First "Photoshoot"

[Aqueelah]

So I had a little fun with a friend who is a model....
We collaborated on our first photoshoot and we had a blast. I look forward to hearing your critiques. I am still a beginner, so I do have the insight that I still have a lot to learn, so feel free to be honest .


Contrast | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Sony DSLR A 230
ISO 400
f/5.6
50.0 mm
1/160

[slugger]

Well, you are only supposed to post one photo per thread, so you will eventually need to remove 2. But since I've seen all three.....
#1 - looks over exposed. Also, her right arm is cut off in an awkward spot, so the composition isnt very pleasing, perhaps it would have been better zoomed out as a full body shot with a bit more negative space camera right. Although I'm not sure what all is around in that background. Also, the green walls have hot spots from the flash/lighting you used, which happened to be the first thing I noticed.
#2 - is out of focus, it looks like you were focused on her bracelet, and the focus should be on her eyes.
#3- also awkward composition, with you being pretty close to cutting off the top of her head and her legs being chopped off.

[fais54]

Your friend is very pretty, and I really like the colors of the first 2, they really pop...it makes the pictures very interesting. But, yes there are a few problems.

The first one is overexposed, but not the point it can't be fixed in Lightroom (that is if you shot in RAW format instead of JPEG). Also, the glossy paint on the walls does give off some unattractive hot spots.

Her face is out of focus in the second one, but it is a stunning photo otherwise. Focusing on the eyes is your best bet.

Keep going, you're off to a great start. There were just a few slight problems here and there.

[ajax_andy]

I think overall a good effort for your 1st attempt.

I agree with the other posters about composition, as your images are caught in a middle ground between being close up or far enough away to not cut off important body parts. You need to decide whether its a photo of just them or them and their environment (if it's an interesting location).

If its the 1st then you need to pull them away from the background and have a very shallow depth of field to blur it out, so the focus is just on them.

Or if you are trying to incorporate the background, then a full body shot is better as it shows them in the environment and adds more context to the pic.

One final point is about picture number 3...

Using lines is a very useful tool in photography, so look at the railing she is holding on to. That is a line, and it starts at the top right, goes through her and disappears off the left hand side of the page... that is what the human eye will do when looking at this pic. They wont focus on her, they eyes will automatically follow the line out of the pic.

If you placed her more in the left 3rd, then the line would lead to her, and the focus of the pic would always be her... following lines is a subconcious thing that we as humans do.

Now to make it even better what you should ideally do is flip this image on its horizontal axis and have her in the far right 3rd of the image, with the line coming from the left to her, as this is the way we read - left to right. So out eyes naturally do this with pictures too.

I've been studying the use of lines in photography a fair bit recently and it's a great thing to learn.

[RovingLenses]

The posters above me have addressed most of the details. However, a small tip from me for pic # 1.

It's over exposed, yes. The light is a tad too strong, yes. Part of the reason being the flash. I'm not sure if you used the built-in flash or an off camera flash unit.

If you used the built in flash, I suggest you use a diffuser (something as simple as a piece of white paper held in front of the flash) to soften the light. The light from these flashes are quite hard usually. Hard light means strong shadows and washed out highlights.

If you used an off-camera flash, you could try bouncing the flash off the wall/ceiling to make it more softer.

Of the three pics, I liked the #3 the most. Nice pic! Well done. =)


~AC

[MarathonMax]

First photo shoots are always full of ... lessons ;-)

I went through something similar.

Read that story here:

My first “professional” shoot: Part II, The pictures | MaxPhotoBlog.net

PS: I will fix the missing Flickr photos tonight...