p.1 #2 · My daughter wanted a 13th Bday photo shoot.
You have a beautiful daughter and I am sure you are very proud.
Regarding the photos, here are my comments:
- My favorite is #4. Nice expression and well exposed image. She is a little to far to the edge of the frame for my liking and I think you could tone down the contrast a bit for a softer look but a nice image.
- The others suffer from two problems. The biggest problem is a lack of contrast for her. I suspect that this may be because you applied a lot of Recovery in Lightroom or did something similar to try to tame the bright background. Unfortunately when you do that, it impacts ALL highlights and has a tendency to compress the tones of your subject. I would suggest either re-developing giving more priority to the exposure on your daughter or perhaps attempting a composite that merges two versions of the same image - one developed for the background and one developed for your daughter. This last technique can take some fine-tuning so that she doesn't look copy/pasted into the background.
The other problem, which is not quite as severe, is the cool color balance on your daughter. I think these sunset shoots usually look more real if the subject color balance is slightly warm to mimic the warmth of the sunset. You could have used orange gels on your flash to do this. You could also warm her up in post by either brushing in some warm adjustment to her skin or doing the dual-development composite that I mentioned earlier, using a warmer white-balance for her part of the composite.
p.1 #3 · My daughter wanted a 13th Bday photo shoot.
Good points from eyeball.
I'll add that there are a few composition things that could be improved.
#1 - Good, but I'd trim some off the top. (very minor nit)
#2 Good
#3 Doesn't look best with those part fingers showing. Also, I like shots when the hair is shown rather than cropped at the bottom. In this case, you'd need to include all of the folded arms too.
#4 Good one. I find it a bit too jammed into the corner, but it's not a big thing.
#5 In this one, I think you needed to include the elbows.
p.1 #6 · My daughter wanted a 13th Bday photo shoot.
Thank you everyone for the critique and kind words.
I do agree on most of them. Especially the cut off elbows. Being a sports shooter the majority of the sunset shots were shot with a 70-200....and I was hanging on the edge of the dock at 70mm. Throw in the crop factor of the DX D300 and I was simply out of room.
#4 is my favorite as well. I do agree that she is to far right in the frame though.
Thank you again everyone, it is greatly appreciated and the only way we all get better.
p.1 #7 · My daughter wanted a 13th Bday photo shoot.
Tell her for 'ole Appa, three's the bomb, one's cool, and save #two for her first boyfriend.
That is, if she doesn't already have one. For you, Dad, these are a great record. It won't be long till she's all grown up.
Always love to hear C&C
