What Am I missing..What Am I Lacking?

OK I have been at this for a little over a year and a half. I do see some improvement, but not nearly where I would like to be. I see some peoples pictures and its like wow! so sharp, so colorful, and captivating. Yet mine always seem to be humdane. I admit I should practice more than I read.
These are my most recent pics. My trip to visit my daughter in Vancouver. Bellow average. What could I or should I have done to bump them up a notch?

Thank you!
Karen

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/56995828@N03/7​967553302/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/56995828@N03/7​965457780/

The fence in the 1st shot is very distracting. You should never have parallel lines going through subjects head. Also,composition could be better.
#2 is a decent shot,but the subjects compete for attention.I like the mountains and the tree line in the background,but then I see the bird. Imagine you had 5 secs to view the grand canyon and then a eagle flew across your line of sight. You'd lose about 2 secs viewing the eagle that flew by. Get my drift kinda?
#3 is a great solid shot. Only thing I may have done differently was not to have the horizon directly across the middle of the photo. But,very good use of foreground subject.

whoty wrote in post #14969641
The fence in the 1st shot is very distracting. You should never have parallel lines going through subjects head. Also,composition could be better.
#2 is a decent shot,but the subjects compete for attention.I like the mountains and the tree line in the background,but then I see the bird. Imagine you had 5 secs to view the grand canyon and then a eagle flew across your line of sight. You'd lose about 2 secs viewing the eagle that flew by. Get my drift kinda?
#3 is a great solid shot. Only thing I may have done differently was not to have the horizon directly across the middle of the photo. But,very good use of foreground subject.

So very very simple, but yes it makes a heck of a lot of sense. And I could very much see how these simple details could make a vast improvement.

Thanks so much! So I am sooo focusing on everything else when its composition I am lacking?? Light bulb moment. Thank you!

Karen

Hi Karen, I'm still learning and trying to improve myself as well! I've taken an interest in portrait photography.

I think for #1 I'd use a much wider aperture. That would help blur out the fence and so the lines wouldn't be as distracting. The other thing is completely subjective / personal preference from my end, but I've never been too fond of portraits that look to be taken from directly in front of the subject with your subject's pose. It widens the look of her shoulders a bit too much imo. I think shot from a more side angle might work better?

Also, was this taken a bit closer to sundown? The colors look a tad cool. Your subject has amazing hair and skin tone. I wonder if a brighter sun reflecting off that hair would create some more stunning shots...

Anyways, just my suggestions. I would be interested in what some of the experts have to contribute esp in regards to your portrait shot.

Well, you're not missing a beautiful daughter, that's for sure.

Like said before, fence, along with the dappled light on the top of her head, the bright top right corner and the light is flat.

Oh, missed the part about her being your daughter. My apologies, didn't mean to sound inpersonal when I referred to her as your "subject"!

The Dark Knight wrote in post #14969796
Hi Karen, I'm still learning and trying to improve myself as well! I've taken an interest in portrait photography.

I think for #1 I'd use a much wider aperture. That would help blur out the fence and so the lines wouldn't be as distracting. The other thing is completely subjective / personal preference from my end, but I've never been too fond of portraits that look to be taken from directly in front of the subject with your subject's pose. It widens the look of her shoulders a bit too much imo. I think shot from a more side angle might work better?

Also, was this taken a bit closer to sundown? The colors look a tad cool. Your subject has amazing hair and skin tone. I wonder if a brighter sun reflecting off that hair would create some more stunning shots...

Anyways, just my suggestions. I would be interested in what some of the experts have to contribute esp in regards to your portrait shot.

I know but it was my first time with a light meter trying to balance ambient and flash. Although I did kind of a crap job.LOL The ambient read f5.6 and so I stopped down to f8 with flash.
No really I agree she should have been at 45 degree angle. And she should have that down by now!! No football shoulders, but my fault for not paying attention.
It was about 2:30 PM and they were in a rush for a wedding. I tried to put them in the shade with a 430EXii on camera with a Lumniquest.

Thanks for your input!

Karen

windpig wrote in post #14969830
Well, you're not missing a beautiful daughter, that's for sure.

Like said before, fence, along with the dappled light on the top of her head, the bright top right corner and the light is flat.

thank you!! for your input! Yes the fence is really a killer.

Thanks
Karen

The Dark Knight wrote in post #14969848
Oh, missed the part about her being your daughter. My apologies, didn't mean to sound inpersonal when I referred to her as your "subject"!

No problem!! I don't believe I mentioned it in my post. Daughter or not she still is my guinea pig when it comes to practicing pics.:p I really wish we did not live a 5 hour plane ride apart. Pic practice and gosh I miss her!!!

Thanks
Karen

Hey Karen, I am only going to comment on the shot of your daughter, as I don't know ANYTHING about good landscape photos (and barely anything about portraits! ha!). First off, don't be discouraged because this shot has really good elements, including some of the difficult ones.

Here are a few thoughts I had:

--I have heard, as a rule of thumb, to not crop people shots at the elbows or knees. Rules are made to be broken, but I think it applies here. This shot is kind of in "in between" land for people shots, not quite a tight head and shoulders shot, but not a longer full body type shot. I think framing the shot tighter, further above the elbows, would have helped that.

--Agree with above, posing her at a 45 degree angle. Also, she seems to be angled very slightly toward the left side of the picture. When I angle people, I generally like to have them angled toward the center of the shot.

--I agree with the above about a wider aperature and blurring out more of the background. This will make her pop out of the shot more. You can also accomplish that by bringing her out further away from the fence.

--I might bring the exposure for the entire shot up just a little. Also, I think I understand that this was shot with a Speedlight on camera, right? I do think the lighting is a little flat. Either using natural light or going with off camera flash will help that. Sometimes, unfortunately, if all you can do b/c of time or gear restraints is just on camera flash, with no bounce or swivel, you just have to be resigned to the fact that the lighting may look a little flat. This shot is actually a lot better than a lot of straight, on camera flash shots. I don't know what lens you were using, but early on I tried to get lenses (the 50 1.8, now the 50 1.4; the 85 1.8) that would let me shoot wide open to use natural light as much as possible, since for a while I didn't have any off camera flash capability at all.

Don't be discouraged...this is a lot closer to being a really great shot than you think!

Don't be so hard on yourself Karen, these aren't that bad and we're all learning here... especially me!

A lot of good points above but may I suggest you take a look at off camera lighting? I say this because the lighting looks kind of flat here, which is typical of any flash attached directly to the camera. Off camera lighting allows you to experiment more and produce shadows which gives a more 3d effect as opposed to the flat lighting. You can use a single flash for this with 'reflectors' and get much better results. There is loads of really good info. on here in the Lighting section.

plawren53202 wrote in post #14971538
Hey Karen, I am only going to comment on the shot of your daughter, as I don't know ANYTHING about good landscape photos (and barely anything about portraits! ha!). First off, don't be discouraged because this shot has really good elements, including some of the difficult ones.

Here are a few thoughts I had:

--I have heard, as a rule of thumb, to not crop people shots at the elbows or knees. Rules are made to be broken, but I think it applies here. This shot is kind of in "in between" land for people shots, not quite a tight head and shoulders shot, but not a longer full body type shot. I think framing the shot tighter, further above the elbows, would have helped that.

--Agree with above, posing her at a 45 degree angle. Also, she seems to be angled very slightly toward the left side of the picture. When I angle people, I generally like to have them angled toward the center of the shot.

--I agree with the above about a wider aperature and blurring out more of the background. This will make her pop out of the shot more. You can also accomplish that by bringing her out further away from the fence.

--I might bring the exposure for the entire shot up just a little. Also, I think I understand that this was shot with a Speedlight on camera, right? I do think the lighting is a little flat. Either using natural light or going with off camera flash will help that. Sometimes, unfortunately, if all you can do b/c of time or gear restraints is just on camera flash, with no bounce or swivel, you just have to be resigned to the fact that the lighting may look a little flat. This shot is actually a lot better than a lot of straight, on camera flash shots. I don't know what lens you were using, but early on I tried to get lenses (the 50 1.8, now the 50 1.4; the 85 1.8) that would let me shoot wide open to use natural light as much as possible, since for a while I didn't have any off camera flash capability at all.

Don't be discouraged...this is a lot closer to being a really great shot than you think!

I was going to say most of this, but someone saved me the time so I'll just second it. Very good advice here.

plawren53202 wrote in post #14971538
Hey Karen, I am only going to comment on the shot of your daughter, as I don't know ANYTHING about good landscape photos (and barely anything about portraits! ha!). First off, don't be discouraged because this shot has really good elements, including some of the difficult ones.

Here are a few thoughts I had:

--I have heard, as a rule of thumb, to not crop people shots at the elbows or knees. Rules are made to be broken, but I think it applies here. This shot is kind of in "in between" land for people shots, not quite a tight head and shoulders shot, but not a longer full body type shot. I think framing the shot tighter, further above the elbows, would have helped that.

--Agree with above, posing her at a 45 degree angle. Also, she seems to be angled very slightly toward the left side of the picture. When I angle people, I generally like to have them angled toward the center of the shot.

--I agree with the above about a wider aperature and blurring out more of the background. This will make her pop out of the shot more. You can also accomplish that by bringing her out further away from the fence.

--I might bring the exposure for the entire shot up just a little. Also, I think I understand that this was shot with a Speedlight on camera, right? I do think the lighting is a little flat. Either using natural light or going with off camera flash will help that. Sometimes, unfortunately, if all you can do b/c of time or gear restraints is just on camera flash, with no bounce or swivel, you just have to be resigned to the fact that the lighting may look a little flat. This shot is actually a lot better than a lot of straight, on camera flash shots. I don't know what lens you were using, but early on I tried to get lenses (the 50 1.8, now the 50 1.4; the 85 1.8) that would let me shoot wide open to use natural light as much as possible, since for a while I didn't have any off camera flash capability at all.

Don't be discouraged...this is a lot closer to being a really great shot than you think!

Thanks for all the great feedback!
The 45 degree angle with shoulders I believe she was in for the rest of the series. It usually takes a few pics for my brain to kick in.
Crop between joints not at them, but I still have a hard time with framing. Especially when the big fiance stepped into the pic. He is 6"4' and I am 5"3'. My best pics had part of his head cut off.
I had so much trouble lighting the two of them the previous set with my flash off camera with a SB. I decided to use my Lumniquest.
I was using a Tamron 17-70 mm lens. I have a Tamron 30mm but I never use it because I just dont like it. I am going to get a new lens for Bday next month. Thinking of the Nifty Fifty since my camera has a 1.6 crop factor.

Thanks again for the encouragement! I only get to see her a couple of times a month so I was hoping to get better pics than my last visit.

Thanks
Karen

JimMcrae wrote in post #14971636
Don't be so hard on yourself Karen, these aren't that bad and we're all learning here... especially me!

A lot of good points above but may I suggest you take a look at off camera lighting? I say this because the lighting looks kind of flat here, which is typical of any flash attached directly to the camera. Off camera lighting allows you to experiment more and produce shadows which gives a more 3d effect as opposed to the flat lighting. You can use a single flash for this with 'reflectors' and get much better results. There is loads of really good info. on here in the Lighting section.

Thanks for the feedback!
I did two indoor series with two off camera flashes and SB. It was a disaster! One side of the face was in the dark too much. My new light meter would not read anything over f2 for some reason. It was my first time using it and at f8 the pictures were way overexposed. It would read ambient correctly but not my flash.

Thanks again

Karen