You have a lot of winners in this set and I'm sure the couple will be very happy with them

kdotaylor

#8 is great--too bad the chain is on his face. #10 seems a bit too far off to the right. I LOVE # 2, #5 and #9. Wonderful!

r3t1awr3yd

In #1 his hand placement behind her neck bothers me but I like it.

#2, #5, #9, I dig.

#10 I'd REALLY love if it wasn't composed the way it is but that's a personal preference.

divamum

Thanks guys!!

Michael, any posing was pretty much all theirs! I put them where I wanted for light and directed them a little, but for the most part they just got on with it, give or take occasional tweaks for me to clean it up. (Oh, and on #1 - good catch. It's not a clone mark, but I did slim her down a little with a free-transform selection and missed that repeat. Will fix for the final edit!!)

Here are a few more that I like as I've gone through the set

11. Since y'all seemed to like the blue shutters



12. Another similar to 10. I actually wanted tons of negative space and put them far right on purpose, but from your responses I'm guessing it doesn't work as well as I thought it did lol Here's more conventional comp.



13. Not my favorite shot, but they actually requested it...



14. My attempts at lifestylin' it up. Gotta love the Sigma 35 Art - that lens is the most reliable in my bag next to the 70-200 II. LOVE it.




15.

16. Like I said, I made suggestions and then just stood back, watched, and clicked....

Stumblebum

Nice set! #2 is wonderful!!

divamum

Thanks, Stumble! We did have a good time for sure - very fun couple!

Brett1000

good pics !

Qarik

really good variety and overall these shots are SOLID!

#1 is tosser though..look waaay too stiff and the I processing is not so good..I see odd vignetting in the upper left hand corner and the dudes face looks very unhealthy. Also on shot #3 part of the tree trunk is much brighter than the rest of the tree..not sure if it is processing artifact or what. Tone it down!

Good to see you shooting this kind of stuff!

Reflections By Brian

I always like your work Diva. These are no exception. I like how 1,5 and 10 are bright and have a smooth, almost velvety look to them, if that makes sense. Love them all though.

divamum

Aw, thanks guys! Haven't been around here much due to real life kicking my a**, so only just now seeing these replies. Thanks for the kind words!!!!

pablo102

Happy couple!