Inspired by Yuri...

Nee7x7

This girl was working at a ball toss booth at a small travelling carnival. I used a fill in (onboard) flash. Not anywhere as good as Yuri, but at least I tried~ :rolleyes

Nee7x7

Hmmmm...is the photo that bad? Or am I just that unpopular? :uhoh

Dee

He He

Nee7x7 wrote:

Hmmmm...is the photo that bad? Or am I just that unpopular? :uhoh

Probably don't like the distracting background and the hairs in front of her mouth -- and she just doesn't find you sexy... so therefore no seductive look in her eyes!

The head tilt is a little odd too... so no one wanted to hurt your feelings -- but since I know you, he he...

Hey I have an orphan thread too! .

But my fire truck thread is very popular and everyone's been extremely supportive in posting photos for CJ... so I'm not complaining.

I guess you gotta roll with the punches! You take some really great photos, but you've been a little lax about posting them (hint, hint).

DavidTO

Nee7x7 wrote:

Hmmmm...is the photo that bad? Or am I just that unpopular? :uhoh

Why so impatient? Sometimes it takes more than a couple of hours for people to start commenting, and don't forget that the view count includes guests, who can't post...

Nee7x7

Hey Dee, I knew I could count on you to come through for me. I thought the hair on her teeth was kinda cute, lol! Of course I felt pretty weird asking a girl I didn't know if she would pose for me. Probably I'll never do it again, lol! Thank goodness she didn't think I was sexy...that would have been waaaaayyyy too weird!

Thanks for the critique. I'm trying to be more actively involved here on dgrin (mostly posting comments more than posting photos)...just kinda hard between having our grandson bringing home every flu bug from school and me catching them and all the other crazy stuff going on in our lives, lol! I hardly have time to get out and take pics anymore, let alone spend much time online...sigh. Oh Well, I guess I'll go slink back into my cave now. Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah!

Dee

Impatience

DavidTO wrote:

Why so impatient? Sometimes it takes more than a couple of hours for people to start commenting, and don't forget that the view count includes guests, who can't post...

Hey David... I didn't realize that the view count would include guests who can't comment. Good to know. I usually get maybe one comment every 50-70 views if I'm lucky.

But I suspect we ladies feel somewhat out of it when we see Andy's son's car thread rack up the views and comments. This forum, IMHO, leans towards "men stuff." And, it's definitely for "the birds.":):

But I'm just as guilty reading a lot of posts but not leaving a comment...

Nee7x7

Hey David, that was (well, sort of) meant to be a joke. I know I'm not as active here as other folks. Wish I could be. Don't know how you guys keep up with all the threads! It's actually been almost four hours since I first posted this pic, and so far Dee is the only one to comment on it. So I got to wondering if it was truly awful or what? I didn't think it was that awful, so my only other thought was that it must be that I'm not one of the "regular" folks here, so that's why I wrote what I did. I see folks with shots that aren't that good at all getting lots of comments, mainly because they're very active here, so I really think that probably has something to do with it. I do try to comment on other folks photos when I can, but not often enough to have folks here *know* me, I guess.

But no hard feelings...really. I know I wouldn't win any popularity contests here or anywhere. I'm mostly a lurker that pops my head in now and then. But I would like to know what you (and others) thought of my photo...since I don't post photos that often I didn't feel like I was being overly demanding, lol! Oh well...that's life! ~Nee

DavidTO

Boy, are you hard on yourself!

The girl is lovely, and I like the shot very much, except for:

1) the distracting BG
2) the hair in the face (easily fixed, BTW)
3) the collar sticking up.

You could probably fix the BG pretty easily, too. The collar is the one that I wouldn't know what to do with.

Mostly: kudos for having the guts to shoot a stranger!!!

Nee7x7 wrote:

Hey David, that was (well, sort of) meant to be a joke. I know I'm not as active here as other folks. Wish I could be. Don't know how you guys keep up with all the threads! It's actually been almost four hours since I first posted this pic, and so far Dee is the only one to comment on it. So I got to wondering if it was truly awful or what? I didn't think it was that awful, so my only other thought was that it must be that I'm not one of the "regular" folks here, so that's why I wrote what I did. I see folks with shots that aren't that good at all getting lots of comments, mainly because they're very active here, so I really think that probably has something to do with it. I do try to comment on other folks photos when I can, but not often enough to have folks here *know* me, I guess.

But no hard feelings...really. I know I wouldn't win any popularity contests here or anywhere. I'm mostly a lurker that pops my head in now and then. But I would like to know what you (and others) thought of my photo...since I don't post photos that often I didn't feel like I was being overly demanding, lol! Oh well...that's life! ~Nee

Nee7x7

Guess I'm in one of *those* moods today, eh? (us woment have those kinda moods, ya know, lol?) Thanks for commenting on the photo, David!

Yup, I felt pretty nervous to even ask the girl if I could take her photo and in my nervousness I missed seeing the things that needed to be dealt with, such as the distracting background and hairs across her face. I don't usually take that many "people" pics, esp. not ones of strangers, so it was a real leap of faith for me. I know there's plenty wrong with it, but I thought she had a sweet expression and her eyes are what drew me in, despite the other issues with the shot.

Anyhow, the truth is that I AM very hard on myself and always feel a little (ok, a LOT, lol!) insecure about posting pics here, but it's good to hear where improvements can be made, so I press on~

Thanks again for your comments~

gluwater

I agree with everything already said. To make the background less important (the eye naturaly follows from dark to light) you could desaturate it and darken it. I do like that you used fill flash and you used it well. She is a pretty girl that you captured well in an ugly environment. You should be happy you had the courage to ask her to take her picture. I'm sure 75% of the people on here never would have, including me.

DavidTO

She definitely would think of me as a creep, if I asked her.

Watch your skin tones. You've got too much magenta in relation to yellow. It should never be more under "normal" conditions.

DavidTO

Skin tone tute is here.

Nee7x7

I was wondering when someone would get to mentioning the skin tone, lol! Actually, she was standing under a magenta colored plastic tent top. I tried to correct the skin tones but struggled because to correct it, the lower part of her face turned kinda greenish!

gluwater

Nee7x7 wrote:

I was wondering when someone would get to mentioning the skin tone, lol! Actually, she was standing under a magenta colored plastic tent top. I tried to correct the skin tones but struggled because to correct it, the lower part of her face turned kinda greenish!

You could always make a gradient selection so you could take more magenta out from the top but leave the bottom more intact.

System

pretty girl-

looks like davidto has it covered c&c-wise-

nick's right-good job on asking for the pic-

keep posting-

george

marlof

I mostly like the pic as is. I like the background, which to my eye as the ideal mix of giving a surrounding, without being too specific. I have no issue with the skin tone, since I think it shows she's in a colored shade. That's also the reason I wouldn't darken the background, since you'd lose the shady feeling of the main subject. The bright background and the shadier colors on the girl add to the shade feeling. You might clone out the hair, but I don't mind it being there. After all, this is not a formal portrait, and it shows. Which is fine by me.

graflexTom

Focus is Good , face is well captured BG is not so good.
Keep at it.

binghott

graflexTom wrote:

Focus is Good , face is well captured BG is not so good.
Keep at it.

keep at it.

Nee7x7

Thanks, for all your input everyone! (Marloff...I love ya!!! )
Looks like I have a lot to learn about using a fill-in flash in light shade on a bright sunny day. Practice, practice, practice...that advice I will definitely use, lol! Thanks for all your comments. I have taken them to heart and appreciate them all. Don't know if I'll ever get the nerve to ask another pretty girl to pose for me (felt pretty strange to do it, but I explained I belong to an online photography "club" and wanted to try something new, so she was very nice to oblige). Nerves got the better of me, but if there is a next time, I'll definitely work on the issues you all have raised.

Thanks Again!
~Nee

Photosbychuck

Hi, Nee7x7
The girl is pretty and you got some good practice. Did you take more photos of her?
Nice photo! The hair bugs me the most and I think a tight crop on the left would help.
, Yuri blows most out of the water!
Don't give up!!!

Keep up the GOOD work,
Chuck,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/northcarolinamodels

System

Nee7x7 wrote:

Hmmmm...is the photo that bad? Or am I just that unpopular? :uhoh

Hmmmmm...19 replies and over 300 looks-

I should be so unpopular-

george

Nee7x7

! I was feeling kinda blue about not being able to get out shooting much in recent months, so I guess my *complaint* was a bit premature after all. I don't get online (or out shooting) as often as I'd like ever since we became the legal guardians of our 5 year old grandson last June. I do sometimes pine a bit for the freedom I had before taking on the responsibility of parenting again, but I wouldn't trade the joy of having our grandson in our lives for a million great photos or accolades. Some things are worth the sacrifice~

ps. Here's a series of pics of my grandson from last year that I entered in the emotions challenge (didn't make the finals, but it's still one of my faves!)~

System

God bless you!-

I love my grandson (and another on the way) but I never want to have to raise him--I would do it, though, if it was necessary-

thank goodness he does have you in his life--I wish you the best-

george

ps good lookin' kid, btw-

Nee7x7

Thanks, George...I appreciate your sentiment (and believe me, we really are needful of the Lord to get us through all this!). We go to court again this coming June where the judge will decide if Evan will be returned to live with one of his parents or remain in our care.

It will be hard on our family whichever way it goes...we'll miss him terribly if he goes back to his mom or dad (they're not together any more) and if he gets put with us permanently, that will be a huge responsiblity for us to take on for the next 13+ years...plus we'll always have to deal with his parents in his (and our!) life and not having the same freedom to take off on trips with him because of court appointed weekly visits with his parents we'll have to be at home for (which has been the story of our lives already these past several months).

But it's all worth it knowing we can provide the stable and loving environment he needs to help him grow up physically and emotionally healthy (he's already had plenty of hard knocks in his young life!).

But despite all the "baggage" that comes with caring for our grandson, we feel very blessed each and every day that he is with us~

Thanks again,
~Nee

Owen

One thing about Yuri's pictures is that they never smile.

pathfinder

Nee - Not to worry. We all make posts that no one seems to find time to reply to - it comes with the territory I think.

And then sometimes, several days later, some one who missed it initially, responds and ressurects the thread. So be easy on yourself. :

I think your shot is beautiful, and I disagree with some of the previous posters.

The young girl is lovely, and her teeth are perfect.

The strand of hair, to me, repesents the spontanaity of the shot. I would not try to remove it myself.

I would crop the right border to eliminate the brighter area at the upper right to keep the viewer's eye from wandering to the empty corner. That means cropping some of her hair on the right, but that is OK I think.

And I would desaturate the bright colors of the background to her left - I like the colors and they are part of her environment, but they need to be secondary to her. I would also dial back the brightness to her left at the same time.

Very nice 'found' portrait You did good, Nee!! Be proud!!

SecondHand

Well, I like this shot very much. The hair in the face doesn't bother me at all, it actually tells a lot about the photo. That it was not staged and was a spontaneous shot for instance. The background doesn't bother me either, I feel it goes well with the photo. The collar of her jacket doesn't really destract me, in fact it makes me feel that this woman is comfortable in front of the camrea if that makes any sense. The only nit I do have is the red on her forehead, just below the hair line. If you were to adjust the red tint a bit this would be a most excellent photo IMO. Thanks for sharing!

LittleLew

I like the smile and the pose (?) but this kind of up-close face shot really calls for a crystal-clear, sharp as a tack picture and the face looks really soft to me.

Sorry