After trolling this thread for the past few years (3 i think) i finally decided to give photography a try. I used to work for a company called prestige portraits so i have a little bit of experience with portraits, but only using company guidelines and rules and whatnot.
So i managed to save a couple of bucks and bought a used nikon d300 slr with af-s dx 18-200mm lens and took my best friend out to mess around with this cam. i took about 3-400 shots! LOL (we from orange county hit me up if you here).

Basically I would love some criticism and suggestions!

I don't know how big they would be once i post em but hopefully not too big.









Thanks!

This post was edited by NarutOxFaN on Apr 21 2010 07:21pm

Number 3 is probably the best, or at least in my opinion it is.

The pose is great, there is almost nothing distracting in the photo and the only thing I want to look at is her face.

The first one is nice too, a better shot might be of the waist up, cutting out the legs.

The problem I see in most of the other ones is the distractions in the background, such as the fountain, the doors, and the arch.

Other then that, very nice job for a first time.

tyvm!

yeh i guess its just be trying to be a little creative. i thought a little bit of backgrround would add a nice little touch. we renting a studio this weekend to do some "professional" shots and then hopefully i can post those up too

Your camera was dirty
clean lens/sensor & mirror before portraits!

Consider your composition a little on some. Portraits are usually meant to be framed and the allowance for this is limited (3). These images, although creative, aren't very sharp. I'm not familiar with your specific 70-200 probably-nikon lens. Maybe its your focus that is off a bit.

Edit: Another tip: when taking portraits outside, zoom out without emphasizing perfect composition but do imagine proper composition when cropped to sizes like 5x7, 8x10, etc. These differ greatly from 4x6, so the perfectly-composed images would be bad. For example, can you properly crop 5 & 6 as 8x10 without chopping off legs?

This post was edited by onepagememory on Apr 21 2010 08:56pm

gotta agree here.

her poses are pretty strange in some shots. also the positioning of your model lacks. lot of distractions by the things around her. It´s your job to take care of that more than its the job of the model, because you see the actual frame in your camera, she doesnt. #3 is my favourite. It´s really cute.

Having a model hold a pose the way you want can sometimes vary with what she thinks it should be. I love professional models who know exactly how to hold themselves. On the other hand, I enjoy working with fresh blood too. One of the things I will comment on is that the background, such as in photo 2, is off. Because of the depth of field AND where she is positioned, it makes her look like she has bunny ears or something. Watch for intersecting background lines leading into the models head, it usually always detracts from a portrait. Same with the second to last ... there is a pole/tree coming out the top of her head. So next time you do portraits try to see the model AND the background if you are shooting on location and try to make them harmonize a little better. Trust me, get good at seeing the "whole picture" nothing worse than that "perfect look" from a model to find a pole coming out of her head or something else that really detracts from the photo.

And as Zach ARias said, if you find yourself saying "I can fix it in photoshop, slap yourself as hard as you can, because you are being lazy and mediocre" ... in other words, always try to get it done right the first time.

lol what territory did you work at?.. I actually work at Prestige Portraits now



only thing I gotta say... the last shot makes her look like she has something shes grabbing.. which im sure she doesnt and wouldnt want to imply she has


I like the 2nd one the best, mainly because the purple backround matches her clothing and skin tone really well.

nice shots. great models. most of them looks more like fashion shots than portraits shots, but number 3.

maybe try to get the attention mostly on her face.

i want to see more from you !