What am I doing wrong?

[24Freak]

This is the second time I've been out with my friend, and this time we shot more towards the golden hours - or so I thought. In my first shoot with her, I was told we seemed to have shot around the "flat, bright light" times. It wasn't quite near sunset but it wasn't midday either. This second shoot was directly before sunset and a bit after.

Examples from first shoot:
http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...s/IMG_0069.jpg
http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...AmberEdit1.jpg

Examples from second shoot:
http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...IMG_0073-1.jpg
http://i833.photobucket.com/albums/z...s/IMG_0079.jpg

In my opinion, the first shoot turned out much better. Beginners luck? The second shoot was obviously much closer to what I *thought* were considered the golden hours but it seemed to have better light in the first one. What do you guys think? For both, I shot in Av mode to control DOF. In the second one though I had to jack up my ISO in order to get enough light, even with the aperture wide open, and that noise just isn't tasty to me.

Any advice and tips would be extremely appreciated! The second shoot was just a fail in my novice opinion. =P

[OsmosisStudios]

You've got WAY too much noise (image 2-1, in particularly). Truth is: you seem to have missed the golden hours and got in a bit late. Colours are a bit cool from the sun already being below the horizon, and it also explains the lack of light.

[IABoomer]

On the first one, you're out in the open. On the second set, you're under a tree which is going to rob you of even more light. It kind of looks like the light is either off to her left, or behind her, which is going to make it hard to pickup details in her face. With the sun lower in the sky, you might be able to have her face the sun more, putting it over your shoulder where she's not necessarily staring into it, but it's giving you some warm light.

[zona5101]

was it overcast? Cause as pointed out, your color temp is very cool when late afternoon sun would have been much warmer. Also lack of strong backlight/hairlight leads me to think overcast... Anyway - keep at it - you'll get it dialed in!

[24Freak]

Thank you for the replies.

I figured I had missed the golden light, but I guess I'm still confused on when that is exactly. Like I said in my original post, I don't dig noise at all and even though some say it's better to have a sharp photo with noise than a blurry photo without noise, I hate cranking up the ISO unless I absolutely have to.

Thanks again, I'll definitely keep trying.

[BigVinnie]

According the the exif data you were at 1/125 at f/4.5 with ISO 1600.

Your background can come down at least 2 stops, that will get you ISO 400 which is pretty decent on the XSi.

The way to do that is to get more light on your subject than the background. Only way to do that is to bring it with you. A cheap flash and a cord to get it off camera would be my next investment.

It is good you have a willing subject. Just practice, practice and toss in a little more practice.

[Litchfield Hills]

Also, for the second set of shots, the tree trunk adjacent to her face will act as an anti-reflector, and rob more light.

[BigFuzzy]

First off, check out this on Wikipedia about golder hour.

You not only need to consider when the light is, but where it is.

The first series is better because there is more light, particularly in her face whereas the 2nd series there is very little to no light in her face mostly due to being under shade and also with her face close to the tree which prevents any reflection towards her face from any of the ambient light.

There are two ways to fix the issues in the 2nd series under those conditions.
Use a reflector
Use a flash
A reflector would likely be enough to bounce some light back into her face.
Flash gives you the most control, but if done poorly could be even worse than what you have.

In the end, you want soft 'golden' light hitting the face/front of the subject.. that's what you ought to be going for. Barring that, you need to think of reflectors/flash to fill light into the face of the subject.
For example, for this project, I used only natural light nearer the end of the day, but I spent my time and efforts ensuring there was light coming into the face of the subject. Occasionally, I used a reflector (maybe 1 in 15 shots) when there wasn't enough light. I was lucky in that the day was overcast so the sky acted as a soft reflector which is often the best conditions for outdoor portraits. Or, if the light is very harsh, that's when you want to put her into open shade (open = not too covered from above)

I hope that helps?
Al

PS this is purely a taste issue, some may love it, but I really really really dislike the vignetting on the 2nd one. To me, it screams amateur and someone who's just now discovered post processing. As I said, some will love it.. but it's almost a dead giveaway of someone just getting started.
But remember, in the end, if you like it, that's all that matters.

[auntyjud]

On a positive note, not that I'm anywhere near expert, I do like the color in the first set and the smoothness of her skin. In regard to the vignetting, I agree with Big Fuzzy. I've experimented with it and find feathering the edges works so much better than hard edges.