First Paid Session

I did my first paid session this Saturday and two days before, my flash broke(ALWAYS HAVE A BACK UP). Anyways, I used all natural light and a reflector(that i had never used before). It was extremely windy and about 40 deg. outside, but we made it work. Let me know what you think...

1.

Looks like you were fighting some harsh lighting in a few of these photos - every photographer's worst enemy! That said, the first shot has some blown out highlights, but I think they may be recoverable in post-production (if you're good at that sort of thing... as I am NOT ).

Other than that, I like the fill flash and the colors. Nicely done!

710 Studio wrote in post #6667475
Looks like you were fighting some harsh lighting in a few of these photos - every photographer's worst enemy! That said, the first shot has some blown out highlights, but I think they may be recoverable in post-production (if you're good at that sort of thing... as I am NOT ).

Other than that, I like the fill flash and the colors. Nicely done!

I saw the blown highlights and im not very good in pp, so i left them. The lighting was harsh, but considering i didnt think they were too awful.

All the fill light was from one single reflector using mostly the gold side for a warmer tone. Thanks for the response!

Keep the critique coming!

Can someone help me on how to improve from these. I have a senior shoot saturday and the weather is calling for absolutely no cloud cover...which sucks. Any tips or trick on how to rid myself of these blown highlights?

Ok, since you asked for critiques...I am going to critique each picture for you. Please do not take anything i say as being harsh or rude, because i promise you, i am not trying to be rude at all, but only trying to help you. You will definately learn a lot from other people. that is why i love this board.

on picture #....

1. I like the overall feel to this picture. It is probably one of the best ones of the group. I like the warm fall tones to the picture. You were definately fighting some harsh lighting, but sometimes you cannot find a way around that.

2. This picture looks a bit soft and could use some sharpening and contrast adjusting. Also...watch cutting the hands off. Try to get all of their hands in the picture.

3. Only thing i see is the harsh lighting, but like i said, sometimes you jsut have to try to work with that

4. Looks pretty good. could use maybe a bit of a saturation/curves boost.

5. The boy on the side looks like he is freezing (which im sure he was lol) but you can definately tell. I dont really care for the way the girl is in the front of everyone bending down.

6. The leaves are very distracting and take away from the picture. The motion blur of the leaves is very distracting.

7. The lighting looks very harsh.

8. I really like this one!! Very nice!

zelseman wrote in post #6670470
Can someone help me on how to improve from these. I have a senior shoot saturday and the weather is calling for absolutely no cloud cover...which sucks. Any tips or trick on how to rid myself of these blown highlights?

This is one of the easiest fixes. Dont shoot mid day and find shaded areas. If it is not overcast I will not schedule the shoot until 1.5 hours before sunset.

I Still have 4 Seniors scheduled in the next 2 weeks and the weather here has been sucking. Be thankful for your sunshine. Then I have 2 more who want winter shots. Thats going to be fun

christyjo2 wrote in post #6670702
Ok, since you asked for critiques...I am going to critique each picture for you. Please do not take anything i say as being harsh or rude, because i promise you, i am not trying to be rude at all, but only trying to help you. You will definately learn a lot from other people. that is why i love this board.

on picture #....

1. I like the overall feel to this picture. It is probably one of the best ones of the group. I like the warm fall tones to the picture. You were definately fighting some harsh lighting, but sometimes you cannot find a way around that.

2. This picture looks a bit soft and could use some sharpening and contrast adjusting. Also...watch cutting the hands off. Try to get all of their hands in the picture.

3. Only thing i see is the harsh lighting, but like i said, sometimes you jsut have to try to work with that

4. Looks pretty good. could use maybe a bit of a saturation/curves boost.

5. The boy on the side looks like he is freezing (which im sure he was lol) but you can definately tell. I dont really care for the way the girl is in the front of everyone bending down.

6. The leaves are very distracting and take away from the picture. The motion blur of the leaves is very distracting.

7. The lighting looks very harsh.

8. I really like this one!! Very nice!

Thank you for the input. Thats exactly what i was looking for.

locky wrote in post #6671170
This is one of the easiest fixes. Dont shoot mid day and find shaded areas. If it is not overcast I will not schedule the shoot until 1.5 hours before sunset.

I Still have 4 Seniors scheduled in the next 2 weeks and the weather here has been sucking. Be thankful for your sunshine. Then I have 2 more who want winter shots. Thats going to be fun

That sounds like a much better plan than how i did this one.
Also I have a question about using fill flash, what settings do you usually use for fill flash? I shoot mostly in Av or M modes.

For the settings with flash it all depends on the conditions. It's just something you have to play with. Take a family member outside later today and practice.

I like the first shot, but like the others mentioned, it's a bit harsh. The shadows of the trees clearly shows this wasn't taken at high noon, but the sun was still a bit strong. What I see that may need a bit of work is how the overall photo is lit.

I'm basing this on the first, third, and fourth photo btw. The shadows of the trees and the hair light is showing us the light is coming from the upper left corner of the frame, but the lighting on the subjects' face tells another story. If the sunlight is reflected back using a reflector or flash, it should not dominate that much, causing shadows where the sun is positioned. You have two suns in those photographs.

theveed wrote in post #6672690
I like the first shot, but like the others mentioned, it's a bit harsh. The shadows of the trees clearly shows this wasn't taken at high noon, but the sun was still a bit strong. What I see that may need a bit of work is how the overall photo is lit.

I'm basing this on the first, third, and fourth photo btw. The shadows of the trees and the hair light is showing us the light is coming from the upper left corner of the frame, but the lighting on the subjects' face tells another story. If the sunlight is reflected back using a reflector or flash, it should not dominate that much, causing shadows where the sun is positioned. You have two suns in those photographs.

You are correct, in those pictures the reflector was directly diagnal from the sun. I was using the gold "warm" side of the reflector. Should i be using the white side for less light, but still some reflecting of the sun?

I think you just need to move the reflector farther and "feather" the reflected light onto the subject so it won't be as harsh... Usually, I'd try a white reflector first before using a gold one, since the sun is already throwing a glowing yellow light at that time of the day, a white reflector may be sufficient.

The photos are composed well, good job.

I am not a pro by any means, but..i'll comment on stuff besides lighting

#1 needs more room around the frame, more head room and don't cut the hands off. It's a good pose and a great angle. I would have just swapped the mother and the father around so the mother covers up his largeness more.

#2 too much head room, too much of the bodies are cut off, there is a shadow across the right girls face

#3 good composition.. watch that hand though, it looks disconnected and like its choking him, also if you break the rule and still do that, make sure the fingers are flat and together

#4 if going for a straight forward picture as you did, do center it as best as possible. you could have tried for more interesting posing, like having the mother stand up slightly behind the father with her hands on his shoulder, wedding ring showing of course

#5 a cute snap shot, but not well posed, not to mention the guy on the left has a horrible expression lol, i suggest looking up the rules on posing, though those can be broken, again with the space issue too.. more room on the sides, should have been a horizontal picture

#6 not a bad choise of pose, but the leaves break the picture

#7 i like the feel to this one better, good use of space, the staggered heads, mom in the middle, it's just they all have double chins and though a good picture, i'm sure the mom isn't going to like it, i would have maybe sat them together in the leaves and shot down at them

#8 good picture, nice composition

hope this helps! off to a good start

Thanks so much for the responses, and in regard to the picture with the falling leaves, i took a few similar shots without the leaves too, just liked this one.
My customer was very happy with the results. Im not getting rich by any means, but i think i returned a good product for what i charge. Thanks guys and girls!

The lighting is way too harsh for my liking.. 2,5,6,7,8 are soft..

My favorite is number 4 the lighting seems to be best in this shot and this should be what you are striving toward looking for something out of the direct sunlight. I would suggest if you are going to be shooting outside without a flash you get some additional filters to help balance the background and the foreground using some Neutral Density filters would allow you to maintain some of the color in the background while still getting good color on your subjects. Also a polarizing filter might help as well.
Also watch your focal plane with groups. In several of the shots one or more are in focus while the rest are out of focus because they are in a different focal plane. Number 2 the boy seems to be in focus but both girls seem slightly out of focus they are on different focal planes you would need to increase depth of field which is not always the best solution so try and get them all on the same focal plane. Just some ideas I hope are helpful.