First Attempt At Senior With 40D (5 img)

Mrs F

I got my new 40D on Saturday (read the manual quickly) and shot my first senior pictures on Sunday and bought CS3 on Monday. Whew. I'm not done editing, but I want some c&c from my first edited shots. What do you think? C'mon, be picky, I can take it!

Kari

1.




2.




3.


4.


5. She's a hockey player.

SloYerRoll

NIce shots!
Her skin tone is a bit yellow though. Nothing a little work on setting the WB won't easily won't fix.

Congrats on your gig!

-Jon

Mrs F

SloYerRoll wrote:

NIce shots!
Her skin tone is a bit yellow though. Nothing a little work on setting the WB won't easily won't fix.

Congrats on your gig!

-Jon

I'm glad you mentioned her skin because I was wondering if it was on the yellow side. I shot in raw so it should be a relatively easy fix. Thanks!

rgbivens

Great shots! I like 2 and 4 the best though. I'm a fan of closer shots for stuff like senior pics.

Also on a shot like number 5 maybe try and get a lower angle to emphasis on the jump. It's a tad hard to tell what planes the girl and the ground are on with the angle you shot at.

Overall great job!

-Grant

Mrs F

rgbivens wrote:

Also on a shot like number 5 maybe try and get a lower angle to emphasis on the jump. It's a tad hard to tell what planes the girl and the ground are on with the angle you shot at.


-Grant

Thanks, Grant! I appreciate the comments. We took a lot of jumping shots per her request, but I'm not sure I'm sold on them. There were a lot of shots where the end of the hockey stick moved out of the frame during the jump so you can't tell it's a hockey stick. I should have used a wide angle lens. I'm going to be shooting her again in the next few weeks so I think I'll try your idea.

Elaine

What a pretty girl and beautiful pictures! They're all keepers to me, but I love #4...the light is so nice and soft and the picture just looks smooth and creamy. How are you liking the new camera?

1pocket

Some areas of your backgrounds look close to blown out a little. I wonder about trying some on your next shoot with somewhat darker backdrops, so your subject naturally is highlited a bit more.

saurora

Hi Kari, my 40D is being delivered tomorrow How do you like it? I like your shots in general, although they seem a bit washed out, especially noticeable in #4. Her hair should have more depth. I need to upgrade my CS too. I hate changing.......I was just beginning to get it down and now I have to learn new stuff!!!

Mrs F

Thank you for your comments Elaine and 1pocket.
I'll try to get her against some darker backgrounds during our next shoot. The sun was burning bright at the noon hour so it would be fun to get her out for a later afternoon/evening shoot.

saurora wrote:

Hi Kari, my 40D is being delivered tomorrow How do you like it? I like your shots in general, although they seem a bit washed out, especially noticeable in #4. Her hair should have more depth. I need to upgrade my CS too. I hate changing.......I was just beginning to get it down and now I have to learn new stuff!!!

Thank you for commenting Saurora. Going from a Rebel XTi to a 40D is a HUGE jump and I'm loving it. This is the first time I've taken usable images at ISO 800 without using Noise Ninja. That big LCD is sweet. My bigger lenses are actually easier to handle on the larger 40D body. With my old Rebel, I would sometimes miss shots after accidently hitting the timer button while changing focus points so the shutter wouldn't move. It was so frustrating. (That won't happen with this new body). You're going to LOVE your new 40D.

When you say washed out, does that mean I need more contrast? Or does it mean they're overexposed (or both)? I could go back to the RAW files and see if I can retrieve more (or better) data. Or is there a simple fix from the current jpegs? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Kari

saurora

Kari, they seem to need more contrast to me. The black point seems off in some. I'm not sure if you overexposed in camera or in RAW. Do you use a fill flash at all in backlighted shots? It would help keep your backgrounds from overexposing. Sometimes I prefer them 'overexposed' and less visible, so don't take this as a criticism, just thinking out loud! I shoot alot of my beach shots overexposed because the background can sometimes overpower the subject.

Tentacion

Kari, nice shots!!

If I were to choose between all of them, I would have to say #4. and add a splash of contrast and selective color saturation.

I would implement a touch of magenta to her skin tone and bring down the yellow hue just a pinch.

I like number 1, but I don't like the body mergers going on in this photo...Note, the trees behind your subject, they appear to be growing out of her head, rear side and shoulder, this being because the viewer does not see the in and out of the tree...they only see the "out".

A great thing to remember when shooting...High Noon is a very bad time of the day to shoot (reason for b/g blowouts), unless you place your subject properly and have really good accessories, and sometimes an assistant is required to help, early morning or early evenings are best, as it is easier to work with the natural lighting, you could actually have the sun at your back, and your subject would not squint from the light.

With #2 and 3 if you do layer work, you could probably fix the b/g lighting, with selective lassoing and feathering.

Well guess I have rambled on again, I'll take my leave now....Again, Nice Work!!

Donna

Mrs F

saurora wrote:

Kari, they seem to need more contrast to me. The black point seems off in some. I'm not sure if you overexposed in camera or in RAW. Do you use a fill flash at all in backlighted shots? It would help keep your backgrounds from overexposing. Sometimes I prefer them 'overexposed' and less visible, so don't take this as a criticism, just thinking out loud! I shoot alot of my beach shots overexposed because the background can sometimes overpower the subject.

Saurora: Thank you for taking the time to respond. I didn't use fill flash this time and I wish I would have, which is funny because I like suggesting to other DGrinners to use fill flash I always feel like I'm flying by the seat of my pants when I'm metering a shady subject with such a bright background like #3. Note to self: my new camera has a spot meter! This might have helped too. I also had a little problem in some of the shots with lens flare even though I was using a hood. You're right, these need more contrast and I think the black point is off. I'm going to redo some of these and post "before vs. after".

Tentacion: Thank you for commenting. I should also say that when I was adjusting white balance in ACR, I ignored the "in camera" and "auto" functions because her face had such high magenta and cyan levels. I moved the slider to the right to get more yellow, hence the color cast. (I had my Whibal around my neck and I still forgot to use it , go figure). Thank you for the suggestions with the trees. I was hoping to throw the background out of focus so the trees weren't so prominent, but I think I should have used wider apertures.

Kari