E-session Mike and Melissa

Brieyasmom · September 19, 2011

A recent e-session. Comments and feedback welcome!

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Ed911 · September 19, 2011

I would think that you might want to take in more of the setting. Some of these could have been shot in their backyard. Your number 5...as far as posterity goes...there is no identity with back of the head shots...and no interest. Have you ever seen any old photos of the backs of people's heads, in news papers, family portraits, albums, collections, etc. It's much better to pose them...or capture their personalities and faces as they interact. Remember, eye contact with the camera interacts with the viewer when they are looking at prints or images on line.

Also, be careful of flat lighting your images...like in 1, 4, and 6. This is where the background and the subjects have the same lighting. With the entire image at the same light intensity, there isn't enough separation between your subject and background to make them stand out.

1. Looks soft...cropped too tight...
2. Pose in two...he looks a bit awkward leaning in like he is. And, and this is just me, I find that nuzzling...comes across more intimately than a peck on the cheek. It looks like you vignetted this one...and that serves to darken the background...giving your subject a little kick, light wise, separating them a little more from the water.
3. Cropped is too tight. After thinking about it...in both 2 and 3...she isn't participating. He's kissing and she's busy doing something else. 4 and 6 show mutual participation...nice.
4. Is nice. It's not usually a good idea to capture kissing. Unless they are movie star quality...pooched lips aren't that desirable or attractive...the moment before and the moment after capture the eagerness, longing, sensuality, and loving satisfaction. Kissing, itself, unless done right, is, or can be, mechanical...especially if posed for a camera.
5. Post...looks like you ran an action. One that produces a greenish, dingy tint. Who's walking up the trail? While artistic, it's not a keeper that will find it's way into the family album, as I spoke about above. Nice idea...turn them around...have them jumping...doing something...facing the camera. Ask yourself, what's so interesting about this image.
6. Nice, I like it as it is.
7. Crop this one. You have a lot of dead space to the left and in front of them. Your subjects will have to viewed with a magnifying glass in a 3x5 or 4x6.

Just some suggestions...

sphynge · September 20, 2011

Well I guess this shows photography is totally subjective... I'm going to have to disagree with comments above. My comments:
- overall a cool set, but (and I'm guilty of this A LOT), the post processing is very uneven, which loses the cohesiveness of the set. The vintage look of #5 seems a little random to me. I love the more natural treatment of the other shots
- back of the head is actually ok. And so is profile. The fault with #5 is that the tree is coming out of their shoulder... when doing outlines / shadows it's probably best to separate landscape or backgrounds elements from the subjects.
- I actually like poses in these sets (#1 is fine, so is #2)... I'd say have your couples sway / try to get each other off balance for more motion / reaction if you can
- #7 do not crop but post process so the sky is more interesting.

And to respectfully disagree... I like the cropping/poses in #1, #2, #3, #4 (it's an engagement session... why WOULDN'T they be kissing?). Only one I'd try to redo differently is #6 - I'd love to see shots from this pose about 5 seconds earlier, before they got comfortable.

Conclusion: this is hella subjective - take our edits with a grain of salt. This is about your eye & developing your style.

Foques · September 20, 2011

I agree with Ed, for the most part. Though, I find 2 and 4 interesting.. others i would've passed on.

Qarik · September 20, 2011

not bad overall..crops are too tight for the closer shot imo. I think you could add a bit more drama in post as well. (a touch more contrast and saturation mostly)

Brieyasmom · September 22, 2011

thanks
Thank you for all the feedback. I have learned not to totally beat myself up from comments and that photography is subjective. I do value the critiques because they help me look at what other people see and that helps me be a better photog as well. I am always wanting to be learning and looking at things differently. So thank you! For taking the time to look and pick apart each photo so I can see areas that I should pay more attention to.

Heather