My first paying photo shoot...

I realize these may need to be tweaked further in CS2, I just dont know what it needs to look better...so I wanted some input from you guys. This is my daughter's cheer squad, and the group photo will be going into the yearbook. I payed around a bit with color and effects...

Here is a warm, soft focus...

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i would say the warmer ones are better... the "cooler" image takes away all of the girls skin tone... same goes for some of the individuals... like #4 looks nice but 3 and 5 have that same cold feeling...

i will say though that the warm images look great... the composition and posing of the girls is spot on...

I like the first one but i'd do away with the soft focus.. the individual shots look nice..

sari

BTW...all photos were captured with a 20D. The group photo was using a 17-85 EF-S, the individuals were using a 50mm 1.8 II.

I find the warmer look much more appealing. Great job getting them all looking at the camera at the same time with their eyes open!

i'd have to agree with the others on this one. I like the warmer tones a lot better. the second picture of the group makes them look almost zombie-like.

i like the individual shots better the other two dont do it for me!

I think you did a great job! I prefer the first one as well. I did want to ask though, what mode did you shoot this in, SS and Aperture? Im just wondering as far as focus goes. I have to do a group pic coming up and was thinking of using the A-DEP mode so that I can get everyone in focus, instead of just a single person and the rest somewhat blurry. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Woogie wrote in post #2106780
i'd have to agree with the others on this one. I like the warmer tones a lot better. the second picture of the group makes them look almost zombie-like.

i was about to say the exact same thing. the color in the second group pic gives them this zombie look. i like the tones in the first pic but the softness should be toned down a bit. perhaps if you combined the sharpness of the second pic and the colors of the first pic...

as for the individual shots, i think they look great. especially the color of the second individual shot and the sharpness in the third.

sugarzebra wrote in post #2106543
<snip>Great job getting them all looking at the camera at the same time with their eyes open!

I WISH!!

The wind was absolutely heinous that day, there was hair over their faces, eyes closed, girls looking at their mothers instead of me. Luckily I shot in burst mode and I used bits and pieces from 3 different shots to get this one!!

Is that cheating?

Hey Not bad!!

One of the most glaring issues from a pro prospective is your choice of location and background. I understand that finding the perfect background is not easy and it takes preplanning. But power lines and trees coming from body parts even if they are OOF detract from the overall image and are a dead give away of your level as a working pro.

The girls all look pretty good the warmer the better. if you will notice you have the light bisecting many of the faces. This is a no-no. For experiemental stuffm it's OK. So fill flash should be used in this situation. Back light is OK if the sun is low enough, so After you pick your location, pick your Time of Day It should always be early or late sun never anything after 10 am or prior to 3 pm depending on the time of year. If you are forced to shoot in an area with crummy backgrounds like this, then reach into your Photographers bag o' tricks and pull out your trusty step ladder. Get at least 4 feet off of the ground over your height so that you can remove as much background clutter as possible. Then change the pose and charge more for the "Special Effect" O-).

Good luck keep shooting,

Les Baldwin

LBaldwin wrote in post #2107836
Hey Not bad!!

One of the most glaring issues from a pro prospective is your choice of location and background. I understand that finding the perfect background is not easy and it takes preplanning.

Unfortunately, pre-planning was NOT part of this equation. The professional photographer that was hired by the high school and did the original photos lost the Freshman group photo...and some of the girl's individual turned out bad (I mean REALLY bad). The cheer-moms went ape-****, and instead of going through the school liason, a few of them called the photographer's studio directly and bitched.

The photographer became defensive, canceled the re-shoot, gave them a partial refund for the missing group shot and told them he was "DONE WITH IT". One of the mom's remembered the photo's I took at their party and asked (at the last minute) if I would take their photo. It is no small task to get 15 freshman girls to show up in uniform on the same day at the same time for a photo shoot. I left work early just to make this happen...all for the price of a "Cheesecake Factory" gift certificate (I work cheap). The location was chosen by one of the other cheer moms...all I did was show up and start shooting.

LBaldwin wrote in post #2107836
But power lines and trees coming from body parts even if they are OOF detract from the overall image and are a dead give away of your level as a working pro.

Ya know...now that you mention it I realize THAT is what has been bothering me...the BACKGROUND!! I dont know why I didn't see it before...its WAY too busy in the group shot!! Can you suggest a good Photoshop tool to minimize that? The "blur" tool doesn't seem to be doing much.

LBaldwin wrote in post #2107836
The girls all look pretty good the warmer the better. if you will notice you have the light bisecting many of the faces. This is a no-no. For experiemental stuffm it's OK. So fill flash should be used in this situation. Back light is OK if the sun is low enough, so After you pick your location, pick your Time of Day It should always be early or late sun never anything after 10 am or prior to 3 pm depending on the time of year.

As far as the shadows, it was 7PM and the sun was setting behind me (to my left side). I thought the warm evening light would work well, and I wanted to face the girls so the light was directly behind me, but they couldn't face that direction without squinting badly and wind blowing their hair in their face...so I tried to find a happy medium where I had good light and the wind blew the hair back off their faces. I wanted to wait until the sun went down so I had indirect light...but a few of the girls only had a 45-minute window to get the pictures taken. It was really a cluster****...I'm surprised I got any usable images at all.

LBaldwin wrote in post #2107836
If you are forced to shoot in an area with crummy backgrounds like this, then reach into your Photographers bag o' tricks <snip>

I dont even have the bag o' , let alone any tricks (other than what I've discovered in CS2). Guess I need to take a photography class or read a book or something, huh. I tried to fix the photo as best as possible...here is the original (after pasting the girls faces from other shots)

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It's a nice group shot however there are no details in the black on their uniforms. Perhaps it was lost with compression but I thought I'd have a go and see what it would look like with detail in the black. Used shadow/highlights and cooled the original image. Also cloned out the power wires & pole. hope you like it.

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Rubi Jane solved the most glairing issues. But now you understand what it means to be a pro, a REAL pro. It's cool that you were able to capture these images and do the PP to get something usable.

In the future you need to plan to reduce or eliminate all of the potential issues you learned about. It is not an easy job. Group shots are some of the toughest. I've talked to the photographer that does the U.N. groups shots it is done from a scissor lift!!

Anybody that has every shot school dances can educate you on large groups shots too.
Take care

Les

Point-N-Shoot wrote in post #2107511
I WISH!!

The wind was absolutely heinous that day, there was hair over their faces, eyes closed, girls looking at their mothers instead of me. Luckily I shot in burst mode and I used bits and pieces from 3 different shots to get this one!!

Is that cheating?

Absolutely!!! but we won't tell. I've done it too.