New photos

[peter]

Well I have not been posting much of late. Me and my camera have not been on good speaking terms, its a love hate thing it love to hate me. NO really I have been trying different things of late this is how. I set up a face book group here is the link if you want to have a look.

Oh and there are a few more in my gallery if you want to have look. The young lady is called Emily by the way and was still smiling after almost 3 hours of having her photos taken. I gave her a copy of all the photos last night and she seemed very happy with them so much so that she put one up has her new fb profile picture and posted about another 20 or so for her mates to see. I like to think that meant job well done.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gi...1094679&ref=mf.

Now here also is the result of the first shoot from that weekend.







I know this is not the right place to post them for feed back put please let me know what you think of either the photos or the group. Oh and that Saturday afternoon was the most fun I have had with my camera all year. In fact I was going to say this could be my Ferrari season for those in the know it was going that bad. Sorry small in joke there.

Thanks
Peter

[Ian]

Re: New photos

3 hours!

I really like the second one in particular - she looks relaxed and seems to be enjoying the experience of being photographed.

Ian

[Autumn]

Re: New photos

Hello Peter

I know you have not posted in the critique forum but you say you would like feedback.

You cannot fail to like the photos with such a pretty girl, so here are my comments:

Because I have very little knowledge on how to take portraits, I am just going on the obvious things to me.

No 1 - Not sure that the face is quite sharp. I quite like the pose, but would like to see the eyes more on the thirds - perhaps this would have meant you leaving a bit more above her head and a little less down below. Who knows? You would have to try it. Overall I like it and although not a lover of mono, I like this too.

No 2 - I really like this pose except for the soles of her shoes. I am not quite sure how you could get round this other than crop them off and that would spoil the overall picture. Perhaps she could have curled her legs to the side, so that the soles of her shoes would not be seen.

No 3 - I am not really keen on this type of pose, because it does not look natural - it looks posed and I don't think her face and hair are quite sharp. I love her beautiful gentle expression and her hands and wrists look good.

No 4 - Similar to No 3 - probably just me not liking hands and face together as a pose. If it were natural (which it can be) I can handle that.

No 5 - Quite a pleasant natural looking pose. I would probably be inclined to crop about a centimetre of the left hand side - just keeping the elbow in.

All in all a very creditable selection. I can understand why you are both delighted with them.

Remember, this is just my opinion and I only do snaps.

[peter]

Re: New photos

Hi Ian and Autumn

Yes Ian almost 3 hours of wondering a local park trying to find good spots for photos. She was still laughing and joking when we left. She as even said if I need to do anymore in the future she will be willing and could even round up some mates for group shots. Not sure if you looked at the fb group page but it did say I was with a woman tog as well. The reasons for this was I just wanted a woman's input and in these days it just seems wrong when a guy is seen taking photos of a young lady so that also helps with that.

Autumn

I thanks you for the feed back this is what I was looking for.

No1

I think this is not one of the best and I always have trouble with b/w photos this is something I must work on.

No2

I like the pose and did not think of the the soles of her shoes. Looking back at this one it would have been so much better if she had pulled her knees up to her chest and then had her feet flat to the ground.

No3 and No4

Well I hold my hands up to this one. With her sitting down I was just trying to make sure she was doing something with her hands. I did tell her not to put any weight on to her hand but to just rest her chin on it. I had seen this done before and had read this just stops the chin being push up wards into the face. Sorry to say the young lady had a a little bit of bad skin nothing over the top but still something that needed to be cleaned up. This could be why the face looks not so sharp. This could well be down to how I did the clean up. I will say these are the ones I like the best but have taken what you have said on board.

No 5

I was just trying to use the bridge as a frame but would have to look at that again as I can see it does stick out to far on the left hand side.

Again thanks for the feed back as this is the only way we learn. This is an area I would like to improve in which is why I set the group up.

[peter]

Re: New photos

Audrey here are 3 more. One is a better pose on the bridge as it does not show the soles of her shoes. One has that hand pose again but with her brushing her hair back wards as it was a windy day. The last one just to show what a great smile she had. I have not edited nay of these so as to show the minor skin problems.

[Autumn]

Re: New photos

Another lovely set Peter.

Regarding the poses:

No 1 I really like this pose, but wonder if it would look more natural if Emily's fingers were unfurled? You would need to try it.

No 2 I don't mind Emily pushing her hair back, because it is so natural for a girl to do this, but again the hand under the chin, doesn't work for me as it is not usually a natural pose unless she happened to have her elbow supported on something. Perhaps it does help to frame the face, but again it is personal choice. I like the blurred out background.

No 3 I like the pose and the positioning of this photograph, but if you had spotted it before pressing the shutter, you could have asked her to drop her right knee, so that the blue jeans weren't in the corner of the photo.

With regard to her skin. It is not apparent to me. I feel that the photos are not quite sharp, you may have moved? Were you using a tripod?

If you feel you need to process certain parts ie skin, you need not include the eyes.

I think it was Stephen that once told me to focus on the eyes.

Also Kenny Kodak has a very good blog about Tops of Ladies Arms! I think it is worth a read. I have saved it.

I mention this, because if Emily had not got her hand up to her face, the top of her right arm may not be too flattering from the angle you have taken the photograph.

Now Peter, it is a funny thing that I am saying all this and I hope you take it in the spirit it is given, because I know, although I can see what I see (rightly or wrongly) I could not have made nearly as good a job of the shoot as you have - so congratulations.

[Mowgli]

Re: New photos

Good to see you posting up pics again Pete, looks like you had a good time, even the weather was kind to you! I was going to say you managed a post without using that F word ( a make of car that you love talking about) but no it crept in there... Keep up the good work and I hope it keeps getting better for you and Rachel

Mowgli

[peter]

Re: New photos

Audrey

Yes again you are right. Its funny but I told Emily that I would give here two A3 prints for her time as well as a disk of all the photos. Well all the photos that did not have eyes closed and the like. Well she wants the first one of the last set and one other one that I have not posted of her flicking her hair back.

The last one of the last set was down to me I cropped it so as to get rid of her bag. I guess I did not get away with it.

Mowgli

Sorry about the F word but it was a long post for me . It also summed up how I was feeling before this weekend. I think me and Rachel got on very well and loads of fun was had by all. Yes we were very lucky with the weather, I really did not think it was going ahead midweek with all the rain we were having.

[peter]

Re: New photos

This is the last one I will post. This is the other one Emily has chosen. Its funny but it did not make my list of top photos but I guess I can see why see likes it. This photo does look natural and shows the weather on the day which was windy

[Autumn]

Re: New photos

Very nice Peter. Yes, I am sure it is because it looks so natural.

I forgot to say earlier, that I much prefer these types of portraits than studio portraits with lots of lighting.