Silverback11b Loc: Northern Illinois

My niece asked me to take some pictures.
Not to happy with the indoor shot but I think I made up for it outdoors.
What do you think?

(Download)


(Download)


(Download)

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

OK, honest opinions here, but only my opinions. (artistic tastes are different for everyone.)

First shot is the most flattering of both of them, but the white balance is off. Even if it is shot in JPEG,(not sure) there are ways to correct that in Photoshop.

Second shot, best lighting of the 3. Nice use of shallow depth of field (in the bottom 2, both are nice) Only critique is that it almost looks lie the focus is on the tip of her nose, and not the eyes. Selective sharpening or something may help a little with that?

The third is pretty good, but not flattering to him at all. The pose is very stiff compared to the first one. I think the only thing that bothers me is that so much of him is cut off, and s has so much room on her side. A different crop, maybe to 8x10 ratio may help.

Once again, just my opinion. Nothing horribly wrong, just a few pointers that may or may not be useful.

Silverback11b Loc: Northern Illinois

Thanks for critiquing. BTW all poses for the young man make him look stiff. He is as rigid as they come. :)

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

I have a few relatives like that too.

He does look fairly relaxed in the first, though.

Weddingguy Loc: British Columbia - Canada

According to the exif information on your images, you shot all of these images on manual with the same settings . . . indoors and out. Seems strange since you obviously have more light outdoors than in. The result is the indoor image was badly underexposed. Also the exif shows that your EV is set at -2/3. I'm not a Nikon user, so I am only guessing, that, if that is like Canon's Exposure compensation, it would cause most of your images to be underexposed.

None of the images are sharp. I looked to see if it could be camera/subject movement, but it appears that you are not being quite careful enough on your focusing techniques. On the third image his right shoulder seems to be much sharper than their faces. In portraits having all eyes in sharp focus is pretty well a must . . . not to be accomplished in post processing, but to be sharp from the camera..

A few tips:
Focusing is a 3 step process . . . first focus on the most important part of the subject (eyes) . . . while holding the shutter release button half way down to lock in that focus point, re-compose the picture . . . then push the shutter release button the rest of the way to capture the image. Practice that . . . always - Focus - Re-compose - Capture.

2nd tip:
If shooting an individual, F/1.8 to F/3.5 is fine with careful focusing . . but with more than one subject, I would say that you need the depth of field created by using at least F/6.3 with a 50mm lens . . . higher if using a longer focal length lens.

Lastly:
On your indoor shot you have the couple with their backs to a nice large window. That would have been the light that I would have used for this shot, so would have turned them towards that window. My mentor decades ago gave me a tip that has stuck with me . . . "take the subject to the light".

Hope that helps . . .

Silverback11b Loc: Northern Illinois

Thanks for taking the time to offer help.. I may have a camera issue (maybe calibration?.) I've practiced this technique for a while now.
hmmm....

A few tips:
Focusing is a 3 step process . . . first focus on the most important part of the subject (eyes) . . . while holding the shutter release button half way down to lock in that focus point, re-compose the picture . . . then push the shutter release button the rest of the way to capture the image. Practice that . . . always - Focus - Re-compose - Capture.

WAKD Loc: Cincinnati

I was able to fix it up a little. The background was 'greyed out' just a touch. Let me know if you wan to try more doctoring.

(Download)

WAKD Loc: Cincinnati

I was able to fix it up a little. The background was 'greyed out' just a touch. Let me know if you wan to try more doctoring.

(Download)