First model

Luckily she's my girlfriend so she puts up with me I shot these in Raw + JPEG but am having a hell of a time figuring out how to work Raw and make it pop. Please give me feedback about these photos.

Shot with my T1i and EF 50 f/1.4.

#1

I'll give it a try im new still pretty new to this haha; Try not to cut off her hand, top of her head and hair.

She is a very pretty lady and your captures are nice. You mentioned you want to make them pop... it's all in the eyes. If you look at the first and the second, there is no light in the eyes and they look dull (not the subject, just the eyes). Put light in the eyes - either with fill flash or in photoshop. I played around with the first image and in a couple minutes made it "pop" a little more to me. Didn't post it because you don't have "image editing ok" marked, but if you would like to see a small example let me know.

D

You have some great shots here.

They all look like pictures that was taken underexposed (on the face), and that you made that part of the picture brighter in PP. To get the exposure right is easier if you avoid direct sun light. Try to take pictures in the shadows, where the difference between the brightest and darkest part of the picture are much less. Direct sunlight gives an harsh contrast, with very dark areas and very bright areas. Wich means, you easily get both over and underexposure in the same picture.

To get good image quality on a portrait in direct sunlight is one of the most diffucult challenges you can pick. Search out shadows instead, and you will get an easier task. Everything will then be more balanced and also pop up better.

I would also recomend you to think about how to get the picture sharper. Was the exposure to slow? Then you are in risk of both getting motion blur becouse the girl moves, and blur becouse you move. Choose a more than 200 and you will get better results. To take pictures with f1.4 is also more difficult, you are then having a very small area that will be sharp. Start to use as much as possible untill you get the picture perfectly sharp, then start to experiment more with 1.4.

Darvon wrote in post #10131014
She is a very pretty lady and your captures are nice. You mentioned you want to make them pop... it's all in the eyes. If you look at the first and the second, there is no light in the eyes and they look dull (not the subject, just the eyes). Put light in the eyes - either with fill flash or in photoshop. I played around with the first image and in a couple minutes made it "pop" a little more to me. Didn't post it because you don't have "image editing ok" marked, but if you would like to see a small example let me know.

D

I see what you're saying. I don't have a fill flash or photoshop, so that might be a problem Can the fill flash come from the popup flash or would that cause the photos to become dull?

Also, I changed my settings so please post your edit. I'd love to see what you did with it.

kent andersen wrote in post #10131187
You have some great shots here.

They all look like pictures that was taken underexposed (on the face), and that you made that part of the picture brighter in PP. To get the exposure right is easier if you avoid direct sun light. Try to take pictures in the shadows, where the difference between the brightest and darkest part of the picture are much less. Direct sunlight gives an harsh contrast, with very dark areas and very bright areas. Wich means, you easily get both over and underexposure in the same picture.

To get good image quality on a portrait in direct sunlight is one of the most diffucult challenges you can pick. Search out shadows instead, and you will get an easier task. Everything will then be more balanced and also pop up better.

I would also recomend you to think about how to get the picture sharper. Was the exposure to slow? Then you are in risk of both getting motion blur becouse the girl moves, and blur becouse you move. Choose a more than 200 and you will get better results. To take pictures with f1.4 is also more difficult, you are then having a very small area that will be sharp. Start to use as much as possible untill you get the picture perfectly sharp, then start to experiment more with 1.4.

No PP here (see above comment). Notes taken on the sunlight. These were taken at about 7pm last night and the sun was much higher than I expected. Next time I will find some trees and report back.

The exposure was not slow on these shots. I was shooting ISO 100 and f/2.8 for the outdoor shots, so the shutter speed was well over 1/500. The shot with the red background was in a parking garage after dinner. ISO 1600, f/2, 1/125 (I chose f/2 for the lack of light).

I selected the focus points manually and picked one one either eye. You suggest I use a deeper DOF to get her face sharper instead of just the eyes? Would that be somewhere around f/4 or even less? I'm just trying to get an idea of what a subtle change in aperture can make.


Notes taken:
1. Don't cut off fingers
2. Shoot in the shade
3. Fill flash
4. Stop down for sharpness

Thanks for the feedback so far!

Nice pictures Staszek. If photoshop is something you don't want to spend too much money on right now, then try to download Gimp. The functions are pretty similar to photoshop, and it's free. #5 would be better if the crop was a little better, just like the above comment say, don't cut off the fingers. The pop up flash would be fine for fill flash, the only thing is, with subject close, the flash might be a little too bright. I took a some pictures before using the pop up as fill with my 50mm 1.4, and the subject were a little too bright.

Over all, nice pictures. Keep shooting.

Beautiful girl. I played a little bit with the second image. Lightened the eyes and removed some of her 'imperfections' if you want to call them that. Also closed her lips, the small amount of teeth showing was a distraction. I did not play around with the balance or color at all. Those are all nice shots. Keep up the good work.

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Staszek wrote in post #10131915
I see what you're saying. I don't have a fill flash or photoshop, so that might be a problem Can the fill flash come from the popup flash or would that cause the photos to become dull?

Also, I changed my settings so please post your edit. I'd love to see what you did with it.

I think flash off the camera i.e. the pop-up, kills the photos. Here is a 3 minute edit. Needs a little white balancing, but was more interested in giving the eyes some life:

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Your girlfriend is a attractive person and great to have her model for you. She got nice eyes.

I like the 3rd photo and the pose in the 5th but might be better if she would turn her head slightly towards with a smile.

Image 1105 from your web site is a good photo.
http://www.flickr.com …s/s_olszewski/4​583087947/