First Portrait Session C & C Please!!

jenriquez

Well im new to Smugmug and earlier this week I did my first portrait session using my girlfriend as my model. I shoot it with a Rebel Xti and a Promaster 15-50 F2.8 Lense for the flash i used a 580 EX II with a lightsphere II. Any critique is welcome i am here to learn and better my mistakes thanks!! :thumb

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leaforte

Welcome! You came to the right place to learn! The pros here are phenomenal and step right up to help. I really like shot five in this series. The colors, accessories, and of course, your stunning subject, all work well together.

Cantfeelmyfingers

I think overall they're pretty good.. The one thing I noticed in number one and seven is her hand position.. Her hand looks ginormous and spidery if you know what I mean.
I really like the idea of number three, but I think it'd be a little more pleasing having her off center.. perhaps moved to the left of the frame.. Also with that photo there's quite a bit of shadow behind her.
Once again overall they're not too shabby!

Seneca

First welcome you've got a good eye to produce good images...there's a couple of comments I have on each image. First hand placement...in every single picture, she's missing her limbs (hands)...that's ok...just try to not do it in every image.

1st image is good...but a little soft around the eyes...see if you can sharpen a little bit more.

2nd image...looks like her shirt is spotted...perhaps that's just the sun, she should have been looking directly at you. JMHO.

3rd. Alley picture is a great place to take a photo - however that pose is not flattering. Reverse the weight of her legs. In other words, her weight should be on her right leg, with her left leg coming out, which pushes her pelvis in slightly. This gives the flat stomach effect.

4th...that stray hair needs to be healed out and her face sharpened slightly

5th. another great location...however, needs to be sharpened a bit, and maybe even darkened a tad.

6th...her left arm is position too far out of the picture.

7th...crop it tighter

8th...another great location...love the bench.

I think overall, just minor adjustments Beautiful model...keep on taking great pictures, and welcome.

swintonphoto

I think they are very good. I think there are an interesting variety of photos. My recommendation would be to check your focusing. They are all sharp, but in the wrong place. How is your focusing set on your camera? Is it possible it is focusing on one of the focus points at the bottom of the images? I am not sure how you are holding the camera, but, looks like the focus is using the bottom of the frame (or likely the left side for a horizontal).

~Jan~

I agree with the above--focus seems off the eyes in almost all of them; lots of limb-cropping, funny hand position in the first. Try to pay attention to these small details and you'll be well on your way!

jenriquez

Thanks for C & C everyone i need to work on a couple things now knowing better from other photogs. Well for the focus i was using manual focus center focus and the upper dot above the center focus for most of these pictures. I also shot these in raw and it was my first time shooting portraits in raw , but all of these pictures where with my holding the camera in portrait mode. im going to try to edit some of these a little more once i get some time and show the results. Thans for the comments all, and i guess i have to practice some more

~Jan~

Gosh, don't use manual focus EVER. Just use auto focus & your focal points. Also try to use at least AV mode if you aren't comfortable on M yet.

Seneca

~Jan~ wrote:

Gosh, don't use manual focus EVER. Just use auto focus & your focal points. Also try to use at least AV mode if you aren't comfortable on M yet.

Really? That's the best way to know your camera. I disagree...70% of the time I shot manual - the other is AV.

~Jan~

Seneca wrote:

Really? That's the best way to know your camera. I disagree...70% of the time I shot manual - the other is AV.

No, you mean manual EXPOSURE. He said manual focus. I always shoot manual exposure, never manual focus.

Seneca

O.I.C. Ok you're right. Thanks for the interpretation.

j-bo

I see some comments but not much critique?

An overview.

Most are slightly overexposed. There are blown highlights on all of them, IMO. Most are also too soft.

Your model is very pretty and no.3 we are led by the pipe "line" to a dumpster. I want my focus to be on the model as this arguably her best pose.

Your models facial expression has what I call a "disinterested" look to them. It would be nicer to have some sort of smile in some of them, or a happier look/feel as per no. 3.

I'd try less cluttered BG's too.

Hope this helps in some way or another.

rosselliot

j-bo wrote:

I'd try less cluttered BG's too.

That's all I could see when I was looking through these image - background upon background upon background of just stuff...or poles or in focus woods...you could solve this two ways - lower aperture to put it OOF so that it's not SO obvious what's behind her...or you could put her in front of something that's not so...distracting. A cool colored wall, maybe? ;-)

I agree with most of what other people have said. the backgrounds are always blown out - that's very distracting in my opinion. What was your metering like? Could your ISO have been too high for that time of day? It also looks like you may have been shooting in some pretty harsh light...maybe think of doing it later in the evening next time?

Also - find some shade...and control the coloring/brightness in the photoshop. get the exposure PERFECT for the shade, then fix it to look differently in PS or LR. That's all I'm going to say...haha. I can't give too many secrets...hahaha. ;-)

Well, good luck!

- Ross

Seneca

Ok here's a little something that I did in photoshop.

[IMG][/img]

jenriquez

Thanks for the Critique, for the most parts the iso i shot these pictures was 100. What i meant to say about the focus was that the autofocus was turned on in the lense but i was using Manual AF point selection on the camera, but i still need to mess more with photoshop, so i can learn some new things. and yeah i took some of these in direct sunlight so i learned my lesson, about the next shoot and im going to do it later in the day before the sunset. I really appreciate the comments everyone

jenriquez

Seneca wrote:

Ok here's a little something that I did in photoshop.



Thanks man it looks great does anyone know of any tutiorials where i could practice some of these techniques?

Seneca

Sign up with NAPP...it cost $99.00 a year...but it's worth the money. They will show you podcast type of lessons. I think you also get a free subscription to PHOTOSHOP magazine which alone cost $10.00 an issue. This is one of the things I learned from the magazine.

Here is the link:

www.photoshopuser.com

You'll of course need to have CS3 loaded.

Good Luck!

P.S. I'm a gal!

tomthephotographer

One comment to add.
The last photograph Would be improved by croping the photo and appling the rule of thirds. If her back was closer to the edge and she had more nose room, that is to say more frame in front of her the Photo imho would be better.
Keep Shooting...
BTW I am not a hard core Rule of thirds photographer, but in this photo I think it would rock.

NikonsandVstroms

~Jan~ wrote:

Gosh, don't use manual focus EVER. Just use auto focus & your focal points. Also try to use at least AV mode if you aren't comfortable on M yet.

So thats what Ive been doing wrong all these years

I almost never use AF, hell alot of times I wish I had the bellows

But for these pictures just watch your exposure, the backgrounds are being blown out so you don't have any visual information to bring them to a proper level.