My Wife - First Shoot

My wife actually had enough patience to stand if front of the camera for me today to practice shooting. Normally she hates taking pictures.
I just got my first DSLR last week, a Canon T2i, and just love it. Right now my Dad let me borrow his Vivitar DF-383 flash, really want my hands on his 580ex ii.

So i know the lighting might not be the greatest in these pics since I just had natural light, the flash bounced of ceiling and using it's built in bounce card, as well as a desk lamp off to the right of the pic.

Any CC are welcome.

She grabbed the cat for this one and he was less than thrilled about it.

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Is there a reason I can only upload two pics at a time? Have I not been a member long enough?
I see a lot of poeple posting multiple pics.

Anyway here is another of her. I really thought I messed this pic up, but after some PP in CS3 I really like it.
She was standing in front of a big picture window and it was snowing out. I used a longer exposure which really over exposed it, but did some PP work and I don't think it's too bad.

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its blown out. Crop a little tighter too.

M.

image quality are okay, please use the rule of thirds....

http://en.wikipedia.or​g/wiki/Rule_of_thirds

That first shot is great! I love that you cropped it so she is to the left, rather than dead center. nice. lighten up her eyes and you've got a winner.

The second shot needs to be cropped way down. Just include her head and shoulders and pp out the shine in the left of her teeth/mouth.

the third one is tragic. Her posture is bad, her mouth and jaw are missing.

Overall, a great start! Keep shooting!

M are they all blown out or just the 3rd one? I agree that Pic isn't the greatest. When I took it I almost and probably should have just deleted it right on the camera.
I played with it a little in CS3, but because it was soo over exposed I couldn't do much with it.
Personally I kinda liked they way it looked though.
She's not a pro model and she hates having her pic taken. Not sure how well she is gonna take me telling her to stand better.

With the 2nd one I left space above her head since I was showing below her shoulders.
In shots like that do most only do shoulders to top of head?

just keep practicing...! you'll be much better in no time, and once your wife sees how great the images look in the future she will be modeling for you a lot more.

Thanks for the tips I did play with the crop of that 2nd photo and it does look better. Much more comfortable shooting landscapes or my cats.

I hope she wants to, but not holding out hope lol.
Little story: my dad is a pro photographer, 33yrs now, and we had him take our engagement photos. We did them in my parents backyard lots or great landscaping with flowering bushes and trees. We were out there for maybe 5min and she was sick of it and wanted to be done and my dad was like I only took a few shots i'm still getting the lighting set.
So maybe one day she'll be more willing, but we'll see.

I suggested cropping the second shot differently because her shirt dominates the bottom part of the scene and she is a beautiful woman, our eyes should be drawn to her face and great smile, not her competing plaid shirt. There was too much empty space above her head, so a tighter crop kills two birds with one stone.

When you take photos of people, you should spend a lot of time telling them to "stand better." Most people have poor posture in photos, even more so than in real life, and an important part of our making them look good is to straighten them up. It is an occupational hazard/responsibility. ; )

Keep shooting. Cats are harder than people.

if her face wasn't blown out it would work.

trossite wrote in post #11611713
With the 2nd one I left space above her head since I was showing below her shoulders.
In shots like that do most only do shoulders to top of head?

This is how I would approach your #2 shot:

Zoom in to 55mm with your lens, frame the shot so there is only a small amount of extra space above her head, and reposition yourself (closer or farther from her) until you have the shot you want. It's up to you how much shoulder or body to include. I think your shot will be fine once all that extra space is removed from above her head.

Thanks for the tip rdchamb.

What type of lens (range) do you guys shoot these types of pics with?

trossite wrote in post #11626152
Thanks for the tip rdchamb.

What type of lens (range) do you guys shoot these types of pics with?

I think the higher the better. A person should look better at 135mm than they do at 35mm. Not only do features look better (you avoid the peephole/distorted look you can get from using a wide angle for portraits) but you are more likely to end up with some blurred backgrounds which focus the viewer on the subject and not the distracting things that might be behind them.

I use my 70-200 for portraits. A cheaper option that does a good job too is the 55-250.

trossite wrote in post #11611713
M are they all blown out or just the 3rd one? I agree that Pic isn't the greatest. When I took it I almost and probably should have just deleted it right on the camera.
I played with it a little in CS3, but because it was soo over exposed I couldn't do much with it.
Personally I kinda liked they way it looked though.
She's not a pro model and she hates having her pic taken. Not sure how well she is gonna take me telling her to stand better.

With the 2nd one I left space above her head since I was showing below her shoulders.
In shots like that do most only do shoulders to top of head?

#1 nice expression, white balance seems a little off and you should crop tighter and lose the space to the right. play with this one, its the best in the set.
#2 way too much space overhead, don't be afraid to crop tight, you can even lose tops of heads and make nice images. "get close, then get closer" is what you should think.
#3 delete it! harsh but its very over exposed, you've lost her face and the background has crept into the subject.

just remember to fill the frame and use the golden mean or the rule of thirds works best in most cases.

keep at it, my wife is the same! no time for me but complains when i say i want to hire models to practice!

M.

Yeah my dad says he uses his 70-200 as well. Hopefully in a couple of month I will have this lens - Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM

I love his EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM , way out of my price range.