Friend's Surprise Birthday Party

DavidS

Here are a few of the shots I took at a friend's surprise birthday party (50th). I still have a hard time critiquing my work. I enjoy shooting these type of events. How can these be better or how can I do a better job at the next party? How is the white balance, exposure, skin tones, composition, capturing the moment, etc.? I was shooting manual at about 1/15 second f4.5 - f 7, ISO 800 to capture some ambient light. I under exposed the ambient light by about 2 stops so the flash would stop the action.


Surprise! She opens the door. I had to fight my way through a crowd and shoot quickly. The shot is a bit fuzzy.




She sees her mother




Watching a slideshow of her life with her son and daughter




Goofy birthday hat




Her husband viewing the slideshow




A couple of friends




A moment with her sister

gus

Fantastic !!! really they are great photos Almost 3D.

Barefoot and Natural

I really like the last one.....a very touching moment!!

These are all great...I think you are too hard on yourself, but aren't we all!!

Heather

wxwax

I think you did a super job of achieving Baldy's shadow free interior flash lighting (with a couple of small exceptions.)

And I think you captured genuine emotion, always hard to do. The only pic that doesn't do anything for me is the second-to-last. And the one with the strong shadow is the one with the absolute strongest emotion (the last.)

DavidS

Thanks Gus, Heather and Sid. I really appreciate your comments and kind words. It means a lot to me to get that kind of feedback from people who do work of your caliber.

Skippy

DavidS wrote:

Here are a few of the shots I took at a friend's surprise birthday party (50th). I still have a hard time critiquing my work. I enjoy shooting these type of events. How can these be better or how can I do a better job at the next party? How is the white balance, exposure, skin tones, composition, capturing the moment, etc.? I was shooting manual at about 1/15 second f4.5 - f 7, ISO 800 to capture some ambient light. I under exposed the ambient light by about 2 stops so the flash would stop the action.
Surprise! She opens the door. I had to fight my way through a crowd and shoot quickly. The shot is a bit fuzzy.
She sees her mother
Watching a slideshow of her life with her son and daughter
Goofy birthday hat
Her husband viewing the slideshow
A couple of friends
A moment with her sister

Nice work David and what a nice surprise for your friend too
Your images are very clean, and sharp.
Hope you all had a good time ....... Skippy
.

DavidS

Thank you Skippy. I appreciate your comments.

I think she was truly surprised or she did an awesome job faking it.