Looking for feedback

[matthew_newton]

I am starting to try to play with color a bit more in shooting people. My son and wife are of course major guinnea pigs

for this. Just looking to get some feedback on both of these pictures, technique, etc, etc. My biggest hurdle right

now is the crappy scanner I am using (or at least my ego is telling me that is my biggest problem).

 

Thanks!<div></div>

[matthew_newton]

The other photo<div></div>

[rosina_dibello]

They are good the exposure and the angles...

 

However on "The little man" image - there are no catchlights in his eyes... so if you aren't working with a flash try putting him facing the window light or use a reflector... this makes for amazing images.

[matthew_newton]

I did have a flash, I just didn't use it for these few pictures. I've still been getting the hang of my vivitar 285hv and I need (or need to fashion) a bounce card for it. Something I realized later on was that I was underexposing these shots by about a stop. When I metered I didn't take in to account the fact that most of the scene was white, so I should have opened up a stop more then I did. The eyes ended up being darker then they should have been because of this (his eyes are about 3 tones lighter blue).

[AliBM]

I agree with DiBello about ecposure.<BR>

About " Kisses ", The background divert eyes.<BR>

and I think you can crop 1/3 of pic from top of it.<BR>

I did It for my self if you want I put it there

Best regards

[charlesheckel]

Kisses--slightly cluttered background, foreground good, too many complications in the area between wife's hand and

shoulder, nice interaction and expression in the faces, shoulder burned by window light, wife's hair a little messy.

Consider cropping this as a vertical, eliminating the leftmost third of the door in the background, and everything past

the right edge of the picture frame. Eliminate everything that's not about the feeling between them and you'll increase

the impact tremendously.<p>

Little man--thoroughly engaging expression, slightly spooky feeling in the underexposed eyes, background well

subordinated by blur, still a tilted horizon line that can be eliminated by very slight cropping, some of the reaching-for-

Daddy impact lost by the cropped hand, burned highlights on sheet, shoulder and side of the head. This shot is

very good overall and I have no suggestions for improving it at this point, aside from the cropping.<p>

When you're not going to use a flash, environmental light has to be bang on, and in both cases you're working away

from the light, which means you need good fill. Try moving closer to the window and bounce its light off a big gobo.

A good one is a 4x8 sheet of one-inch styrofoam insulation available from your local home center for peanuts. It and

the bounce card you mentioned are good partners for your 285. If you go digital, beware--the 285 has a high trigger

voltage that can fry high-tech innards. In regard to bounce cards, you can make a pretty good one from foamboard

and Velcro available from your local WalMart, also for peanuts. I assume you're using a synch cord to trigger your

flash, and that can be extended to ten feet very reasonably, allowing you to park the flash pointed into a corner

between walls and ceiling and move around shooting hey-really-well-modeled bounce flash candids.<p>Hope this

helps. Hot wife, cool baby. Keep shooting. Good luck!

[innerglowphoto]

Background are causing too much of a distraction from your main subject. I agree that if you are not using a flash

you must position your subjects face correctly to catch the light. You will find your best results by taking you flash

off camera and triggering it remotely and set on a slight angle from were you are taking the photo. You can start at

your camera's max synch speed which may be 1/250 and an aperature of f/8, ISO of 100 for starters, then adjust

from there. The shutter speed will control how bright your ambient light is in the back ground and your aperature will

determine the amount of flash allowed into the image. The Lower the F stop number the more light the camera will

allow in. If you don't have an off camera flash system, you can always start by aiming the flash away from your

subject and bounding off of a white object such as some white foamcore or even a white sheet or cardboard will work

fine. Whatever you do, don't fire the flash on camera directly at your subject.

 

Happy shooting!