My first crack at portrait photography...

[shocksyde]

Good Morning,

I had a "shoot" with my friend (I wanted to practice, she wanted some nice pictures of herself) and would like some constructive criticism from my fellow bored peoples.

The site contains ALL the pictures I took, so there are bound to be some out of focus, improperly exposed, etc. So if you're REALLY bored, give it a look.

A little info about the pictures:
- Used natural sunlight or your typical indoor lighting (lamps, overhead lights, etc)
- Canon XTi camera with 50mm f1.8 lens
- Tried to use a large aperture when appropriate to isolate the subject
- None of the pictures have had ANY work done to them in photoshop, etc. Not even cropped yet.
- I was snapping pictures non-stop, so there are some repetitive pictures
- I'm definitely not a professional or anything, so keep that in mind

Warning, the site uses flash: HAVE AT IT

 

[FoBoT]

purty nice

 

[shocksyde]

Thanks, I was beginning to think my post was destined to drop out of existence

 

[Koing]

Most of the pictures look nice when the lighting isn't poor.

:thumbsup:

Focus on her eyelashs if you do a shot of her face.

Koing

 

[shocksyde]

All the images are on my computer in RAW format, so I can do a good bit of lightening

Thanks for the comments

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

The first and second ones are precious. OMG bunny wanna cuddle 🙂

3rd: Blown out highlights on face.
4th-5th: Just doing mundane stuff, background not the greatest

Holy there are a lot more...

I like: 7, 13... OMG there's too much.

Red Shirt, Red brick background: I like 🙂

Black coat, brown bush background: Eh, the surroundings aren't that great. Brown dead branches, etc. Not that much color in the pictures.

Bench: Same dead as above, but I like her facial expressions.

Pool: Not enough of her eyes. Try to go for a shot that's on the same level as the ball. For examples, go to http://pro.corbis.com/ -> search for 'pool billiards'

Kitty: OMG kitty!!! Yay!!!! At first I couldn't even tell if it was even a kitty. Lacked definition and the lighting could have been better. Try to get kitty to look at the camera?

Stacked cushion things: Background too busy and mundane. The door kinda kills the continuity of the photo. Like some of the poses though.

Movie chair with painting: Some of the shots got her as she was blinking or half blinking. Color balance is a bit too orange. I like the face + painting shots more than the body + chair + painting shots. In the latter it seems like the painting is there for no reason, almost like an afterthought. It's not the focus, it's too small to really stand out and give character to the background.

I think you need to be more selective of which photos you post. It's hard to critique such a large collection, and people generally like to keep seeing different photos, not photos that are just marginally different because the subject changed her posture, etc. Not sure why you chose to post the shots that had her blinking or half blinking.

 

[yhelothar]

STOP CENTERING ALL THE PICTURES
Other than that, they're pretty decent.
Try using more poses, angles, etc.
Get more closeup shots.
Get the light to be more focused on the girl's face.

 

[shocksyde]

Yeah, hopefully everyone understands from my initial post that these aren't my chosen favorites, they're the ENTIRE shoot. So, I can appreciate the comments, but I realize some of the pictures have closed eyes and so on.

With that said though, it was kinda silly of me to post them all like that, so I definately understand.

Anyways, I see some great suggestions and I'll definitely keep them in mind my next go-round. I didn't really concentrate on her posing or anything, this shoot was more to help me get a feel for my new camera and see what it's capable of.

After I do some editing and cropping I'll come back with a proper gallery.

Thanks!