Zack & Katie

Just switched to Canon last week. This was one of my first sessions with my new gear. Still trying to get used to the camera, but so far im liking it a lot!! More from this set can be seen on my flickr!! Thanks- Josh

Very nice shots. Nice models as well. You not planning to remove the uhm pimples or whatever they are under her right eye, very distracting?

lol why didnt he put gages back in... floppy ear hole looks pretty gross to me..

@domat thanks!! I actually did fix it and uploaded the wrong ones,just fixed it. Thanks for pointing it out!

@732NJ I think he has completely stopped wearing them and is trying to let them shrink a little, they were much much bigger! haha

I'm more curious with why you switched from the D300 to Canon (other than crop to full).

There is an odd sun spot on her left eye lid in the first pic...is that sunlight coming through one of his ear lobes?

great series and great natural looking models!

@jase1125 i was wanting to move to full frame and saw there was a 20% bing cash back through best buy so I just had to jump on the 5d since it ended up being $1900 brand new! also the tones from this camera were much better to me than my d300 and they are just much easier to work with.

@kezug haha I didnt really think of that! could be!

@blakeG! Thanks!!

Honestly most of these look more snap-shotty than anything. There is barely any eye contact, a lot of missed focus and some of the crops are off or not the best. It looks like you had two great subjects. They look edgy and like they would be up for most anything photography wise. Had you put a little thought and planning into the shoot (clothing, location, various shots, etc) this could of been a great shoot. Instead it was a missed opportunity.

jenirose3 wrote in post #10576405
Honestly most of these look more snap-shotty than anything. There is barely any eye contact, a lot of missed focus and some of the crops are off or not the best. It looks like you had two great subjects. They look edgy and like they would be up for most anything photography wise. Had you put a little thought and planning into the shoot (clothing, location, various shots, etc) this could of been a great shoot. Instead it was a missed opportunity.

Not sure where you are coming from with some of this. There isnt much eye contact because they wanted pictures of them interacting with each other. Eye contact with the camera would have killed that. As far as the focus goes the only possible one I can see that in is the first one where it is a little off on her. The others seem perfectly focused to me. I havent been taking pictures long, the first time I picked up a camera was a year and a half ago, I think I have come a very long way since then. Overall I would not call this a missed opportunity at all. I do appreciate your critiques though, im not discouraging that in any way, I just dont see some of the things you are pointing out.

I think you did a wonderful job of conveying the love between these two people.. Good job.

1. Soft (in all of the important areas). Her face is soft and parts of his face is soft. His closest hand is in focus. I don't know your settings on this image so I can't say for sure what this is from most likely it was your AP. If this was your intent (to have an image in and out of focus you nailed it).

2. Again most of this image is soft and not tack sharp. It appears as if the focus fell on her closest hand and a portion of his shirt where she is holding on to. Having it in B/W helps hide the focus issue but the center cropping is boring. Yes you cropped closer to his back than hers but the focal point is right around their faces. Where you see the interaction between them and that should evoke some emotion. That part is dead center. It's all about planning and execution.

3. Most of the image is soft not tack sharp. The focus fell on her closest shoulder. Again if this was your intent (to only focus on her shoulder) then you nailed it. Also the slight elbow chop on him in your cropping makes it seem too cramped.

4/5. Focus wise I can see where you are going. Her expression looking at him and her expression when he makes the heart. I think this was heading in the right direction. But you can hardly see him at all. Without the other images you would not know what or who she is smiling at. There would be no back story or emotion tied to it for the most viewers.

6. Again in and out of focus. Most of her face is soft except a portion of her eye/cheek closest and most of his face is soft except a portion of his nose/cheek. For the viewer they are not focusing on the emotion and the image as a whole their eye is trying to resolve the soft spots here and there in the image. Not knowing your settings, I'm guessing AP. If that was your intent....

7. Having his face OOF and distorted may have been your intention. In that case the execution (or planning) is off because it unclear how his OOF and distorted face fits into your vision for this image. It just a huge distraction.

8/9. Best of the bunch focus wise. Background is ok. Nothing spectacular. Looks like they are out in the middle of the street. A park or some other greenery would have taken it up a few notches. Could use some tweeks in cropping.

10. This one is the best one for cropping, angle, focus, etc.

Your exposure is really good on all of these. Some eye contact would not kill it. Look around at some good engagement photogs like gabe at perspective eye. He is a master at execution and vision.

@jenirose3 wow that you so much for these critiques! I really do appreciate it! going back and looking at these now I see what you are saying. Also the aperture on most of these was 2.2 i think. Starting to think maybe there is a little front focus going on. I will check my camera and see what I come up with.

Ok just did some testing with my camera on a tripod in full manual mode using center AF point. Looks like the 50mm 1.4 is front focusing slightly at close distance and much much more at say 10 feet away. I tried my 17-40L and it had the exact same result! Tried switching the focus point to the top outer point and the problem was gone!!! Starting to think my camera is a little messed up. Gonna call Canon to see what they say.

Wow reading through some of the comments makes me raise an eyebrow, and I've been here for a while...Sounds like a tough crowd!
I dunno, but I like the set. Sure there are some improvements that need to be made. But the positives are they look real natural in front of the camera and I think you caught some great emotion.

Be sure to micro-adjust the 5DII focus, especially for the 50 1.4. And welcome to the forum. Don't let them scare you off from posting more!