Can I get an honest opinion on a shoot?

[qdial]

I'm aware that this forum is not really for critiquing shoots, but I was hoping that someone could give me an honest opinion anyways?

This is my fourth shoot with a model on location and I'm curious if my work is any good? I'm not sure what I'm asking for exactly...

** Side note **

There was major overcast with rain in the area when I did this shoot so it is a little darker than I would have liked for it to have been.

I appreciate any constructive opinions anyone might have.

Thanks!

Rob

http://www.mindbend.org/mindGal/main.php?g2_itemId=301

[ngoduyviet]

This forum is all about helping each other, be it harsh or blunt criticism and I think you'd get more comments if you posted this in the human forum.

Anyway, here's what I think, remember you asked for honest opinions.

You are right in that some of your images are somewhat underexposed. Maybe a fill-flash to lift up the shadows?

Your lightning needs more work, hot-spots on the face & shadows behind your model are very distracting, bounce, get your flash off to create more interesting light, or use umbrella/soft-box/reflector to lit her up.

Now the artistic stuff I'm not really good with, but your model doesn't seem to know more than just a couple of basic poses and it got boring looking at the pictures fast. Maybe look into some of the model magazines for more poses and ideas? colorful backgrounds are nice, but it can be too distracting sometime, open up your lens a bit more to subtract them?

There are just a few things that popped into my head going through your gallery. More if I can think of anything else.

You are on the right path though, practice makes perfect

[ritables3]

you might want to squeze the Levels in Photoshop inwards just a bit on both sides of the slider....to get more contrast and brightness and POP. I agree with the above post that it is underexposed and flat (depth of field is ....eh)

[ritables3]

ok, ive bumped up the saturation too a little. its hard to resist doing that for all photos. all I did was bring in the levels. its not much of a difference, just a little brighter....but the photo from the start was not very dynamic and quite flat.

Before


After

[abril1127]

I think Viet had some really good points, alot of what I was thinking too.
Watch her feet, you cut her toes off in a lot of them.
The poses looks kinda stuff and automated. More depth of field would make it way more interesting. The background distracts from the subject.
I think your idea and concept was good, it just needs some tweaks!

[Roadrnr]

I agree completely with what Viet said. Also, it appears that your images are fairly soft, if not focused on the wrong spot. I'm not sure what your settings were on these photos, but there seems to be motion blur.

[AndrewCCM]

Originally Posted by abril1127

I think Viet had some really good points, alot of what I was thinking too.
Watch her feet, you cut her toes off in a lot of them.
The poses looks kinda stuff and automated. More depth of field would make it way more interesting. The background distracts from the subject.
I think your idea and concept was good, it just needs some tweaks!

I think you mean LESS/Shallower depth of field.

[abril1127]

LOL Ya that too.
Thanks for catching me

[qdial]

I greatly appreciate the tips! I think the first thing I need to do is purchase a faster lens. Most of these shots were shot at 5.6 in AV mode with a 50mm lens 800 ISO.

I usually shoot in black and white to avoid the faults of my crappy lens. I appreciate the tips! I'm going to dig through and play more with them and see if I can make them pop.

I didn't notice the toes earlier, good eye.

Regarding the background, I tried a few different angles to encorporate both and balance them together with a focus on the model. Shots 4/5/6/41.

The more I look at them, the more i like the close up shots. I think my next approach will be to fine tune the angles a little more.

[abril1127]

ROFL good eye cause I do it all the time! I'm breaking myself LOL
Why were you shooting at 800 iso? I thought (Thought being the key word) that 800 iso was more suitable for low light situations.

[qdial]

At 1600 ISO I am starting to pick up a lot of grain/noise in my shots. They come out cleaner at 800 ISO when outdoors. I shoot at 1600 for night / indoor (concert) shooting.

=.

[Roadrnr]

I would say for outdoor portraits, 200-400 would be more suitable and a lot less noise...even 100 if you can get away with it.

[CaptainTom]

These photos have a lot of problems, and a lot of promise.
Better glass will help the technical aspects somewhat. But, the best glass won't overcome the compositional and subject inexperience that is most obvious. After looking at a few of the photos I thought I was looking at a study of the graffiti wall, and this girl kept getting in the way. Exposure is off a lot. Increase the ISO even if it adds "grain". Use this as an artsy element if you have to. Focus on SOMETHING. My guess is that you were so engaged in getting her to do something you didn't pay attention to the focus or exposure information in the camera. If she wants to model, she needs to seriously look at other models and how they look and how they pose.
If she was just fooling around then that's what you have to work with and make it look better than it actually is.
The promising part is that you are out there using your camera, your eye, your brain, your artistic talent, and that you are looking for help from others to make it all better. It will get better, and soon enough we'll be asking you for advice.

[DavidsStudio]

Robert, I just attended Doug Box's lighting seminar in SA this past weekend. What he was teaching would be very helpful to you, I think, shooting the kinds of shots you have shown us. To get a quick idea of what he offers in his seminar (which I would definitly recommend to you), take a look on this page and download either or both of the two listed on the left hand side. With the overcast light that you had, what he refers to as Method Two would help a good bit and it is really simple to use.

Best of luck to you.

David

[qdial]

I really appreciate the opinions and directions from this thread. I think the best thing I can do right now is get a better lens and/or camera that can handle lower lighting situations to fix the bland colors. I also think the lighting course will be an awesome idea once I get situated with a new rig.

Any ideas on learning posing techniques? I have been browsing through mags a lot looking at what is printed. But I'm curious about workshops and classes.

Thank you for your help! This forum is an awesome resource.