Hey everyone. I shot a really fun E-Session yesterday. I was really happy with how it turned out. Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks!

1

I noticed your in the philly area by the pic of the two kissing in front of the 'hall
very nice

Yeah I am. Downingtown. Are you local?

This is a very consistent set of work here, very nice! The one that jumped out at me was 3 & 17. The others seem a little "static" emotionally.

Your PP is very good, but I'm not a fan of multi-toned images in a series, thats just my preference.

22-23 seems a little OOF, like it was on the door behind his head.

Otherwise the colors look really awesome. Great work.

Yeah, for 22 & 23, it was so dark, that focus was tough to come by. I just liked them, so I put them up there anyway.

Interesting point on multi-toned images. I'm guessing that you'd rather see one tone style throughout? Makes sense. Looks more like a theme that way I'd imagine.

brilliant colors man! I love the compositions of these as well...as far as my favs go the colored ones take it IMO

I like the series, compositions, PP and posing for all except #14.. she looks bored and the sharpening enhanced/created the bags under her eyes = bad. The lighting on 22 had the same effect on her eyes.

Very nice set. Hard to pick a favorite, but I really like #8's composition...

~Shelby

Tony, I liked everything except #2. That background made my eyeballs rotate.
Frank

3 & 17 speak to me.

Killer set. Be proud. 3, 7, 13 are mastery.

~Sam

i think you saved your best stuff for last in this series (except for 3)-3, 15, 17, and 18 are my picks-22 would be if their eyes were sharp...-strong set overall, though

thanks for sharing your work

daniel

Good set here. 1, 7 and 17 are my fav's.

What was your lighting setup on 21-23?

Thanks guys. It's nice to get feedback from people who are themselves great photographers.

Matt, here's the lighting setups
21 - 580ex fired in an umbrella about 10 feet high, camera right
22, 23 - 580ex through a shoot through umbrella, held over their heads by my wife.

Daniel, I was bummed that those weren't sharp. It was really dark and if there's one thing the 5D struggles with, its focus in low light. I need to start bringing a flashlight for modeling light or something. Any suggestions?

Tony Hoffer wrote:
if there's one thing the 5D struggles with, its focus in low light. I need to start bringing a flashlight for modeling light or something. Any suggestions?

Just got a 5d myself about a month ago, so I've found many lenses jog back and forth for focus... 135L, 24-70L, 300/2.8L-- which are all good lenses... which probably means it's the camera. The focus assist beam on the flash helps me a lot.... when I don't have a flash mounted or on, the focus hunts.. with the beam it takes a second but locks on properly.

Tony,

i completely understand the focus issues with the 5D-i've had my share of out of focus shots due to focus issues with both the 20D and 5D, but more when i shot with a 20D-two thoughts on how i've had to handle that:

1. you can use a 430/580 on camera set to "flash does not fire" to achieve focus using the flash's built-in autofocus assist beam--you could always leave the 580 on camera, then turn "flash does fire" back on and use it to optically fire the other 580

2. i've also used a flash light which works well enough--also helps when your subject is extremely backlit, but bring a medium to higher powered flashlight-in the past, i tried to use a small pocket sized light and when shooting at a distance of 8 feet or great, it didn't even light my subject enough to get focus, which is even more frustrating

3. one other method that has helped to ensure i get SOMETHING out of a shot is focus bracketing-i'll get focus the best i can and then shoot one shot at that and then twist the focus ring slightly both ways-especially with a shallow DOF, this is really useful


daniel

Yeah, I guess I didn't think of the having an on-camera flash that doesn't fire. I can always put the Pocket Wizard in the PC port. I'll probably go that route. It's hard just typing the phrase "on camera flash". Ha. Thanks, guys!

The two OOF images in your series has nothing at all to do with your camera

the strong lines behind your subject will draw the attention of your autofocus with any visual autofocusing system; remember, the camera can't really see the scene as you see it in your mind; it just locks in on any strong lines that are in the scene

two sure ways to fool any autofocusing system: strong backlighting and strong lines in the background; we must recognize these situations and compensate for them

the best way to handle this is to use a zoom lens, zoom into your subject to fill most of the field of view, focus, and then recompose

I get 99% dead on critical sharp focus with my Canon 5D except when I do not compensate for situations described above

if you are having focusing issues with your 5D, I would revisit proper focusing technique or have your camera-lens calibration checked by Canon

Thanks VZ, but two things...

One, I was using all primes that day, so zooms weren't an option. Even if they were, I wouldn't trust that method shooting at 1.8.
Two, I know how to focus, and the camera is fine. It was pitch black outside, so focus was tough, that's all.

I don't mean to sound argumentative, but your post seemed a little patronizing to me.

Tony, I'm with ya.... My 20D's AF drives me nuts in the dark... The AF beam on the 580 helps a good bit, but if I'm shooting wide open with my 50/1.4 in a dark room, it's tough to hit your focus.

Yeah. I gave up on using a bracket for that reason. The assist beam wasn't at the right place and it was all funky.