First try at senior pictures of my friend - girl *56k warning*

This is my first attempt ever at taking pictures of someone actually posing for me. My friend wanted some pictures of her as senior pictures, and I wanted to give these type of shots a try, so I went for it. Feel free to leave any feelings about them. They might not be the greatest, but for my first try, I'm satisfied.

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Hosted photo: posted by tommykjensen in
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(in a forum that you have no access to)

Very cool, these are great. Looks like on some, by the trees, you need a little fill flash for those shadows on her face.

The upward view with the bridge behind her...love it!

A.

All I have is the stock flash, but I was going to use it, but completely forgot about it. I was using a reflector in a lot of the shots, but my friend didn't know how to properly angle it to best light her face. I wish I would have tried out the flash. I had though about it, but then it passed my mind. Thanks.

Except for the 1st one where there is a harsh shadow hiding one of her eyes, i think you did a fab job. She's got a very natural smile and pose.. awesome stuff

Some good results there. I'm sure she'll be happy with them.

[low voice] umm, I'm a hair fan --give her a hair brush next Christmas or something.

Great shots. A little fill flash would have been nice. Great job on the posing.

Nice job. I like the first 31 of them. I think #1 and #31 are my faverotes, not sure why. I also like the backgrounds where ever you are.

Very nice work. All but 3, 8, 9, 10, 13, and 21 are great.

Reasons why I didn't like these...

#3: Not a good pose for her.

#8 and #9: Similar to #7 and I liked her smile better in that one.

#10: Again, similar to #11 and I liked the closer crop.

#13: This would have been better if her eye was more in focus.

#21: I don't like her pose and expression in this one.


The hair doesn't bother me at all. It's outside and the wind is blowing. Her hair is going to get messed up a bit. And besides, her smile quickly draws you away from the messy hair.

I've only mentioned the little things of the few I didn't prefer because to mention all the great things would have taken way too long. Again, great work.

What a smile she has !
You made great shots of a great model.
I dont want to comment each pict. I like some, I dislike others. This is not the point. She has a deadly smile and this makes all the shots great.

Are you shooting JPEG?
I gess yes.
* check your histograms. Most pics have too much contrast to my taste. a flat histogram is typical of too much contrast. Good contrast gives a bell-curved histogram from dark to white.

* you should consider fill flash in outdoors portrait as you main option, especially with a lot of sun. I agree that sometimes its not necesary. first option doens not mean always.

* some pics look oversaturated on my monitor. If you shoot jpeg, check your settings.

Thankyou for sharing these pictures. Keep on the good work, especialy if you gorgeous friend is keen.

Olivier

I was shooting RAW. I'm not very proficient with it, but I am doing what I can. I adjusted the saturation in most of them, so my monitor might be slightly off. The fill flash was thought about before going out there, but I completely forgot once I was out there taking pictures. Also, on number 14, I wish i could have achieved focus on her eyes, but it focused on her hair instead. I liked that shot besides the soft eyes. I appreciate all the comments because it'll help me learn what my mistakes are, and I'll try to learn from them.

Some nice images overall. One of the biggest problems when shooting outdoors is shadows on the face. A flash is a must . BG's are also hard to deal with and in several of your shots you took very good advantage of the present BG, less DOF on some would help. For your first shoot you should be very happy with the results. Good color and sharp images. NIce work.

#15 is my fav;
the lights lits her smile at perfection. no distractting bckgnd. a keeper.
In many other pics, too much background elements. Looks like travel memories pics.
"I want a shot with the bridge".
OK, you have the shot "with the bridge"
ans so what ?
what that bridge adds to your model ?
A pict cannot have two different subjects. you have to choose : the ladie or the bridge. In your compositions, bckgnd elements are fighting with the subject to catch the eye.

for a first-time outing, you did quite well. i would also echo the other posters' comments about fill flash, but your DOF works quite well for these types of portraits. definitely some post-production work in the image-editing app of your choice (soften the skin tones and remove blemishes and harsh light) and these will go right up there with any of the larger studio's work. good job and keep shooting...

keep on the good job. You have a very nice series overall, and some very succesfull pics.
Olivier

You guys have the best suggestions. Thanks a ton. It's a lot more difficult to come up with good shots out in the field as opposed to looking at a computer screen and saying, yeah, I'll take a shot like that. I guess it's just something for me to learn. I can understand about the background now. I thought about that a couple times, so I got some shots of her up close, and those are some of my favorite pictures in the set now. The backgrounds on some can be distracting, now that I'm looking them all over. Thanks again!