Engagement- Shelby and Spencer - CC Appreciated

Here's another engagement session! This one was a little outside my comfort zone since we had a really windy day and I left the portable softbox in the car and used on-camera for fill only. What do you think of the lighting in those circumstances?

Let me know the areas where I can improve, especially with posing! Be Harsh! I'm hoping to learn

Thank you!
1.

I think overall your lighting is fine--you lucked out with decent ambient or you used open shade / placed the sun well. The light is lacking in drama a little bit, but if it was windy your off-cam stuff was probably going to hamper you more than help--presuming you're running solo.

Some critique:
1) leading lines are helpful. Note how his right arm creates a line that leads to his eye. That works. But note how her right arm creates a line that leads to his, well. There. Her hand being occluded here also seems a little odd.

2) This seems a little cool and could easily be warmed up. Even if the day was cool, why depict that in the shot ? His cupping of her arm is unnatural. His expression seems surprised--not quite ready for a photo to be taken. He needs to relax a little--something you can help by getting some convo going, making fun of him, making fun of yourself, finding something in common to talk about. Her hair should also have been swept out of her face. Also--her eyes are a little squinty and dark here. This is a good example where not adding more light might have hurt a little bit.

3) Natural expressions. I wish they pulled their shirts a little so the shirts didn't frump up as they are. I wish the flowers weren't cut off at the corners like that. If they're part of the scene that you want to include--include them all--it seems odd to place even moderately important / bright / high contrast portions near the edge of the frame--it tends to seem unintended.

4) her hair floofing out front is a little bit distracting. It's precisely the sort of thing she would see in the photo and perhaps wished you would point out on the scene--even if it is windy. It was wise to have her arm cutting across her like that--I mean, it looks a little too stage-y maybe, but helps with showing her figure in a way that she would like, I suspect.

6) having her almost at full side view probably isn't the best idea--combined with her lean it has kind of 'frumped' up her shape from her waist down. I would have had him move in more, and re-positioned myself more to the left so that you aren't seeing the exact side profile of her belly. Note also how your vantage point has a way of flattening her bum area. A slightly different angle (and her re-positioning would help too) and she would have appeared a little more curvy in that area.

My advice for your next engagement shoot: don't zoom in so much.

Allow the couple to exist within the scene – don't merely fill the entire frame with them.

I know you didn't pick them but I think their outfits really hurt the images. She looks like she is in a Best Buy Uniform. I agree with above about not zooming in so much. 3 is my favorite here. I like the emotion in the last one but hate the flatness of the lighting.

mclaren777 wrote in post #16811121
My advice for your next engagement shoot: don't zoom in so much.

Allow the couple to exist within the scene – don't merely fill the entire frame with them.

+1 on this. Also get them to interact. Don't pose them so much. Just tell them to do simple actions. Like "Walk over to him and give him a kiss on the cheek then his lips.....good now squeeze her tight....good good good ok....Great job you two" type thing. That way they will not seem/look so stiff. They are lacking emotion and it shows a little. It's our job to get them as comfortable as possible and for us to become a fly on the wall capturing the moments.

But overall if they are happy, Nice job.

Great advice on here... the crumpled up shirts and their outfits are not flattering. It's hard to avoid but I usually always send a link on "do's and don'ts" on how to dress for a photo session, before the session.

Another thing I would do... avoid poses that are not flattering to their figure. Number 4 for example is something I would have avoided because it really squishes in their extra weight together. Clients always notice this first, instead of how sharp and colorful ended up.

Also, pay attention to the little detail like people have already mentioned. On #1, his shirt needs to be pulled down, pic #2 her hair is on her face and his hand is doing something strange with her elbow. #4 her shirt is pulled up from laying down so you see a little bit of the skint. I have an assistant (wife) who always comes with me during shoots so I don't miss these details and it really helps.

Overall though, great job!

Thanks for the advice all! I really appreciate your photo by photo comments Christopher- Thanks!

Outfits are always one of my frustrations, I do send out a suggestion list and everyone seems to ignore it. It's especially frustrating when these two showed up with one outfit when we could have had some great variety... Oh well...

I will definitely work on trying to give suggestions not directions, at least that's how I'm going to remember the suggestion to have them do more moving and less posing. I'll see how that goes.

I'm taking some engagement photos this weekend for my wife's friends so I know them. I'll find out then whether that makes the more or less self-consious.

The colors of their shirts to me clashed a bit. Sort of looked like they were taking a break from toys r us or something. But on the positive side, they looked happy and were having fun.

Number 5... the first thing that came to my mind was oh god please don't fall.