A couple portrait-ey pics of my gf on our recent trip..first time posting :)

[tbarabash]

Hey, been a creeper of this forum/website for a while and finally figured it was time to see what people thought of some of my photos. Been shooting for about half a year now just as a hobbyist but have done a couple of kid/product pictures for family and friends and wanted to know if any of my stuff was actually even half decent and to look for suggestions to keep improving.

I took all these of my gf on our recent trip to hawaii.. no sharpening has been done, and only very mild if any color touching up/cropping has been done except for the two monochrome pictures. The one of the reflection in the mirror I still have some things I wanted to do to it but just kind of decided spur of the moment to post here while I'm at work with nothing to do and just these rough copies. Anyways, thanks for any insights

Picture info (just trying to remember off the top of my head). All taken with a canon t1i and either 15-85mm or 50mm 1.4
1. 50mm, f/2.0, shutter speed i believe 1/120 iso 200. Should I do something to try soften up the lighting on her? The focus is just a wee bit too high, just at her eyebrow/just above her eyebrows so I would reshoot if I really needed to and focus better on the eyes
2. (Exif ??? f/8.0 iso 200 otherwise ?)The one on the beach was completely an accident, it was me trying to get a candid picture of her but she saw me and tried to block my lens at the last moment. I noticed you could see her eyes through her fingers which I thought was kind of neat. Should I do some tighter cropping/any other kind of color fixing? Circular polarizer on a canon 15-85mm was used
3. 50mm f/2.8, 1/125 iso 200, my favorite picture of the bunch and quite proud of it
4. 50mm f/2.8 1/125 iso 200. I think the lighting looks a bit harsh, and too contrasty between the dark and light spots on her skin. Also her shoulder is glowing which I need to fix. Wondering what you would all do about the B&W
5. (I think around 50mm on the 15-85) f/4.5 1/15 iso 3200 in a dark dark aquarium. Is it a good crop to you all? I don't have the original on this comp but it just has some fish information stuff around the sides I took off. Also would you take all the light and detail out of everything else other than the tank and have it a complete sillhouette? (darker her legs/feet/floor completely)

[x_eternity_x]

Well, the descriptions sound interesting, but only one picture remains. Perhaps you can make other threads for the other ones. This one I think has good exposure and lighting balance--it really isn't too harsh. As you said, the focus is just slightly high, but the soft look is almost nice here. Reshooting with proper focus would make this a very nice picture.

As a side note, I must commend your choice of lens--I love the 50 1.4. The one thing to watch out for is that you can really get into trouble shooting it wide open--the depth of field is incredibly small. For this particular shot I would actually recommend between 4 and 5.6--that would keep a large portion of her face in focus but should be blurring nicely by her shoulders. At the least, bring it up to 2.8.