Some new stuff to share, critique

Took my littlest out on an easy walk/trail near home and managed to avoid the rain long enough to get some decent shots.

I realize the editing on all of these are going to be different, they are not really meant to be a 'set' - on my zenfolio page I have a couple/few shots of each edit if you are interested in seeing more of a particular 'style'. I can also post some more here if there is interest.

1

I like the composition on all of them. The BW conversion in 2 is really nice - it is my favorite shot of the bunch.

Some things I would have done differently:
It was obviously very dark if you were at up to ISO 4000 and f2.2 @ 1/125. I would have definitely been wide open on the lens to get the shutter up a bit. The EF85 f1.8 is very sharp wide open. If DOF became a problem, you could move back from the subject and crop for composition. I try to stay at least at 1/200 when shooting in natural light for two reasons: 1. Subjects don't sit still well. 2. I can't hold a camera perfectly still.

All of them except for 2 seem to suffer from some motion blur, especially 1 and 3.

The white balance looks a bit cool in 1 and 3 for me, as well.

3 is a bit underexposed; some post work to lighten up his face would help.

Thanks for the feedback!

Yes, thank you for pointing out that I should have opened up the 85 all the way. I've had good luck with it previously and should have trusted it a bit more. All of these were hand held and I was putting the 6D and auto-iso to the test - I was trying to find a good balance, but obviously missed it on shutter speed/motion blur, especially on the road shots where I could have bumped up the shutter speed.

RE: the exif on #4, yes it was quite a bit darker in the forest as opposed to out on the road. Also, I wanted to point out that this was an attempt at a bokeh pano (Brenizer Method). This is ~25 shots and with auto iso ranged from 2500 to 6400. I'm honestly surprised it turned out as well as it did... this is my first successful attempt at anything like this, so I'm willing to turn a blind eye to the flaws, haha.

RE: motion blur - I didn't notice it on #1, I'm going to have to go back and take a look. All of these shots were VERY minimally sharpened. I wonder if some more might help a little... On #3, if you notice the shutter speed - the blur was intentional. I was trying to keep his face in focus, but get some movement in his legs as he was walking down the road.

My monitor isn't calibrated and I had a tough time finding the right WB or one that I like and though looked most natural. I've also been told before that shots have been under exposed - thought I fixed this problem, but maybe not. Hmm... wonder if it's time to get a calibration tool...

Thanks again, appreciate it!

Nice Photo & beautiful editing.

I think they go really well as a set aside from #4. The first 3 seem to be in a similar location. Good job. Cute kid. And boy does he have some big golden eyes.

On these type shots i think 2.2 is a good way to go. It gives you a little wiggle room for a moving kid and will probably sharpen things up just a touch. The bokeh is just right for my tastes. Go back and take a look and find the center of the sharpest point in each pic and see if maybe focusing is an issue. The 6D with 85 is a great set up and 1/80 should be easily hand held. Leaning on a tree you could probably go slower.

That said, i think your set up might be slightly front focusing. Check out the rocks in 2 and 3, and also the log in 4. Hard to tell with this resolution image but it seems the rocks and log are sharpest just to the camera side of your son. My 6D front focuses massively, +14 to +16, and while i haven't made a scientific study, every time i see someone with a 6D focus problem it is front focusing.

great shots and great location for taking pics.

Thanks for the compliments shaker and Varneeezy, appreciate it.

Left Handed Brisket wrote in post #17430446
... Go back and take a look and find the center of the sharpest point in each pic.

That said, i think your set up might be slightly front focusing. Check out the rocks in 2 and 3, and also the log in 4. Hard to tell with this resolution image but it seems the rocks and log are sharpest just to the camera side of your son. My 6D front focuses massively, +14 to +16, and while i haven't made a scientific study, every time i see someone with a 6D focus problem it is front focusing...

Huh, never considered that I might have a front focus issue... It's funny you mention it though, because when editing these, especially the ones with the gravel road, I noticed the sharper rocks and thought it was strange they weren't more centered around my son. This camera is still pretty new to me and I don't know if I have a lot of shots to verify a front focus problem, especially with the 85 1.8

I do have a license for the Reikan FoCal software, maybe tonight I'll run through a few tests and see what comes up.

Appreciate your input!

A few more from this set for inspection... I know everyone's monitors are probably slightly different, but I'd be curious to know if others are seeing too cool WB or under exposed. Thanks!

5.

Very handsome young man. I like them all, and I concur, your 85 is definitely front focusing a bit.

freestylee30 wrote in post #17430132
Took my littlest out on an easy walk/trail near home and managed to avoid the rain long enough to get some decent shots.

I realize the editing on all of these are going to be different, they are not really meant to be a 'set' - on my zenfolio page I have a couple/few shots of each edit if you are interested in seeing more of a particular 'style'. I can also post some more here if there is interest.

1

2

3

4

Your WB is kind of a moving target. 1 is way cool, 4 is quite warm. 1 might be a touch overexposed.

freestylee30 wrote in post #17430485
A few more from this set for inspection... I know everyone's monitors are probably slightly different, but I'd be curious to know if others are seeing too cool WB or under exposed. Thanks!

5.

6.

7.

8.

Pretty much the same thing here with five and seven. WB, to me, is something that is very much open for interpretation, especially whe talking about outdoor portraits. I suspect that somewhere in the middle is technically correct for this set. If they are being displayed together I'd take great care to get them the same, if you are putting them in different locations you can more easily take liberties. The first cool one is the only one that I presonally think is too far off.

RE: Front focus issue -

I checked the 85 in FoCal and it said it only needed -2 and I couldn't even tell the difference looking at the targets. So I tried the 5 batteries in a line trick... I wasn't exactly sure the best way to do this, so here is my setup:

Piece of paper with a straight line drawn corner to corner
I made a mark on that line every 1.5 inches
Placed 5 batteries along line, starting from center of paper
Camera on tripod, mirror lock, 2 sec timer
Auto-focused on center battery

Result (Lens correction, WB, slight ND and Sharpening): maybe slightly front focusing, enough though to be seen in my images?

1 and 5 are also way to cool on my screen, the white in his eye are very blue (also the rest on those 2 images). The others looks very good