Jeff and Ele Engagement

Hi everyone. I did my first engagement shoot today for a friend and it was a tremendous learning experience. Fighting the clock since we were shooting at sunset made for some very interesting "on the fly" decisions but I think overall it went well. C&C welcome and appreciated.

NOTE: The entire set can be found here - http://www.flickr.com …is/sets/7215762​5062144523

A few more...

Just 3 more...

Good strong set! My thoughts:
Really like #1 but I htink the ring needs some pop.
Love #2!
#3 LIke the series of shots here.
Pretty shot.
Love 5!
Love 6 but think having the couple a little more off center would enhance it
7 hilarious that he has his foot up like that! cute!
LIke the last 2

Nice set. Good Work. #5 Seems you missed the focus??

#1 is a shot you dont see and I like the originality of it. I agree that the ring could use some more pop.

#2&3 is very nice

#4, the clipping of their feet and head bothers me

5 is sweet and romantic

6 seems out of focus?

7 is nice but the depth of field might be a little too strong. Would have been nice to have him as in focus as she is

8, love it!

9, 10, 11 are great. May I ask your lighting?

Thanks everyone. The shot of them leaning on the railing looking out into the sunset was just such as beautiful shot I couldn't pass it up even though I did miss the focus a hair on it. I think it feels like a scene out of a movie which I really liked.

For the shots where I used flash. I had a 580EX at 1/32 power on camera left with a 1/2CTO gel shooting through a Lastolite trigrip 1-stop diffuser as the main light and then a bare 540EZ at 1/128 power to their rear just out of frame about 8 feet away from them to get some rim lighting. All triggered using Elinchrom skyports.

Thanks

very nice series! i really dig the first one!

What up dude! Nice work. For the night shot, did you try full cut of cto? Looks a bit cold still. I'm gonna shoot my first e shoot in a few weeks, so I'm looking for some inspiration.

gogators wrote in post #11172079
What up dude! Nice work. For the night shot, did you try full cut of cto? Looks a bit cold still. I'm gonna shoot my first e shoot in a few weeks, so I'm looking for some inspiration.

No, I didn't try full CTO. I didn't think it would look natural (sunset at night?). I wish I had more practice mixing ambient with flash at night. When we did the tighter shots I was kind hoping to light them up in a way that it would look like they were lit by the street lamps. The idea to shoot the bare flash for the rim/highlight came as a car drove down and naturally lit them and I liked how it looked so I just tried to replicate the look with a flash.

I like these! Maybe straighten 2nd to last so that the city lights along the shore are straight? Kinda looks like the city might roll off into the water.

#1 (ring shot) is my fav, didn't notice the ring needing more pop until someone mentioned it and I think I agree.

edit: also in #1, maybe clone out the single strand of sweater that is popping up in the sunlight? My eye gets drawn to it like the sun is spotlighting it.

Sunset pictures can be the best time for beautiful light... #1) you want the people to be exposed correctly. Right now it seems the sky is good, but her ring is not very sparkly.
#2) Not really centered or off centered. you should focus where you want them to be... they're kinda lost in the background mess. last one in the first post, his head is cropped too close to the top of the frame. When you shoot, try to leave yourself cropping room. What if the couple wanted to order an 8x10 image? You'd have to extend the background or loose part of the image.

2nd set, the kissing one would be better if she didn't have a shadow right on her forehead. Try to get more profiles in kissing shots. It's a "photo kiss" not really a real "tilted head" kiss. The profile shot looking over the water, the horizon line is going right through their head. Kinda distracting. IF you moved slightly up or down you could minimize that. The one of him holding her in his arms, It'd be nice to see his whole feet. It's strange to drop at the knees.

The BW feet shot, there is something between their legs in the background that is distracting. Why is the guy lifting his feet? If you're trying to be funny, it came across as feminine. Not the best pose for dudes. Also try getting on ground level when doing shots of feet.

mmmkay? =) Hope this helps.

> The BW feet shot, there is something between their legs in the background that is distracting. Why is the guy lifting his feet? If you're trying to be funny, it came across as feminine. Not the best pose for dudes. Also try getting on ground level when doing shots of feet.

There's a bench in the background and yeah I see how it can be distracting. He's lifting his leg because we were making fun of the exact cliche shot of the woman lifting her leg as in your shot#2. Most people who've seen this shot including non-photographer friends have gotten a kick out of that shot because it's obviously both the wrong person lifting the leg and on the "wrong" side. Oh well.

>also in #1, maybe clone out the single strand of sweater that is popping up in the sunlight? My eye gets drawn to it like the sun is spotlighting it.

Interesting...I didn't even see that until you mentioned it. Now it's bother me..lol.