First Time People Shots

[Gem]

I took these a few days ago. In the first one, my friend had no idea that I was taking pictures of her. And in second one, we were playing Jenga and I just wanted it to be different than a simple smiling picture.

Critique?

[Ben H]

Love that first shot, especially! Very nice capture.

[tirediron]

I think a slightly greater DoF would benefit the images, but that's minor. They're excellent captures. Well done.

[Marko]

I'm going to be tougher on these...

shot 1 - It's the better of the 2 shots and it is interesting but...her eye should be tack sharp and it's not. That's the major correction. For 99% of people, 99% of the time, the eyes need to be tack sharp - not sorta sharp - tack. This takes a bit of extra time during shooting, but is essential.
The medium correction - her right hand is way too bright and needs to be burned in. The minor correction would be to burn in both the top right and bottom right edges.

The eye has a natural tendency to go to the brightest elements of most shots. It is up to the photographer to LEAD the viewer's eye through selective focus, and other compositional tools. This takes mooocho practice but following this guideline WILL bring your photography to a higher level.

Shot 2 - This shot is underexposed and not 1 set of the 3 sets of eyes are sharp.

On the plus side, both shots are decently composed in my opinion which is nice and shot 1 in particular has a very interesting point of view.

Hope that helps - please note - this critique is only my opinion and is meant as a teaching tool not as a bashing tool.
Marko

[Gem]

Again, thanks for the feedback guys!

How would I make the eyes sharper next time? Just by manually focusing on it?

I don't have photoshop so I can't make sections of it darker...Unfortunately, it's all or nothing on Picasa.

Hahah, Marko, I don't see your critique as bashing! Far from it actually Heh, I've only been shooting for a week so, in no way do I think my pictures even come close to perfect or anything. And constructive criticism is good! How else would I improve eh? So thank you for pointing the lack of sharpness on the eyes out

[Marko]

Hi Gem,

Some people have thin skins and I want people to learn....that's why the 'not as a bashing tool' comment...

Yup, manually focus on the eye so that it is as sharp as possible in camera. You might consider exploring gimp. It's free and it's a pretty powerful graphics editor. http://www.gimp.org/
Marko

Again, thanks for the feedback guys!

How would I make the eyes sharper next time? Just by manually focusing on it?

I don't have photoshop so I can't make sections of it darker...Unfortunately, it's all or nothing on Picasa.

Hahah, Marko, I don't see your critique as bashing! Far from it actually Heh, I've only been shooting for a week so, in no way do I think my pictures even come close to perfect or anything. And constructive criticism is good! How else would I improve eh? So thank you for pointing the lack of sharpness on the eyes out

[Gem]

Marko, thanks for suggesting that program. It's very similar to Photoshop
Okay, sooooo I gave the Dodge/Burn thing a go. Not sure if I did it right or not...But better or worse? I think I got it too dark :S
Oh, and any chance you know of a good, free noise reducer program too?

[hoyinsiu]

I think they are good enough for the first people shoot but I agree with Marko. You may have to focus more on the eyes next time. They are the most important part of a portrait.

[Gem]

Whoooaaa! Super old thread here! Thanks for feedback though This was when I first started out last November.

Here are some recent shots if you want to check out my "progress" in this area.

B&W Nephew

Down by the lake

[jjeling]

I have not seen this. Not to try and argue or negate what Marko said here, but I like the image as it is.

For any photo contest, the sharpness of an eye would be a problem.

Personally, the softness or grain in the image almost makes it for me. Not quite perfect, but making a good effort. Not her specifically, but it almost parallels the story of a student. Photography is nothing that can be quantitatively evaluated, rather its qualitatively evaluated. They are mere preferences, which each viewer bases their decisions on.