Its been awhile

It has been awhile since I got my camera out. Yesterday met up with some friends and decided to take some pics of their little one. Any feedback would be appreciated. I posting more then one is hard to give CC, so even if you can give me an overall feedback on what I can work on. Thanks!!

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/JeAQ​my

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/HmDq​jx

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/HTk8​2U

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/JhCS​kv

Heya,

Looks ok to me.

Things to consider maybe for next time:

Horizons - When things in the environment are sloping, it's distracting. Now, if it truly was sloping that's different, but a pond certainly doesn't do that.

F2 would have been plenty of depth of field on APS-C at this focal length for mom & baby. Open her up, get a little more pleasing blur to isolate your subjects.

Good job getting low. Get lower! The shots where you are probably on your elbows are a good perspective. Shooting from above down into someone is not so much, at least to me (the ground becomes your background, and it's too close, plus, this is the view that everyone in the world see's; it's more interesting to see perspectives that are not the every day). My general rule of thumb is always "get to the ground." If you can make the ground a horizon so that it's not behind your subject(s) it will isolate more via depth of field and has a more pleasing look.

Time of day & light is crucial. Here, you're in the shade, good on you for that, but your environment is not--looks like bright sun. I would avoid bright sun in general, you get that double light look where it's dark here, but blown out there. Go for early morning or late evening so that the light is more even and you don't get hot spots. I know that's hard sometimes with kids--my 2 year old doesn't like to get up early, but, I can generally get her out later in the day, so I go for evening more often. All kids are different. Also, more overcast or dim light days, less squinting which is a good thing. Full sun days, I just avoid straight up. Of all the issues with the above images, this is the one I would actually stress the most--light, you have blown out bright areas in your environment, even though you were trying to get the subjects in the shade, it sticks out really big time.

Keep it up!

Very best,

MalVeauX wrote in post #18043934
Heya,

Looks ok to me.

Things to consider maybe for next time:

Horizons - When things in the environment are sloping, it's distracting. Now, if it truly was sloping that's different, but a pond certainly doesn't do that.

F2 would have been plenty of depth of field on APS-C at this focal length for mom & baby. Open her up, get a little more pleasing blur to isolate your subjects.

Good job getting low. Get lower! The shots where you are probably on your elbows are a good perspective. Shooting from above down into someone is not so much, at least to me (the ground becomes your background, and it's too close, plus, this is the view that everyone in the world see's; it's more interesting to see perspectives that are not the every day). My general rule of thumb is always "get to the ground." If you can make the ground a horizon so that it's not behind your subject(s) it will isolate more via depth of field and has a more pleasing look.


Time of day & light is crucial. Here, you're in the shade, good on you for that, but your environment is not--looks like bright sun. I would avoid bright sun in general, you get that double light look where it's dark here, but blown out there. Go for early morning or late evening so that the light is more even and you don't get hot spots. I know that's hard sometimes with kids--my 2 year old doesn't like to get up early, but, I can generally get her out later in the day, so I go for evening more often. All kids are different. Also, more overcast or dim light days, less squinting which is a good thing. Full sun days, I just avoid straight up. Of all the issues with the above images, this is the one I would actually stress the most--light, you have blown out bright areas in your environment, even though you were trying to get the subjects in the shade, it sticks out really big time.

Keep it up!

Very best,

Thanks for the feed back! You are right on the pond on a slop..I auto leveled it and well it most have not worked and I didn't catch it. Yes you are right I was on my elbows, so I will def make sure I get even lower. I was not planing on taking pics as we were only getting together to eat so yes the time of day sucked . Love all your feedback..Thanks again!

Generally, you have subjects that aren't moving, so why use 1/2500 sec @ ISO 400 in daylight? I doubt that it makes much difference with these, but someday you may need to squeeze out that little bit of higher quality that ISO 100 would give you, so try to be aware of the camera settings.
You have some nice expressions. Try to avoid having feet straight toward the camera as in #1, & experiment with a vertical format once in a while.

PhotosGuy wrote in post #18044759
Generally, you have subjects that aren't moving, so why use 1/2500 sec @ ISO 400 in daylight? I doubt that it makes much difference with these, but someday you may need to squeeze out that little bit of higher quality that ISO 100 would give you, so try to be aware of the camera settings.
You have some nice expressions. Try to avoid having feet straight toward the camera as in #1, & experiment with a vertical format once in a while.

yup you are right I was not paying attention to the settings :/. Very good point on the feet, didn't really notice that till you pointed it out and now that picture is bugging me

Thanks for the tips!

The only thing I would add to the above Jessi is to maybe reduce the exposure, or move the subject into a fully shady area. The area behind her that is brighter draws my eye more than the subject.
It is just a distraction and removing that extra brightness or reducing the exposure on that portion will draw the attention back to the intended subject.