Where can I have my pictures criticized?

[Perio]

Guys, would you suggest me keep the Fong's lightsphere or get something like this to use with on-camera 600 ex-rt?

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/741844-REG/Lastolite_LL_LS2420S_Ezybox_Speed_Lite.html

 

[Besisika]

Guys, would you suggest me keep the Fong's lightsphere or get something like this to use with on-camera 600 ex-rt?

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/741844-REG/Lastolite_LL_LS2420S_Ezybox_Speed_Lite.html

I use something like this
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/60x90cm-24-x35-Umbrella-Softbox-Brolly-Reflector-with-Grid-For-Speedlite-/121229556326?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c39d83a66#ht_3007wt_1177
and
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Photo-Flash-Adapter-Hot-Shoe-Swivel-Light-Stand-Mount-Umbrella-Holder-Bracket-B-/221439135593?pt=Camera_Flash_Accessories&hash=item338ecd0f69#ht_4958wt_868
or this, if you need more flashes
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/DSLRKIT-Dual-Triple-Flash-Bracket-Umbrella-Holder-Light-Stand-shoe-1-4-Screw-/331204152960?pt=Camera_Flash_Accessories&hash=item4d1d4e4e80

 

[wickidwombat]

Perio....you said you don't have much time, but one area to learn more about is post processing. There's so much room to improve photos. And even if you don't nail the shot, if you're good at editing you can save many images, and even turn some average shots into good shots.

I just tweaked your shot a bit to improve it's overall look to my eye.

I'd point out that this is a quick edit, and also that i'm no expert at editing.

good luck.

original and then the edit.

this particular shot the lighting is the biggest problem the light is too low and gives the horror look which doesn't match the model.

remember light falls so for natural looking lighting ensure the key light is above the subjects face not below

You're correct, wickidwombat. Since it was only me and my girlfriend, and since I had no stand for the flash, I simply put it on the ground. So, it indeed was much lower than the face level. Great, thanks for your comment about the lighting "thumbs up"

here is a good tip buy yourself a cheap gorrilla pod off ebay and keep it with your flash in this situation all you would have to have done was gorrilla pod the flash to trees branch!

also You might be over sharpening your post processing a bit be especially carefull of this on girls faces they get sensitive about every little wrinkle blemish etc. selectively paint in sharpening on the eyes hair etc if you want but leave the skin alone. same goes for clarity don't add clarity to skin period infact reduce it a bit

 

[Perio]

Perio....you said you don't have much time, but one area to learn more about is post processing. There's so much room to improve photos. And even if you don't nail the shot, if you're good at editing you can save many images, and even turn some average shots into good shots.

I just tweaked your shot a bit to improve it's overall look to my eye.

I'd point out that this is a quick edit, and also that i'm no expert at editing.

good luck.

original and then the edit.

this particular shot the lighting is the biggest problem the light is too low and gives the horror look which doesn't match the model.

remember light falls so for natural looking lighting ensure the key light is above the subjects face not below

You're correct, wickidwombat. Since it was only me and my girlfriend, and since I had no stand for the flash, I simply put it on the ground. So, it indeed was much lower than the face level. Great, thanks for your comment about the lighting "thumbs up"

here is a good tip buy yourself a cheap gorrilla pod off ebay and keep it with your flash in this situation all you would have to have done was gorrilla pod the flash to trees branch!

also You might be over sharpening your post processing a bit be especially carefull of this on girls faces they get sensitive about every little wrinkle blemish etc. selectively paint in sharpening on the eyes hair etc if you want but leave the skin alone. same goes for clarity don't add clarity to skin period infact reduce it a bit

All right, thanks for your suggestions wickidwombat! Yes, I agree on oversharpening. I think that's because the original images did not look as sharp as I wanted them to look. I've noticed that my 200 2.0 is not that sharp when the subject is more than 10-15 feet away, but if he is within 5-10 feet, it's great (not sure why, though).

And the skin looks over sharpened also because I didn't know how to sharp just eyes and not the whole image (now I guess I learned how to do that, thank God). I just received my color passport, and I'm going to subscribe for Kelby online video courses, which includes postprocessing, lighting, reflectors, flash modifiers, etc. Thanks again!

 

[wickidwombat]

Perio....you said you don't have much time, but one area to learn more about is post processing. There's so much room to improve photos. And even if you don't nail the shot, if you're good at editing you can save many images, and even turn some average shots into good shots.

I just tweaked your shot a bit to improve it's overall look to my eye.

I'd point out that this is a quick edit, and also that i'm no expert at editing.

good luck.

original and then the edit.

this particular shot the lighting is the biggest problem the light is too low and gives the horror look which doesn't match the model.

remember light falls so for natural looking lighting ensure the key light is above the subjects face not below

You're correct, wickidwombat. Since it was only me and my girlfriend, and since I had no stand for the flash, I simply put it on the ground. So, it indeed was much lower than the face level. Great, thanks for your comment about the lighting "thumbs up"

here is a good tip buy yourself a cheap gorrilla pod off ebay and keep it with your flash in this situation all you would have to have done was gorrilla pod the flash to trees branch!

also You might be over sharpening your post processing a bit be especially carefull of this on girls faces they get sensitive about every little wrinkle blemish etc. selectively paint in sharpening on the eyes hair etc if you want but leave the skin alone. same goes for clarity don't add clarity to skin period infact reduce it a bit

All right, thanks for your suggestions wickidwombat! Yes, I agree on oversharpening. I think that's because the original images did not look as sharp as I wanted them to look. I've noticed that my 200 2.0 is not that sharp when the subject is more than 10-15 feet away, but if he is within 5-10 feet, it's great (not sure why, though).

And the skin looks over sharpened also because I didn't know how to sharp just eyes and not the whole image (now I guess I learned how to do that, thank God). I just received my color passport, and I'm going to subscribe for Kelby online video courses, which includes postprocessing, lighting, reflectors, flash modifiers, etc. Thanks again!

damn you have a 200 2. lucky you! i dream of getting that i would suggest if its not razor sharp at every distance something is amiss viggo had some problems with his take it in to canon and get it checked out

i strongly suggest buying the kelby training lightroom book its a great reference and has nice tutorials you can work through
http://www.amazon.com/Photoshop-Lightroom-Digital-Photographers-Voices/dp/0321934318/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1403172047&sr=8-1&keywords=kelby+lightroom

 

[Perio]

Perio....you said you don't have much time, but one area to learn more about is post processing. There's so much room to improve photos. And even if you don't nail the shot, if you're good at editing you can save many images, and even turn some average shots into good shots.

I just tweaked your shot a bit to improve it's overall look to my eye.

I'd point out that this is a quick edit, and also that i'm no expert at editing.

good luck.

original and then the edit.

this particular shot the lighting is the biggest problem the light is too low and gives the horror look which doesn't match the model.

remember light falls so for natural looking lighting ensure the key light is above the subjects face not below

You're correct, wickidwombat. Since it was only me and my girlfriend, and since I had no stand for the flash, I simply put it on the ground. So, it indeed was much lower than the face level. Great, thanks for your comment about the lighting "thumbs up"

here is a good tip buy yourself a cheap gorrilla pod off ebay and keep it with your flash in this situation all you would have to have done was gorrilla pod the flash to trees branch!

also You might be over sharpening your post processing a bit be especially carefull of this on girls faces they get sensitive about every little wrinkle blemish etc. selectively paint in sharpening on the eyes hair etc if you want but leave the skin alone. same goes for clarity don't add clarity to skin period infact reduce it a bit

All right, thanks for your suggestions wickidwombat! Yes, I agree on oversharpening. I think that's because the original images did not look as sharp as I wanted them to look. I've noticed that my 200 2.0 is not that sharp when the subject is more than 10-15 feet away, but if he is within 5-10 feet, it's great (not sure why, though).

And the skin looks over sharpened also because I didn't know how to sharp just eyes and not the whole image (now I guess I learned how to do that, thank God). I just received my color passport, and I'm going to subscribe for Kelby online video courses, which includes postprocessing, lighting, reflectors, flash modifiers, etc. Thanks again!

damn you have a 200 2. lucky you! i dream of getting that i would suggest if its not razor sharp at every distance something is amiss viggo had some problems with his take it in to canon and get it checked out

i strongly suggest buying the kelby training lightroom book its a great reference and has nice tutorials you can work through
http://www.amazon.com/Photoshop-Lightroom-Digital-Photographers-Voices/dp/0321934318/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1403172047&sr=8-1&keywords=kelby+lightroom

Well, if you come to Connecticut some time in the future, just drop me a line and you can use it while you're here

 

[mackguyver]

Perio, I'm late to the party, but I'll add a few things. First of all, you're off to a great start with your work and you're getting a lot of things right. I would work with your girlfriend a bit on her expressions - I'm sure she has a nice smile for example - but the biggest comment I would have is on your lighting. The first thing I would do is buy a decent white card and have her hold it for an exposure each time you change lighting. That way you can get the correct WB and warm or cool it from there. Also, be careful with gold/amber lighting. Use it sparingly and then only to recreate natural sunlight in cool shade. Here's an example - not a great one but it's the only one I could find on my webserver - and as you can see that I used a gold reflector to bounce some warm light on the model. It looks like she's lit by the setting sun, but's it's just a reflector in open shade. You'll also notice that like natural light, it has direction and there are highlights and shadows. which give the model's face some depth (as in your 1st shot). Ideally I would have had some soft light from another angle for a bit of fill, but this was a unplanned shoot and I only had a single reflector and no one to hold it. If the light is too soft (your 2nd shot) or from directly in front, as with a lightsphere in the 3rd shot, when it's outdoors, the light and model will appear flat. Flat lighting is second only to harsh lighting in terms of what you usually want to avoid for models. If you are able to shoot in good light (mornings/evenings) I would recommend working with just natural light and reflectors at first to get a feel for lighting and then moving to off camera flash. Here's another post (link) with another example photo and description of how I used a simple backlighting/reflector set up to create it.

 

[Perio]

Perio, I'm late to the party, but I'll add a few things. First of all, you're off to a great start with your work and you're getting a lot of things right. I would work with your girlfriend a bit on her expressions - I'm sure she has a nice smile for example - but the biggest comment I would have is on your lighting. The first thing I would do is buy a decent white card and have her hold it for an exposure each time you change lighting. That way you can get the correct WB and warm or cool it from there. Also, be careful with gold/amber lighting. Use it sparingly and then only to recreate natural sunlight in cool shade. Here's an example - not a great one but it's the only one I could find on my webserver - and as you can see that I used a gold reflector to bounce some warm light on the model. It looks like she's lit by the setting sun, but's it's just a reflector in open shade. You'll also notice that like natural light, it has direction and there are highlights and shadows. which give the model's face some depth (as in your 1st shot). Ideally I would have had some soft light from another angle for a bit of fill, but this was a unplanned shoot and I only had a single reflector and no one to hold it. If the light is too soft (your 2nd shot) or from directly in front, as with a lightsphere in the 3rd shot, when it's outdoors, the light and model will appear flat. Flat lighting is second only to harsh lighting in terms of what you usually want to avoid for models. If you are able to shoot in good light (mornings/evenings) I would recommend working with just natural light and reflectors at first to get a feel for lighting and then moving to off camera flash. Here's another post (link) with another example photo and description of how I used a simple backlighting/reflector set up to create it.

Hi mackguyver, this is a lovely picture. I was trying to get something similar, but as some other forum members pointed out, that warm skin tone was too noticeable. I agree with you that lighting is probably one of my biggest issues, and I'll be working on that. If you guys don't mind, maybe some time later I'll post some other images, so I could get further criticism. Thanks again for your suggestions, mackguyver!

 

[mackguyver]

Hi mackguyver, this is a lovely picture. I was trying to get something similar, but as some other forum members pointed out, that warm skin tone was too noticeable. I agree with you that lighting is probably one of my biggest issues, and I'll be working on that. If you guys don't mind, maybe some time later I'll post some other images, so I could get further criticism. Thanks again for your suggestions, mackguyver!

I'm glad I could provide a little help and I'll see if I can dig up some of my old photos. Unfortunately I don't shoot a lot of portraits these days, but I'm happy to help out if I can. You'll find that this is a pretty good place to receive advice with the majority of people being pretty positive and helpful, so please post more photos from time-to-time.

 

[X100]

I like them all. Improvements I would suggest have been given before. Love the warmth the dome gives but agree with previous post to wind back the lux to look more natural. Camera clubs are great once you find one with folk you are comfortable with. Bad experiences from camera clubs? Hmm I have had them with mine but take the rough with the smooth. I love the diversity of the Camera club I go to which are as diverse in age as they are in specialities and occupations.