Practicing for outdoor Senior Shoot for family friend

[craigneasttx]

Please give honest CC....air it out because I need to learn what I am doing wrong. I know there were several things done poorly, but let me hear it from yall. My family stood/sat in as lab rats. It was cold and windy so I had their help for about an hour. Was first time attempting outdoor portraits and using lighting. Thanks In Advance

1) Sunlight behind as main light. Speedlite camera left with white umbrella. Reflector camera right.


2) Sunlight to her left with speedlite camera left bouncing off gold reflector.


3) Same as 2


4) Sunlight to their left with speedlite camera right.


5) Sunlight to her left with speedlite reflecting into gold reflector camera left.


6) Same but with no reflector. Just ambient and speedlite camera right.


7) Sunlight directly in front with speedlite for fill camera right


8) In shade with speedlight camera right into silver umbrella.



If I broke any forum rules with 8 pics in a thread I pre-apologize. Thanks again for yalls help.

[prncfarquad]

OK I will give it a shot..

1. Maybe a little more fill
2. She looks like she is in a shadow. i.e her face is well lit from the chest up but her body is in the shade. not sure if that is because she IS in the shade or if the artificial light you used looks that way
3. Lighting looks good, pose looks uncomfortable
4. again I think it needs more fill light..colors look flat to me on this one.
5. Love this one..composition, exposure, etc all look good. only nit pick would be too much dead space above her head.
6. same as above except colors are not quite as warm because of no (gold?) reflector
7.much better use of fill than 1 or 2
8. the only thing that bugs me on this is the blown out background although the DOF is good on this one.

Hope this helps some.

[prncfarquad]

I did a quick edit of 4 and 5 to show you what I meant..you don't have the No Edit in your info but if you want me to take them down I will.

4. used photoshop to adjust shadow and highlights. cropped
5. straightened the horizon and cropped.

[craigneasttx]

Originally Posted by prncfarquad

OK I will give it a shot..

1. Maybe a little more fill Ok...gotcha
2. She looks like she is in a shadow. i.e her face is well lit from the chest up but her body is in the shade. not sure if that is because she IS in the shade or if the artificial light you used looks that way Yes Sir....I knew I blew it on that one. Thanks for confirming.
3. Lighting looks good, pose looks uncomfortable Yep, she even said this is uncomfortable but had to post it because she rarely lets me take pictures of her.
4. again I think it needs more fill light..colors look flat to me on this one. Ok...thought the same thing. My problem was the more light I added, the worse my shadows got. It was like 35 degrees and windy. They were pretty impatient and I was freezing. But no excuse, I blew it.
5. Love this one..composition, exposure, etc all look good. only nit pick would be too much dead space above her head. This was my favorite of the bunch too. Maybe I am learning a little.
6. same as above except colors are not quite as warm because of no (gold?) reflector This as actually a snap of her while she thought I was getting ready. I saw it, I liked it, I shot it. So no one was ready to hold the reflector.
7.much better use of fill than 1 or 2 Got to give the credit to the sun here, it was pretty much dead on and just a little fill needed
8. the only thing that bugs me on this is the blown out background although the DOF is good on this one.I didnt even notice it while I was shooting this one but when I loaded it I was like...dang. I added it to this thread to see if anyone would notice or if it was just me...lol...you did, right off the bat

Hope this helps some.
It does, thanks for the insight and the time

I figured I would get busted for the Gold Reflector. I dont know why I used it, I just did. I tried white and didnt look like it was overpowering enough to get any of the shadows..tried silver and they kept squinting real bad...tried gold and it looked warmer. No clue as to whether it was a good decision or not.

So over all a C- ??

[craigneasttx]

Originally Posted by prncfarquad

I did a quick edit of 4 and 5 to show you what I meant..you don't have the No Edit in your info but if you want me to take them down I will. No Sir, thank for taking the time to do that

4. used photoshop to adjust shadow and highlights. cropped I dont even have photoshop or anything else. I downloaded LR3Beta a few minutes ago and closed it like it was a book of spells.....way over my head
5. straightened the horizon and cropped. Great example of what I am not even looking for. I do work on my crops, but never notice the horizon.

Thanks for the time spent and advice. Its very much appreciated.

[prncfarquad]

Actually I wouldn't go as low as a C- maybe a B- you did better for your first time out with bright sun than I did. Shooting with a lot of direct light is very hard. Most people including me like to shoot outdoor during what people call the golden hour Your canon came with some software called Digital Professional Pro or DPP. I have never personally used it but I have heard people like it who don't have photoshop. Also for a small price you can get Photoshop Elements which I did use when I started out.

BTW what part of E.Tex are you from..I am in Tyler

[craigneasttx]

I do use DPP for sharpening, cropping, and curves adjustments. I also use it to convert RAW to tiff then jpg. I do like it because I can go to full sharpening in raw, then go over half way again when sharpening the jpg and it never oversharpens, or no one has ever told me that I oversharpened too much. As for anything else, I am at a loss. I have tried GIMP and I could really really do a good job of making a decent picture look horrible.

I have been messing around with this LR3 again after I posted earlier. I have watched a few tutorials and think if I dedicated my spare time (yeah right, who's got that) I could get the hang of it for basic stuff.

I am between Palestine and Fairfield on a private lake. Grew up in Fairfield many moons ago. Left only to return when my kiddos got old enough that I didnt want them in Houston anymore. Tyler is a great town. My uncle and aunt are there and we go to shop. Any good camera/studio equipment stores there? Just been ordering online.

Saw your avatar....Meet Rockin Roxie...our 11 week old English Bulldog and the only one that will pose for me day in and day out.

[heard03]

I like 6 best. As far as how good your subject looks, it's the nicest I think, nice expression capture.

[prncfarquad]

Oh man I love the brindle in Roxie!! what a beautiful little pup. We got Snickers about 1.5 years ago and it took about 30 minutes to become one of the family

We had one store here and they went out of business about a year ago. by most of my stuff from BH unless I can get to Houston Camera Exchange when I am there on business. I love the guys there, always helpful and though their prices can run higher, if I can give business to Texas I will do it.