sean_r2

Light trails are always cool. Looks like this one was an intersection where you changed lanes before making a big turn. Kinda looks like you were driving on the crest of a hill or bridge, too (either that or were moving the camera up and down). I really like this shot! Thanks for sharing it.

If not for the cool power of the group shot, this one would get my vote as best of the four at the moment. I agree that the hand is way too distracting, though. However, I would say realistically this should be your ad image, as I think brides will appreciate this image more than the other three, thanks to the facial emotion and journalistic capture of preparation. Just need to do something about that hand.

I like this image the best of the four you have up for review at the moment, as the group shot has a lot of power to it, especially with the backlighting. That said, I find it odd some people have heads and some don't. The same shot with models with signed releases would be much more stunning, so be able to show the emotion in the people's faces, representing how you the photographer capture all that wedding day emotion.

 

 

I like this image as a potential portfolio piece, but like the blur head shot, this one's very artistic beauty is what drives it away from being a good ad. The stairway idea is great here, but it's the thing that makes the photo seem to gritty or rugged.

This one is nice and energetic, but it seems like the ad effect is killed by the blur to the head. It looks very beautiful in an artistic sense, but I don't think it quite has that oomph to be your finalized postcard.

I haven't seen the first photo, but this one looks great. The crop is just right to kind of lead you into and visually meet these two kind ladies. I don't see any grain problems, myself. Great use of side lighting, too.

Ammie, what the others have said is good advice. I think you have a great portrait idea going here for your husband. You have a nice, rugged background which is always great for manly portraits.

 

I'd recommend waiting until an overcast day or when the sun has moved to make that spot shaded, then re-try shooting. Doing this will prevent the shine on the head, the squinting, the shadows to the eye sockets, all of which your husband will be happy about. Additionally, it will make the background shrubbery more vibrant by reducing all that white reflection blowout (notice how the leaves in shade look much better than the leaves out in the sun). Also, have him stand in the same spot, but take a step or two to his right, which will cause his head to be surrounded by leaves rather than looking like he has a tree trunk for a hat. To make a bit more manly, you can also try having him turn one shoulder toward the camera a bit, and then putting a rock or something for him to put the same side foot on to raise that side of his body (and thus give him a slightly exaggerated broad shoulder look, which portraitists love to do for men). Lastly, while you look at your hubby in his manly pose, turn the camera to the side to get a portrait framing, to emphasize his form rather than his surroundings.

 

I know that's one large block of advice, but trust me if you shoot the same shot with those ideas in mind, you'll vasty improve this picture. Try it out and please share it when you get that great shot! :)

 

 

I'm always a fan of driving light photos, and this one does indeed look like writing. I haven't seen the rest of your gallery to see if you have any similar photos, but I've found that stopping down to about F/8 and doing the same time exposure works to clarify the light by getting rid of the white side-haloing.

The girl has a lot of contrast lighting-wise, but seeing as its a hiking photo, the contrast is in perfect context here. However, have you tried cropping out the man to the left? His being blurred out by the foreground brush looks very bizarre, like he was partially Photoshopped out. The image would be great if you cropped in on the girl and made the photo about her hiking.

Wow, I really like this beautiful image. You've done such a great job capturing the soft light, it almost looks like a painting at first glance.

To be honest, while this image is cute and captures the girl's playfulness very well, this looks like a snapshot. The other image you have under portraits works much better as a low key photo.

You've got one great, touching photo here. A very well done image! Looks like you did lighten the post to separate it from the background, which makes the story much more visible in the thumbnail, too. Hard to tell without a side-by-side with the old one, though. I like this photo the most of your growing portfolio. Thanks for sharing.

I really like the gracefully imposing nature of this shot thanks to the converging lines and the nice exposure on the clouds behind the church. A great church photo!

Of the three, this is definitely the best. The other two are way too dark, and I even wonder why you posted the darkest one. The nice, contrasty yet soft ambient light really helps this photo. I'd suggest a polarizer to get rid of the reflections, which are distracting.

Okay, seeing the original clarifies things in that your editing process didn't do this. The question then is what's going on with the coloring? I would say the middle light is the correct appearance of the three lights, with a saturated yellow. The left shows up as plain white, which would mean a correctly done white balance over there. The green one on the right...huh? I've looked but there doesn't appear to be anything reflection-based to change the color of the light. I'm not too experienced with gymnasium setups, but I'd say there's little chance they're three different bulbs (hallogen left, tungsten middle, flourescent right) so you might want to check out your camera. Maybe it has a multi-white balance feature that's being overzealous.

A nice still life shot, and a love the little story the items tell when assembled like this. My only suggestiong is fixing the yellow saturation so the whites stand out in the proper color, or just making it a black and white image.

I really like the lowered angle to get a better perspective on "the Duck Life" and enjoy the subject matter. One area I'd like to point out is contrast between ducks and background needs some boosting. They just don't pop out like quackers should. The drake's dark green head almost matches the dark green leaves behind him, and both their brown bodies look only a shade or so different than the mulch below them.

Such a simple idea, but this is a wonderful photo! How inspiring to see what we photographers do a lot from the other side. To take this one step further, I think this would make a great wedding ring shot, with the pinky-ring used instead of thumb-forefinger. Thank you for the inspiration!

A wonderful photo! Dune patterns are always great to look at. It looks like the sun was still a bit high on the horizon, making the shadows a tad bit weak. The contrast in the background looks great, but the forground is a bit weaker, being a series of all light grays. Maybe darkening the midtones in the foreground would help strengthen that great foreground into something brilliant.

Ah, those fun little Stellar's Jays. Noisy as all heck in the forest, but they make such interesting photo subjects. Yes, this one does seem to communicate a "king of the perch" mentality about him.

I like the captured fun emotion of this image. Only thing to say is maybe a square crop would strengthen it. This is because the large blackness on top seems to draw the power away from the vignetting you have going on at the bottom (which is a great touch and deserves to be as impacting as you intended it!)

I like this image a lot, as I'm sure a lot of dog owners will. Very nice capture of emotion on the part of both dog and man. However, I am distracted by the white spots all over the place. I thought at first they might be dust kicked up during the action of the two, but on closer look they seem like unintended specks. Removing those distracting spots would make this image much stronger.

Normally I'd be thinking you had an off meter and had a way blown out background. Judging from your other photos, I'd say that is far from the case and this photo's blowout is intentional. The whole effect looks rather angelic and beautiful. Well done!

 

Yep, I see a green cast on the right side. Which I would say is really strange, considering those lights pictured should be throwing out a mega yellow cast with no trace of blues or greens. My guess is you tried to correct the yellow and somehow ended up with a green tint in the darker area of the photo. As the others said, you should definitely get some callibration done.

This is a very beautiful spot color photo! Normally, spot coloring red can be a bit too harsh, but the slightly desaturated burgundy dress does a great job of transitioning from b&w to red. Awesomely done!