Rachel + Scott | Engagement

[shimmishim]

They have the most interesting story of how they came to be together. Everyone says courtship is dead... not for these guys!

Simple was the point here.

http://www.johnshim.com/potn/rands/rachel-scott-101.jpg

http://www.johnshim.com/potn/rands/rachel-scott-103.jpg

http://www.johnshim.com/potn/rands/rachel-scott-108.jpg

http://www.johnshim.com/potn/rands/rachel-scott-109.jpg

http://www.johnshim.com/potn/rands/rachel-scott-110.jpg

http://www.johnshim.com/potn/rands/rachel-scott-111.jpg

http://www.johnshim.com/potn/rands/rachel-scott-116.jpg

http://www.johnshim.com/potn/rands/rachel-scott-120.jpg

PS. I think my 35L is officially my favorite lens!

[Justdoit]

Interesting set of shots. If you don't mind, I'll just number them off and say what I think.
#1: Bad flare. It's subtle enough to not seem "artsy" but bright enough to be noticed. And it's in bad spots too.
#2: Interesting concept. I assume you were trying to go for a holding hands shot, but they covered up the hands so much it was hard to tell. If we could actually see the hand holding, it would be a nice shot.
#3: No. That shot had nothing for me. The subjects were too far apart. The lighting was flat. The flare bad. The setting uninteresting with the building in the back. Again, interesting concept, but none of the parts came through.
#4: My favorite. It was well done. The lighting was spot on and the subjects had nice expressions and body language with each other.
#5: I like it a lot but I still have mixed feelings about the placement of the sun burst. It just seems sort of weird-- it's almost like light is coming out of their stomachs. Or their hands, which is a nice idea.
The rest: I like them, but work on making the subjects POP out. On whole, I think you had a lot of interesting and good concepts, they just didn't get conveyed properly through the mechanics of the photo. Hopefully my advice was helpful. Good luck and keep it up.

[shimmishim]

Thanks for the comments. I think you said it best. Concepts are there... execution needs work.

[agv8or]

I will give you my two cents as it sounds like you seriously want to improve. Overall it looks like you are having fun but your composition needs a little work. Subjects are a little too centered in most of your images. You need to pay a little closer attention to your backgrounds and elements in your backgrounds that they don't feel too busy or are distracting. Your artistic use of flare was very much overdone and not used very appropriately most of the time. Don't let too much of a new thing take over your creativity.

Picture one: No...too much of a snap shoot with them centered and too busy of a background (needs a wider aperture to blur the background more for this composition) and the flare not good. You have a great rim light so maybe you could have positioned your self at a different angle to make use of the rim light from the sun but with a much more suitable background and without the flare. Are using a popup flash here?

Picture two: Maybe....I get what you were after but you needed to seperate them more and zoom in closer to get just them holding hands and just the hands.

Picture three: No and WOW......I would have moved them way down the bridge to their right (to the left of the frame), moved them closer together (much closer) and then zoomed in cropping out the building in the back (does it have some significance?) and placing them in the left 1/3 of the image capturing the grass and bridge but just cropping out the light post, which would be to the right of the frame. The flare would have to go first by removing the UV or protection filter you have on your lens and also placing a gobo of some sort to block the flare from entering the lens.

Picture four: Again maybe.....The flare kind of works here but then you went and over exposed your image with too much flash. It also looks like you used off camera flash to the left when you should have balanced the highlight from the sun on her side with fill flash from the right side of the frame. Usually place you flash opposite the sun. Composition again could be much better as you have too much sky and the flag behind his head very distracting. Things to watch for when looking through your view finder.

Picture five: So close on the use of flare but just a little too much. This is where a little fill flash would have helped you tone done the blown highlights in the background. Your composition is better by placing their heads in the upper 1/3 of the image but I am not to crazy with your background.

Picture six: Your best composition and your overall best image. You have the right amount of depth of field to tell the story.

Picture seven: This one could have been very good as well but......Although your depth of field is very good your composition isn't. Crop out the fence by moving your perspective a little higher looking down on them more. Place his head a little more to the upper left 1/3 of the image and make the image about them not about them and the big fence behind them. Moving your perspective higher will also change his glance to a more submissive one by him looking up slightly. You want to really watch that you don't make grown men look too submissive but in this situation a little wouldn't hurt and we (the viewer) would feel a little bit uneasy about viewing their private moment but at the same time we would also feel a little more of that passion that they have for each other.

Picture eight: I liked this one but it needed to be a landscape instead of a portrait. Place them in the left 1/3 of a landscape and you would have had a winner. There is some issues with the busy background again but things can't always be perfect. You could also keep this a portrait but crop out the tower in the background and most of the sky placing them in the upper 1/3 of the image and if you cropped out a little on the left as well placing them in the upper left 1/3 of the image you would make the composition stronger yet.

Just remember that photography is very subjective and everyone has an opinion. You've heard mine and the reasons why. Take it for what it is worth as you and others may disagree with me but the main thing is to have fun, be creative and continue to grow.