Please review the following pictures

Hi All.

I was by the sea front the other day and I decided to take some pictures and I would like to get some feedback on how I can improve my pictures. Especially as I am looking to do a photoshoot for a friend (pre-wedding shoot).

The pictures were taken with my 50 - 250 Canon lens as I have never really used it. What I wanted to get was to make my subjects pop and also blur out the background. I also learnt that its not about having a very wide aperture, as during my photography courses, the impression that I got was that one should let in as much light as possible into the camera but selecting a very wide/big aperture.

I would like to get tips on how I can improve my composition and also the quality of my shots. The pics were also taken in sunlight by the coast.

Thanks in advance.

People will provide a much better expert opinion, but my 1st suggestion is to watch the distractions in the background. It takes away from the pictures... Like the guy laying on the beatch looking like he is doing sit ups. And maybe a a polarizer on there...

My 2 cents... Your taking pictures... Just keep at it. It'll get better everytime...

Hi there!

You say you were trying to get a blurred background, what aperture were you using?
I actually saw this lil article on depth of field yesterday, you might find it helpful
http://digital-photography-school.com …te&utm_campaign​=hootsuite


Just looking at these, I think you should try spending a little more time thinking about how the background will effect the end photo. Look for simple backgrounds, if there was a part of the beach with no people, or a way you could have positioned your subjects so there were no people, that would have been much better IMO.

Think about the lines the objects are making, that jetty in the first two photos is cutting the photo in half and then you've got all these other busy bits ontop/behind the jetty. and then in the 4th, it's just this black distracting thing in the corner.

Number three is most distracting as you can just see a bunch of people right there, and the intended subjects are actually leaning towards them, drawing your eye to them. Have you heard about leading lines? then there's the guy in the pink and he's walking towards those people, drawing your eye to them even more!

The last photo is the best IMO, the subjects look nicely in focus, they are nicely proportioned in the frame and I really like the composition, the line of the clouds and the hirozen and drawing your eye to the subject, as well as the line of buildings on the right also drawing your eye to the subject. I didn't even notice the man laying down behind them, but you could clone him out as the beach pebbles are fairly consistent. Just watch for "things" popping out of people heads and bodies, branches, poles, other people! etc....
It tells a nice story! However, you haven't really got the "blurred background" effect there >_<


The best thing about your photos are that there are no noticeable shadows on the subjects face. That's brilliant!!! Keep that up

Guess my limited exif viewer in chrome is not working... it tells me images are anywhere between 17mm f/10 (last one) to 70mm f/8 so not seeing how 'ALL' of these were taken with a 55-250 if it's correct.

Want a blurry background... try setting the 55-250 at the max aperture (smallest f #) it can accomplish and do the tests again i.e. 55mm at f/4 to 250mm at f/5.6 and compare them to what you want to achieve.

She has a nice expression in #s 1 & 5, but I don't think that he likes you in any of them! ; )
IMO you could take a little off the top of all of them.

the two methods for blurring a background are wide aperture or using a telephoto having your subject stand close with the background further away.

combining the two will yield stellar results. the 55-250 isnt a great portrait lens since you need to stop it down so far to get it sharp. You are better of using the 50/1.8 you have.

mike_311 wrote in post #17018345
combining the two will yield stellar results. the 55-250 isnt a great portrait lens since you need to stop it down so far to get it sharp. You are better of using the 50/1.8 you have.

I would agree that using the long end will flatten out the face & look terrible. OTOH, they used to sell "Portrait" lenses that could be adjusted for different degrees of softness, so I wouldn't mark down the 55-250 for that.
The "adjustable built in" softness had the advantage of filling in the shadows from wrinkles on the face, which was much better than trying to soften in the darkroom which had the effect of filling in the highlights.

Keep in mind that, the closer you are to the sweet spot of the lens (2-3X stopped down from max aperture), the less artifacts you will see. So run some tests with it at about 50-70mm at different f-stops & see where you need to be to get the eyes sharp with a pleasant degree of softness in the rest of the image.