Can you please critique my work??

[angelica_virgen]

Hello,

 

I have been doing photography for about a year. I did my first wedding in

November of 2007, and since then have booked three more weddings. I would

greatly appreciate if any of you can critique my work and give me some

suggestions. I really don't mind. I have never taken any photography classes

and am trying to learn as much as I can from other photographers and from

reading books, and PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE! lol.

 

My website is the following...

 

www.virnezphotography.com

 

Again, any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

 

Thank you! =)

[michelle_andersson1]

Hello Angelica!

 

You got the right attitude and it seems from your pictures that your clients feel really comfortable with you.

 

I'd say practice using light to enhance your pictures. You be amazed how much that will take your art to the next level. Start with natural light, both inside & outside. Every type of light has a positive to it, figure out what that is and come up with creative ways of posing your subjects to take advantage.

 

I personally find that I like large catch lights in the eyes, and lots of contrasty light (lots of interesting shadows). What kinds of light do you like?

 

Try new ideas out on yourself, afterall you are always free when you have a free moment to practice. ;) Just set your focus manually by measuring the distance from your lens to the camera and put your camera on clock mode. Then practice away...

 

Here's a practice shot where I was experimenting with posing in fancy dresses. The light is window light mixed with a lamp in my living room. I love the softlight on the face mixed with all the shadows!

 

So practice interesting lighting using natural light on yourself...

Enjoy!<div></div>

[jack_cassidy]

Hey Angelica,

 

You have a solid start for your first year at photography!

 

The size of most of your images is rather small so it makes it more difficult to go into

great detail.

 

The thing that sticks out the most to me is your black and white photos. They lack a

certain pop about them. If you are using photoshop instead of just desaturating the image

you can use the channel mixer and make it monochrome then mess with the sliders there.

Also you could lighten it up using curves. Either way the skin needs to be a bit brighter

and have a little more of a life like quality about it.

 

Hope that helps!

-jack

[William Michael]

>>> I have never taken any photography classes and am trying to learn as much as I can from other photographers and from reading books, and PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE! lol. <<<

 

I am not sure if:

 

`to learn as much as I can from other photographers`, means just looking at their work, or working with them?

 

I think the latter would be better, in the first instance because there are some basics missing.

 

I looked at one Wedding: and the photojournalistic approach does not excuse basic rules of composition, lens choice and camera angle. These areas you need to improve.

 

The images were quite small, but even so the exposure and colour balance was out on some: more exposure than colour balance: it seemed.

 

Also in the images where there has been your intervention (the more formal shoots), you have not taken control, arrangements are haphazard and there is not the eye contact with the viewer we would expect.

 

Also more attention should be taken of the background: the hand railing through the head, is not a good look for a staged shot.

 

WW<div></div>

[William Michael]

and:<div></div>

[paul_sokal___dallas__tx]

Angelica,

 

First off, I had lots of problem with your website. Slow to load (T1 line) and I really don't care for the navigation between images, back and forth to the thumbnails. The site has a very 20th century, home made look to it. I recommend if you're serious, you invest in a good website.

 

Most of my comments are based on the thumbnails as I didn't have time to work my way thru the full images. There are lots of compositional issues. Many images are dead center, which gives them a snapshot look. Vary the placement of your subject. Remember the "rule of thirds." Watch your backgrounds. Watch cutting off people parts and including cart parts. Work on your flash technique-check out planetneil.com. Learn posing techniques. The late Monte Zucker as a good website for this: http://www.montezucker.com/index.html

 

I'd encourage you to spend some time assisting an established photographer before you start taking on your own clients, especially if you're charging them.

 

Paul

[angelica_virgen]

I appreciate all of your suggestions. I know I still have a lot to learn. I must admit that at first I didn't think photography envolved so much and didn't know why photographers charged so much, but now I see that it is indeed "Art" and that it takes years and education to be able to master all that it involves.

 

There's still a lot of photography terminology and concepts I don't understand, and it's very frustrating. I just try to practice by messing with the settings on my camera and flash, but it would be nice to know what I'm doing.

 

A lot of you are very honest about critiquing my work and I appreciate that, for instance, about 'composure', I hadn't really thought much about that, but I'm starting to see that all those little details that average people (like me) don't see, are what differentiates a professional photographer, from somebody that doesn't know what they're doing. Thank you again for your suggestions and critique.

 

Do any of you know of any good online schools or photography classes that I can take online, or any good books?

 

Thank you for the links Paul...I will check them out! =)

[William Michael]

>>> Do any of you know of any good online schools or photography classes that I can take online, or any good books? <<<

 

I do not know of any on line classes: Books by Michael Langford are very easy read and will give a good foundation.

 

BUT: Solo learning has great impasses to cross, IMO it would not be a backwards step for you to commission yourself as a second shooter to other Photographers, perhaps out of your local area so as not to cause them heartburn, in a business sense.

 

Even if the pay is not all that much, the actual seeing and doing with them would be worth it to you, IMO.

 

WW

[markonestudios]

What William said. I personally didn't have the benefit of that (second shooting with a pro) because in my part of the world, I haven't found anyone with a style and workflow I liked who was willing to teach me. So I spent inordinate amounts of time learning from various online resources (including PN) and then just experimenting. Burned a lot of film, but learnt a whole lot more.

<p>It is crucial that you get to grips with the technical aspects and not only the artistic ones (composition, framing, timing). How shutter speeds interact with apertures and ISOs. Photography is as much an art as it is a science...

[jeffreyc]

I have one of Michael Langford's books. He wrote for Reader's Digest and, as a contributing editor, released "Creative Photography" in 1991. The book was a great way to get a quick 1-2 page treatment of almost every aspect of photography which built up my vocabulary of terms and introduced concepts like natural light, color, framing, and composition. These topics are sometimes skipped glossed over, or introduced as a small part of a larger topic, as people may be focused on the camera's aspects. Anything I still didn't understand I was able to discuss with my wife (she started in weddings as an assistant in '96), set-up and attempt to figure out with the camera, find info on photo.net or elsewhere on the Internet, and put into practice.

 

Amazon.com has it used for $8.00 tops. Hope this helps.

[angelica_virgen]

Thank you so much everybody. Im gonna go out and purchase me a Michael Langford book and research as much as I can from other resources too; and definitely a lot of practice!

 

I'll post up pictures from my second wedding, coming up at the end of April and hope to get some more critique from you. Hopefully by then, I have improved a little bit in a lot of those little aspects that I have overlooked. =)

[William Michael]

>>> I have ONE of Michael Langford's books. <<< (JC)

 

 

Thanks Jeff that sentence pointed out to me that I was not as clear as I wanted to be previously.

 

 

M.J. Langford wrote many books and articles.

 

 

The reason I suggested his books is that they were adopted as standard text books for many schools, worldwide: and many of those schools (at least here) have distance education students (studying at home).

 

 

`Basic Photography` is still the a first year text in many courses here, even degree courses.

 

 

He also has another `Professional Photography` which addresses Weddings Specifically: do not be put off by the seemingly antiquated manner: the basics of lighting and composition remain the same, even if your style does not require you to shoot as many posed formals.

 

 

`Professional Photography` has some very interesting business angles too: after all it is a business.

 

 

You should supplement these basics with a good book on digital post production.

 

 

I am currently using Photoshop CS3 Bible (L.U.Fuller & R.C. Fuller) WILEY, to assist me learn more in this new endeavour of mine.

 

 

The Digital Darkroom Forum (here) is a good resource in this regard too.

 

 

WW

[angelica_virgen]

Thank you William, I appreciate all of your helpful information. I looked up books for Michael Langford and he had a lot, I didn't know which ones to choose from.

[William Michael]

I was endorsing for you to get `Creative Photography` also, which Jeff mentioned, it has some great ideas.

 

At $8.00 each second hand, apart from the three we mentioned here you could buy others that seem relevant to you by their tittle, if you find the first helpful to you.

 

Good luck

 

WW

[jeffreyc]

Sometimes it does not come up in searches no matter how good your Google-fu may be. The ISBN is 0-89577-379-1 and a <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0895773791/ref=dp_olp_3/002-7829088-7500051?ie=UTF8&qid=1203803076&sr=8-1" target"_blank">link to the Amazon.com sellers page</a>.

[dave_shilling__sacramento_]

I looked at some of the photos in Araceli and Davids set, and noticed that you may be using on-camera flash.... It casts a dark shadow behind your subject. It reminds me more that a picture was a taken, and less that I'm seeing what I would see if I were there. If you are using a speed light, bounce flash would be better. Point your flash to the ceiling, either straight up, or at an angle. This will fill the room, and we're used to seeing people lit from above. You can also use an omnibounce to spread the light up AND out to fill in eye sockets. There is no reason to use the flash for a pair of shoes... just use a tripod or a mini tripod, and lower your shutter speed. Move the shoes to good light if you have to. You def had some good use of window light... keep doing that. In Ruby and Fabians wedding, I cant see both rings in the ring shot.... her ring is the most important one usually, we need to see it. There are many headless shots as well. This may not be a bad thing, I just wouldnt overdo it. For the record, I like the one with the Bible.

 

Some of the posed shots also looked like there was another photographer, and you were taking photos off to the side, when you should be in the middle with all eyes one you. I love the cake topper. The couple obviously hand-picked it, great job making sure it was included!

 

You didnt ask for it, but I wanted to recommend that you pick up a real backdrop for your kids photos.... Denny has a 10 foot by 10 foot backdrop for $100 that will do much better at giving you the "picture people" effect than the loose fabric you are using. What lighting setup are you using for your kids portraits? Some of the photos looked like they could have been taken with a cheap digital camera, and it may be because of the lighting. I would recommend www.strobist.com for learning some lighting concepts.