Fake it till you make it?

[ElleEClaire]

Hi! I am very nervous to be on here because I hardly know anything about cameras. I have vague ideas of what aperture and ISO and f stop mean, but I don't know how to use them. I just put my camera on Auto settings and manual focus and do what I do. I've been serious about photography for a year and a half now. I love to take pictures of people, especially girls my age in beautiful dresses.

I have attached a picture that I am proud of but that is not one of my all time favorites, so if you rip it apart I will not cry. What I would like to know is, how does it rate on a scale from horrible amateur to perfectly professional? I love to edit in Photoshop, does the picture look overly edited or silly? Are the colors garish? How is spacing, angles, composition?

Please be gentle, I know I am not perfect but I improve every day. Thank you for your time.


Information:

Camera: Nikon D40x
Lens: 18-55 mm
Edited in: Photoshop CS4

I don't know the shutter, ISO, etc. information, I apologise. In the rules it said something about EXIF, which I have never heard of.

[mark_simplicidad]

Hi Elle,
This could help, to check the EXIF data, right click on your image, then click Properties, then on the Summary tab you shall see all the information that you need.
With regards to your image, I'm no expert also, but I think in taking portraits like this, focus should be on the face of your subject. and maybe you could push the color of the dress a bit to make it pop so to speak. At this point I'm not sure if the color of the dress is gold or yellow 'cause it looks pale to me. again, I'm no expert, this is just my opinion hehehe
And for the AUTO-habit, learn to get out of it, bit by bit. start by using the Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority, learn how your camera adjusts to light and subject conditions, then from there perhaps you could move to full Manual mode. There's a lot of tutorials here and on the web that can help you.

[autofocus]

You took the photo from a low angle and it looks OK, but "up nose" shots are not always the most flattering. She also looks a little static in her pose and you might have done something with her left arm that is just hanging by her side..possibly with her hand and fingers up in her hair. I also feel the photo will benefit to a bit of a crop with less sky over her head as in my example below. She's somewhat underexposed and a quick curves adjustment selected on her (and not the sky) helped bring up the colors and the contrast on her and her dress. All that said, however, I have a feeling that you will have a flair for doing this. You said you shoot in auto mode with manual focus..why manual focus? I made these quick edits on my uncalibrated laptop..the colors and tones look OK, but you never know from one display to another on uncalibrated screens

[ElleEClaire]

Originally Posted by autofocus

You took the photo from a low angle and it looks OK, but "up nose" shots are not always the most flattering. She also looks a little static in her pose and you might have done something with her left arm that is just hanging by her side..possibly with her hand and fingers up in her hair. I also feel the photo will benefit to a bit of a crop with less sky over her head as in my example below. She's somewhat underexposed and a quick curves adjustment selected on her (and not the sky) helped bring up the colors and the contrast on her and her dress. All that said, however, I have a feeling that you will have a flair for doing this. You said you shoot in auto mode with manual focus..why manual focus? I made these quick edits on my uncalibrated laptop..the colors and tones look OK, but you never know from one display to another on uncalibrated screens

I use manual focus because the auto focus is broken on the camera I use (it belongs to my sister). Even before it broke, though, I tried to use manual focus more because on auto it seemed to never focus where I wanted it to.

Thank you for the advice! The crop and the editing you did look very nice. I agree with you about "up nose" pictures. I don't do them often because on most people it makes them look fatter than they are, but this girl was just so skinny I felt I could risk it. She was very new to posing, thus the limp arm, but you're right, I should have directed her better.

Thank you again!! I will keep trying and keep your advice in mind.

[ElleEClaire]

Originally Posted by mark_simplicidad

Hi Elle,
This could help, to check the EXIF data, right click on your image, then click Properties, then on the Summary tab you shall see all the information that you need.
With regards to your image, I'm no expert also, but I think in taking portraits like this, focus should be on the face of your subject. and maybe you could push the color of the dress a bit to make it pop so to speak. At this point I'm not sure if the color of the dress is gold or yellow 'cause it looks pale to me. again, I'm no expert, this is just my opinion hehehe
And for the AUTO-habit, learn to get out of it, bit by bit. start by using the Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority, learn how your camera adjusts to light and subject conditions, then from there perhaps you could move to full Manual mode. There's a lot of tutorials here and on the web that can help you.

Thank you for the information! Do you know what EXIF stands for? And once I'm in Properties, which of the information do I need?

When you say focus should be on the face, do you mean focus as in the lens focus or focus as in how close I am to her? Sorry, I am a little confused.

I was afraid to make the dress look too bright because when I first started taking pictures, I edited my colors with a heavy hand and received negative comments on that. I suppose this picture needed brightness, though.

Are Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority the P setting on the camera? I'm not sure how to change these things on the camera I use. I've Googled it and looked in the manual but my brain always gets muddled.

[autofocus]

When you say focus should be on the face, do you mean focus as in the lens focus or focus as in how close I am to her? Sorry, I am a little confused.

what he's saying is the sharpest focus should be on the face..in particular, the eyes

Are Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority the P setting on the camera? I'm not sure how to change these things on the camera I use.

no...P stands for program mode. Aperture mode (usually marked with either AV or A on your dial) is the mode that lets you control how open or closed you adjust the aperture. Shutter priority (usually marked with an S, or TV on your dial) allows you to control how long or short you want the shutter to open. What kind of camera is it?...SLR? Point & shoot? Brand?

[edbayani]

the clouds distract from her face. a bit sift and wish you did not cut a portion of the gown the models color needs a little bit of saturation.