Malice (Aug Shoot)

[Sarah McSib]

Here a few of the photos I did with my best friend, Malice. These were taken last August, and were done with my HP PhotoSmart 735 digital camera. Please be honest with your comments and critiques.

[mfharper]

Sahra,
You just keep getting better and better. Malice is looking good too! One thing you might want to try is getting some kind of reflector to bounce light back in and open up the shadows a bit. Thanks for posting and keep on practicing.

Mark

Re: Malice (Aug Shoot) 

[Sarah McSib]

Thanks mfharper! I will look into getting reflectors.

[lsc1]

Originally Posted by Sarah McSib

Here a few of the photos I did with my best friend, Malice. These were taken last August, and were done with my HP PhotoSmart 735 digital camera. Please be honest with your comments and critiques.

Ok, here my honest opinion.

#1 doesn't work unless all you are attempting to do is highlight Malice's great chest. She is centered in the image, cropped closely on head and body, and the background is distracting. A different composition/crop would be more effective.

#2 is good with an excellent exposure, but again, I think the crop is off. There's too much distracting b'ground behind her and there is the bright sky at the top of the stairs. When you have stairs like this, try to make a more interesting composition by having the stairs go diagonal thru the frame (turn the camera). As an example, here's a more interesting crop.

Re: Malice (Aug Shoot) 

#3 is the best of the three with respect to crop but could have used the reflector mentioned earlier.

Given that your camera doesn't allow for manual settings which can blur the background, your attention to composition will be critical to keeping the interest on the subject. You're doing very well with what you've got as tools, keep practicing and keep growing.

[BobEdens]

another thing to try is to put your camera in macro (close up) mode, sports mode, heck as long as she'll stand there try them all. Close-up and sports mode tend to use a wider aperture which will blurr the background.

another thing is to center the frame on her eyes, press the shutter half way down to set the focus then frame up your composition and push the shutter the rest of the way down. I tell people every day, It aint the camera.

and as said before, keep shooting.

[PhotosbyChuck]

#3 is my favorite of the bunch also. You can buy 30" x 40" white foam core at an office supply (Office Depot, Staples, etc) for about $8 - $10. The store near me has foam core with one side white and one side black. These come in really handy.

[R_Fredrick_Smith]

Originally Posted by PhotosbyChuck

#3 is my favorite of the bunch also. You can buy 30" x 40" white foam core at an office supply (Office Depot, Staples, etc) for about $8 - $10. The store near me has foam core with one side white and one side black. These come in really handy.

The foam core works great for all sorts of things involving photography. But the office supply stores price it like it was gold; I usually pay only $1 - $2 a sheet for 30"x40". Watch the large hobby/arts/crafts type stores which put it on sale quite often and then buy 10 or 20 sheets for different projects.

Cheers,
rfs

[Sarah McSib]

Thanks for the helpful comments everyone. I will be looking into getting a foam thing, as soon as I can.

Edited To Add:

Here's a couple more from this same shoot. Please feel free to share your thoughts.

[ProShotPhoto]

All the way trough this post is was thinking forget the reflectors although they are a good idea - i kept thinking pull her hair away from her face so she is not hiding behind it and in its shadow.


Then i saw these two at the end of the post - much much better

I cannot see the point in taking a photo of someone who is hiding from the camera. Ask your freind to try not to put her hair in front of her face and if nessisary pin it back so it happens less frequently. If she cannot bring herself to doing this - some people are too shy - find a new model who will provide you with a face to shoot at