WWYD

Got to go out last night with a friend and shoot a little before the sun went down. CC and edits welcome. Had trouble posing her though. What do you do with hands when standing with nothing to rest them on? Oh, and how do I keep her hair and body form going red with all those red leaves reflecting on her? Lastly, how do I nail focus? They all needed sharpening, I think I got maybe 3-4 where I nailed the focus, but that was out of like 50 shots. Be nice this is only my second time shooting a model.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/11274294@N03/6​256063935/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/11274294@N03/6​256064561/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/11274294@N03/6​256595328/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/11274294@N03/6​256596220/

can you post your EXIF? it may be the apeture setting you're using. Focus on the face, eyes specifically, manually focus.

Honestly, I don't know anything about posing, but they all look a little uncomfortable to me.

sorry, thats all I can really provide.

Beautiful lady and a stunning smile.
I sense on each picture that she should increase the distance between her shoulders and neck by lifting her head; it appears she is trying to minimise this for some reason?

Yes please post EXIF data. Looked at some of your other images from your last portrait shoot and see the same issue which I think is caused by too slow of shutter speed or camera movement. It is easy to get too busy with all the things you have to think about when taking portraits that handholding technique can suffer.

The next thing I can offer is to surf the web for poses that you like and create a notebook full of ideas for when you go out and do a photo shoot.

Slow down and take your time and I think your images will improve greatly....

Lovely young lady, but we can't expect professional model behavior from our friends. She looks really stiff and uncomfortable in all poses. Great smile makes 'em a bit better.

Now onto the focus issue. Did you use a tripod? Did you manually focus the lens? What were your shutter speeds? Only natural light used? Does your camera have micro adjust (lens to body) capability? Could be a lot of things so you have to eliminate the potential causes of misfocus until you arrive at a root cause. Then, of course, correct it!

Do some indoor testing of the lens on a well lit target at a reasonable distance with camera on tripod. Use the camera's autofocus and the 2-second timer so you're sure the camera isn't moving. Getting razor sharp shots? If not, next step is to work on microadjusting lens to body.

Last tip: When shooting outdoors, I always use a Whi-Bal card, (held near model's face) that helps me correct white balance as a first step in post processing. If the person is surrounded by green foliage, you'll see a green cast like you saw the red cast in your image #4.

Lots to think about! Maybe someday, I'll get it too!

dave

You might want to review what focus point was used in the shot. If you use only the center focus point you might have better, more consistent results. If your 5D2 came with Canon Zoom Browser EX, you can examine where your focus points are, then go on to other things that might hinder sharp images. JMHO.