Life Photos.

[mholderness]

Hello Critiques,

I could use your help today on telling what I could work on with my photos. I would like to be doing more Senior photos and Portraits. I feel like I have a lot to work on and it would help to hear what I could do to make the photots look more professional.

Right now I use a Nikon D-70 Tamera Lens 18-200
I shoot in Manual settings.

[AgingEyes]

The first impression I got is: they don't look sharp. Then, it's the overall contrast of the photos: they all look kind of flat to me.

The first one from the top: the rock in the foreground is not especially interesting and so I would try to avoid it. I also like to see more of the face of the guy and so I think I would have moved to my right - perhaps a bit fowards as well - to take the shot. It's good that you leave the couple in color to get the attention of the viewer, but I would rather see them brighter in the final image.

Second one: I like this one the most. However, watch for the branches growing out of the head of the guy.

Third one: I would have taken the shot before the ferry got too close to her head. The horizon needs to be level, too.

Forth one: I would leave her feet in. Again, horizon must be level. If possible, I would try to recover some details in her lighter color shirt.

The last one, I don't like the trees behind him, especially the one that seems to have penetrated his head top to bottom. I would have moved a bit to my left to avoid it.

Overall, try to keep the eyes of the subject in focus and sharp.

Just something I could think of. I'm sure other people photogs here could give you good advice.

[mholderness]

The first impression I got is: they don't look sharp. Then, it's the overall contrast of the photos: they all look kind of flat to me.

The first one from the top: the rock in the foreground is not especially interesting and so I would try to avoid it. I also like to see more of the face of the guy and so I think I would have moved to my right - perhaps a bit fowards as well - to take the shot. It's good that you leave the couple in color to get the attention of the viewer, but I would rather see them brighter in the final image.

Second one: I like this one the most. However, watch for the branches growing out of the head of the guy.

Third one: I would have taken the shot before the ferry got too close to her head. The horizon needs to be level, too.

Forth one: I would leave her feet in. Again, horizon must be level. If possible, I would try to recover some details in her lighter color shirt.

The last one, I don't like the trees behind him, especially the one that seems to have penetrated his head top to bottom. I would have moved a bit to my left to avoid it.

Overall, try to keep the eyes of the subject in focus and sharp.

Just something I could think of. I'm sure other people photogs here could give you good advice.

Thank you for your reply!!

I am going to be going on sometime this week to take other photos of people. Ill try and watch the backgrounds a little better. Im going to try not to use the flash in my other photos to get the real colors.

[n8]

Thank you for your reply!!

I am going to be going on sometime this week to take other photos of people. Ill try and watch the backgrounds a little better. Im going to try not to use the flash in my other photos to get the real colors.

If you can get really good natural light, then that's great, but don't shy away from the flash. You may want to look into modifiers (umbrellas, softboxes, snap on diffuser, etc...) to soften the light up, experiment with positioning, strength of the flash, and working on the color balance in your editing. Even a simple reflector might be helpful if you have good natural light but you're still getting unwanted shadows.

[OldClicker]

Watch your backgrounds! - Terry

[armando_m]

I like the most the photo of the girl seating on a rock by the shore

As mentioned before you missed the feet, some things are overexposed, like her shirt and the background sky , and then there is the blurriness of the whole image

When using flash directly I try to compensate to -0.7 exposure , many times even less flash, the idea is to equalize the area illuminated by the flash to the ambient light, I do that by exposing to the ambient light, and setting the flash to TTL with the -.7 compensation , this is a general statement and I use it as a starting point, it is not a rule

The last shot seem to have been done using the zoom near the wide end ( 18mm)? making the proportions look odd , his hands and knees appear too large, ok if that is what you want, using the zoom above 35mm, or 50mm+ is better for portraits, just move farther from them so you get in the frame what originally intended.

When shooting people individually like this, watch their expression, if it doesn't look like you want it, try asking them to think of something that reflects the mood you want to capture

[pyrobug]

I love the depth of the photos but my eye was also drawn to some of the distractions in the backgrounds. Nice work!!