1st post for E-Shoot

I have been lurking long enough....time to post some images and get some honest feedback.
Thanks
Nancy <;0)

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

Hey Nancy. glad you joined the farm and posted.

Your images are nice, but look quite overexposed. If you shot in RAW, re-process them and turn down the exposure until the skin tones look natural. I'm surprised they came out this bright with -1 EC. It just goes to show that camera meters are fooled easily. The best thing to do is to check the histogram and learn how to read them.

It is a very bright day but you shot at ISO400. ISO100 would have done a great job here with a bit more clarity at the pixel level.

When conditions are this bright, flash can help a lot by lifting out the dark shadowed areas. The sun was relatively low which is good, but when it's really high, the eyes tend to fall into deep shadow and that isn't preferred. Your flash will only function as a light fill so you do not need to diffuse or modify it. Fire it straight on and bare.

1. Nice that you didn't centre them, but it looks a bit odd to have them facing towards the short side. Maybe next time try making them face into to frame rather than out of it.

The horizon, water, and land make a really nice background, but it's really high in the frame. Lowering it and also lowering your camera angle a touch would make the awesome background more apparent and pretty.

They have their sunglasses on in both pics. For the most part, unless specifically requested, it's usually nicer to get mostly photos with their shades off, with a couple here and there with them on. The eyes are always the most looked at part of a portrait.

2 is a nice pose, but again it would be better with the shades off.

There are excellent background elements but they have not really been taken advantage of. Going wider and getting really close in would really bring the rocks out more, and going telephoto and standing further back would really bring the water into the shot. But at this focal length, neither of them really make any kind of impact.

In any case, they are nice photos and thanks for sharing!

Looks more like +1EV than -1EV since the in-camera meter usually underexposes snowy environments.

I couldn't say anything of substance that ^ didn't already say.

General comments I have are to zoom in, zoom out, get close and personal or get far and show the environment, adjust your angles all the time, work around the subjects. If I have a chance I'll make 10 different photos from one pose and position, even if it isn't a good idea. In my case, the goal is to increase my odds of getting a good one even if I don't know what I'm doing.

Thanks for the suggestions.....I sure have a lot to learn!
Nancy <;0)