First Attempt...

dawssvt · April 17, 2008

My dad (joshhuntnm) and I had our first attempt at taking Senior pictures today. Some of them turned out alright, but I'm still learning.

C&C is welcome.

1

2

3

4

5 - More of a casual feel

6 - It feels like this shot should work, but it's not quite there. Suggestions?

7

8 - Your's truly...

joshhuntnm · April 17, 2008

I like the angle #4. Why can't I remember to do that!!!

dawssvt · April 17, 2008

joshhuntnm wrote:

I like the angle #4. Why can't I remember to do that!!!

I guess I have taken enough pictures of my car at angles like that to remember

Rhinotherunt · April 17, 2008

# 4 is my favorite. Great backlighting.

Be careful not to crop at the joints.

# 2 looks a little floating headish.

A little play with #6. Can remove if you want...

Rhinotherunt · April 17, 2008

or b&W

Swartzy · April 17, 2008

I like #8 very much. A nice environmental portrait. 99% of the time, out of the camera shots require some work, whether it be color balance, contrast, sharpening, etc. due to the amount of information within the file. With a little TLC we can work an image into a keeper. This particular shot is a bit too tilted for my tastes (but it's only my opinion) but do like the rim light. I did some quick processing to show where this could go. Notice how the background is now darker and the color corrected. We don't want brighter areas distracting from our subject. Just one such example that my hope is will be of benefit.

joshhuntnm · April 17, 2008

Rhinotherunt wrote:

# 4 is my favorite. Great backlighting.

Be careful not to crop at the joints.

# 2 looks a little floating headish.

A little play with #6. Can remove if you want...

I like that. Is that zoom blur?

Rhinotherunt · April 17, 2008

joshhuntnm wrote:

I like that. Is that zoom blur?

You nailed it on the head! First I opened into PS through ACR and did some minor adjustments and WB correction. The in PS copied the BG layer and made a layer mask. Then applied the zoom blur and masked out the parts I wanted sharp. I ran gradient mapping for the B&W.

Agnieszka · April 17, 2008

Hi there. Nice shots & angles.

Maybe a view comments:

1. Very nice shot, but her hand is cropped :cry
2. I think I would brighten up her left side of the face in photoshop, not sure ...
3. Nice shot. I think I woudl have cropped a bit different, so her back is closer to the edge ... and again, her hands are cropped :cry As a general rule, I would either crop 3/4 of her entire arm, or not at all ...
4. Beautiful

5. Hmmm, not sure about her arm position ...
6. I like it! Did you try a vertical crop on it maybe? She looks a little bit lost in the space the way she sits. Try saturalting the flowers a bit ...
7. Very cute!!
8. Nice shot

Hope that helped, didn't want to sound "naggy"

Scott_Quier · April 17, 2008

1 - It's a good start. You cut off her hand! I would crop out the post on the right and tighten the post a bit to obscure the fact that you did cut off her hand.

2 - This is pretty good. A little fill would make it better I think.

3 - The pose is good. Composition would have been better if you had included her left knee and hand and if her body wasn't dead center in the frame. Cut off her hand. It also appears you have dappled light on her face and arm. The pose is good

4 - This is the best of the series. The sun is doing wonderful things to glow her hair (but just a touch too much:D). If you had used some fill light, you would have been better able to control the blown highlights on the bench and in her hair. To really bring it to life, might want to try a vignette and a little background bluring, boost contrast and color saturation.

5 - Uneven light on her body, dappled light, her arm is brighter than her face. Pose is good.

6 - Needs more contrast - I'm thinking you need to set black and white points here. I would crop it a bit from both the left and right to remove the blown areas on left. Need to watch the post growing out of her head.

7 - Angle is nice. Beautiful light on their faces, especially her's. Where's he looking? Crop it a bit to reduce the impact of the blown areas.

8 - This one shouldn't have seen the light of day

- Actually, I like the light on this. You've got good side lighting and that's bringing out the character of your face. I would do something about the bright spot just over your left shoulder.

jeffreaux2 · April 17, 2008

Overall, I like your camera angles and processing better than your fathers (sorry Josh). When I first saw his shots I thought to myself...."ohh she should be photographed from a slightly higher vantage point"...and for the most part you have accomplished this. I agree with what has already been said about the photos. DO be carefull on crops. Every shot doesn't need to be a whole body shot, but if you have the whole body minus one hand....well then you have made a mistake. Also keep in mind how much you will lose on 5x7 and 8x10 crops.
It appears that 1.2, and 8 would be the only ones capable of offering you an 8x10 without cropping off something important to the image.

One thing I noticed on #4 (my favorite also) is a good bit of purple fringing on the top of her left foot/ankle area. It isn't uncommon for that to appear, but should be handled in post if it is that obvious. Most lenses that are producers of this effect will get better at preventing it with smaller apertures.

Overall I give you an A for a first try. Just a few minor adjustments here and there and woulda been an A+!!!

Qarik · April 17, 2008

nice compositions but the the shadows/lighting in 2,3,5 are bit uneven. I do like the the energy and youthfulness you capture. She is not so "adult" like some of the other senior pics we see around here.

Blurmore · April 17, 2008

Number 6 would be improved by getting back and shooting with a longer lens, throwing the fore and background out of focus. The trellis thing is very nice but it needs to be abstracted, as in focus as it is it ends up being a bit of a distraction.

dawssvt · April 17, 2008

Rhinotherunt wrote:

# 4 is my favorite. Great backlighting.

Be careful not to crop at the joints.

# 2 looks a little floating headish.

A little play with #6. Can remove if you want...

Are you referring to #1 mostly when you say don't crop at the joints? That edited version of #6 does look a little better. Thanks

Swartzy wrote:

I like #8 very much. A nice environmental portrait. 99% of the time, out of the camera shots require some work, whether it be color balance, contrast, sharpening, etc. due to the amount of information within the file. With a little TLC we can work an image into a keeper. This particular shot is a bit too tilted for my tastes (but it's only my opinion) but do like the rim light. I did some quick processing to show where this could go. Notice how the background is now darker and the color corrected. We don't want brighter areas distracting from our subject. Just one such example that my hope is will be of benefit.

That does look much better. I just need to learn my way around Photoshop. Can I ask what you did to the photo? I am very new to Photoshop, so I don't know very much.

Thanks the comment

Agnieszka wrote:

Hi there. Nice shots & angles.

Maybe a view comments:

1. Very nice shot, but her hand is cropped :cry
2. I think I would brighten up her left side of the face in photoshop, not sure ...
3. Nice shot. I think I woudl have cropped a bit different, so her back is closer to the edge ... and again, her hands are cropped :cry As a general rule, I would either crop 3/4 of her entire arm, or not at all ...
4. Beautiful
5. Hmmm, not sure about her arm position ...
6. I like it! Did you try a vertical crop on it maybe? She looks a little bit lost in the space the way she sits. Try saturalting the flowers a bit ...
7. Very cute!!
8. Nice shot

Hope that helped, didn't want to sound "naggy"

Thank you very much for your help. For #1 - I tried to get her whole arm in it and I actually did in one shot, but it left it with way too much room on the left side. Should I have gotten closer to her then?

Scott_Quier wrote:

1 - It's a good start. You cut off her hand! I would crop out the post on the right and tighten the post a bit to obscure the fact that you did cut off her hand.

2 - This is pretty good. A little fill would make it better I think.

3 - The pose is good. Composition would have been better if you had included her left knee and hand and if her body wasn't dead center in the frame. Cut off her hand. It also appears you have dappled light on her face and arm. The pose is good

4 - This is the best of the series. The sun is doing wonderful things to glow her hair (but just a touch too much:D). If you had used some fill light, you would have been better able to control the blown highlights on the bench and in her hair. To really bring it to life, might want to try a vignette and a little background bluring, boost contrast and color saturation.

5 - Uneven light on her body, dappled light, her arm is brighter than her face. Pose is good.

6 - Needs more contrast - I'm thinking you need to set black and white points here. I would crop it a bit from both the left and right to remove the blown areas on left. Need to watch the post growing out of her head.

7 - Angle is nice. Beautiful light on their faces, especially her's. Where's he looking? Crop it a bit to reduce the impact of the blown areas.

8 - This one shouldn't have seen the light of day - Actually, I like the light on this. You've got good side lighting and that's bringing out the character of your face. I would do something about the bright spot just over your left shoulder.

Thanks for your comment, Scott. Can you explain to me what you mean when you say "fill" and "fill light". Are these Photoshop things I should do, or things to do duiring the shoot? I am going to post the shot I took similar to #1, but her hand is not cut off.

jeffreaux2 wrote:

Overall, I like your camera angles and processing better than your fathers (sorry Josh). When I first saw his shots I thought to myself...."ohh she should be photographed from a slightly higher vantage point"...and for the most part you have accomplished this. I agree with what has already been said about the photos. DO be carefull on crops. Every shot doesn't need to be a whole body shot, but if you have the whole body minus one hand....well then you have made a mistake. Also keep in mind how much you will lose on 5x7 and 8x10 crops.
It appears that 1.2, and 8 would be the only ones capable of offering you an 8x10 without cropping off something important to the image.

One thing I noticed on #4 (my favorite also) is a good bit of purple fringing on the top of her left foot/ankle area. It isn't uncommon for that to appear, but should be handled in post if it is that obvious. Most lenses that are producers of this effect will get better at preventing it with smaller apertures.

Overall I give you an A for a first try. Just a few minor adjustments here and there and woulda been an A+!!!

Thank you for your comment, Jeff. I will keep all of what you said in mind for the next shoot.

Qarik wrote:

nice compositions but the the shadows/lighting in 2,3,5 are bit uneven. I do like the the energy and youthfulness you capture. She is not so "adult" like some of the other senior pics we see around here.

Well, she is actually going to be a Junior next year. That might be why she looks a little younger. We are just trying to get practice on kids this age and she was willing to let us take pictures that day.

Blurmore wrote:

Number 6 would be improved by getting back and shooting with a longer lens, throwing the fore and background out of focus. The trellis thing is very nice but it needs to be abstracted, as in focus as it is it ends up being a bit of a distraction.

Alright, I will keep that in mind when I go back to this location. I just got my Canon 50mm f/1.4, so I was wanting to try it out for this shoot. Thank you for your comment.

dawssvt · April 17, 2008

Is this one better?

Scott_Quier · April 17, 2008

Can you explain to me what you mean when you say "fill" and "fill light". Are these Photoshop things I should do, or things to do duiring the shoot?

Fill is additional light that you supply, usually via either flash or reflector. It is most often used to fill strong shadows, reducing contrast between dark and light areas of the scene, and/or providing catchlights in the eyes of your model(s).

Taking a look at your #4, supplying more light to the model would have allowed you to darken, relatively speaking, the rest of the scene. This would minimize the impact of the bright areas.

Rhinotherunt · April 18, 2008

dawssvt wrote:

Are you referring to #1 mostly when you say don't crop at the joints? That edited version of #6 does look a little better. Thanks

1, 3, & 5 are the ones I noticed. Those were just some ideas for #6. Love to see what you come up with.

First Attempt...

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