My First "Pro" photoshoot . .

[soulmike 58]

IMG_2846 copy by mikethe8ike, on Flickr


A couple of weeks ago my friend Marina agreed to be my "Model" for the day so i could practice with my portraiture and working with a live subject. I bought a large reflector some spare memory cards and spare battery and we headed out into a park in East London on what was a very warm sunny autumn day id read loads prior to this shoot and i was eager to try all sorts of things . we found some shade and proceeded to fire away we changed locations a few times and i took around 300 shots i actually ended up with 25 good ones this one is one of the best and to date has attracted 80 odd views on my flickr site she was so helpful and we had a great time and so . as this was my first ever"shoot" i would be interested to hear what you all think . .

Canon600 D
ef 55/250 f4-5
1/250
F4/5 ISO 400
Evaluative Metering
AV
one shot focusing with central point selected . .

[Olivia Price]

I think it's a pretty good shot, but the bright spot in the background is a bit distracting to me. I'm not sure I'm a big fan of her eye placement, seems like it would be better if she would've been looking more to her right than up. Just my personal preference but I would brighten her up a bit, leaving the background dark. Her dark sweater seems to blend into the background too much for my taste. HTH

PS: per the rules you should ask for something specific to critique.

[graciousness]

Agree with Olivia with that bright spot in the background. Remember that our eyes are drawn to the lightest part of the image.

I also agree with the eyes. When doing portraiture, esp if it's posed ones or modelling ones, you want the eyes to be engaged with the camera. You don't want to see so much whiteness in eyes as it's not very flattering at all.

The jacket should have been removed from her lap. Unless that's like a comfort thing for her or she is hiding her tummy?

Face is a little red. I'd fix this in post production.

Overall, the picture is ok. It's not a great photo I have to say as it's not really quite an engaging portrait due to her not being engaged with the camera. The pose is not the best, either, but great thinking with having her neck stretched as that's always a sexy look with women. The jacket throws that off, though

I also feel that the image could be a little big brighter...(exposure wise). I've looked at the other photos on flickr and I find that her face is underexposed. You really needed more light on her face and am afraid your reflector didn't quite do the job enough. Fill flash would have really helped. Also, it wasn't necessary to use such high shutter speed, esp on posed shots. 1/60th around that mark woudl have been better. Remember that the slower the shutter speed, the more ambient light you are bringing in to your image. Then it wouldn't have been necessary to use ISO of 400 to compensate for the fast shutter speed you used.

What great attempt, though. One can sense the energy behind the photographer looking at your photos. Just need some basic technical tweaking and watch your images pop next time around!

Looking forward to seeing more in the future.

Cheers,

Grace

[ChrisAdval]

Originally Posted by soulmike 58

IMG_2846 copy by mikethe8ike, on Flickr


A couple of weeks ago my friend Marina agreed to be my "Model" for the day so i could practice with my portraiture and working with a live subject. I bought a large reflector some spare memory cards and spare battery and we headed out into a park in East London on what was a very warm sunny autumn day id read loads prior to this shoot and i was eager to try all sorts of things . we found some shade and proceeded to fire away we changed locations a few times and i took around 300 shots i actually ended up with 25 good ones this one is one of the best and to date has attracted 80 odd views on my flickr site she was so helpful and we had a great time and so . as this was my first ever"shoot" i would be interested to hear what you all think . .

Canon600 D
ef 55/250 f4-5
1/250
F4/5 ISO 400
Evaluative Metering
AV
one shot focusing with central point selected . .

were you paid for the shoot?

[slugger]

Chris - I don't think whether or not they were paid for the shoot is relevent to the critique of the photo.


OP - I would also have to agree with the other two critiques on the eye placement. That was the first thing that I noticed.

Also - I tend to prefer portraits on the warmer side, and this is a little cool to me. The whites of her eyes actually look like they have a bit of a blue hue to them (but it could just be my monitor - I've been having issues lately )

The jacket is a slight distraction as well - so maybe try again without the jacket on her lap.
The sharpness and the depth of field is nice though!

[prince]

I know it is not "grammar" correction forum but it would be a lot more pleasant to read if you had punctuation in your post. Imagine Grace writing all that without any stops or capitalization in one huge paragraph.

As for the photo, I think this is good. I like her hair and that light is even on her face. It works for me. I am not too much distracted with the jacket. I am drawn to her face to everything else seems less distracting to me. Her expressions feels natural, which can make or break a photo.

Few things that could be improved include a bit more exposure and some more iris. She is positioned dead center. It is ok at times but for this one since she is looking outside the frame, it would have been better to have her more on the right.

I am still making a cautious effort to practice so thought of sharing this with you. Try to plan your shots ahead of time so that next time you take, may be 75-100 shots and end up with 30-40 keepers I have gone down in the past year from 400 in 2 hrs with 15-20 keepers to 250 and 35-50 keepers and still trying to narrow that down

Good luck.

[ChrisAdval]

Originally Posted by slugger

Chris - I don't think whether or not they were paid for the shoot is relevent to the critique of the photo.

its relevant to the topic where the OP says "pro" ..... I just don't like it when its misused and devalued as it's been since the beginning of time of photography, thats all. I just wanted to comment and possibly educate the OP on the misuse.

[soulmike 58]

Thank you all for your time and honesty .

I did try to remove the light spot but my p/p skills are developing as i speak . . I am more aware of backgrounds now and realize a common mistake is to focus to much on the subject and ignore whats going on elswhere. ( i did try cloning but it didnt work . .maybe i could use a layer mask and move it around to paste over it . ? looking at the eyes i now see what you mean . OOOps ! as this shot attracted a lot of views on flickr i thought it ok to place here . . ? I will post other shots from this session as there are a couple more i would like you all to consider . . In reply to the payment question . . no i didnt get paid she was doing it as a favour to help me out and i didnt realise i was misusing the word "Pro" (sorry) and finally i hope the punctuation and grammar this time around makes better reading . (lol)

thanks everyone

[commongrackle]

I'm sorry but I find this image to be too dark, as well as the rest from this "session" on your Flickr. The posing seems too forced or all together awkward, so I would recommend checking out some different photography sites/blogs to get some inspiration for future sessions.

[prince]

Punctuation and grammar.. are ok.. see you can't use ( . ) and ( ? ) together :P.. ok ok .. I'm just picking on you..

Here's a post from David Ziser that I thought might help you.. Digital ProTalk: The One The Got Away: How Small Things Can Make A Big Difference