Critique desired - what do you think of these photos?

Question

I took these shots for a senior photo shoot. Could you critique them, please?

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y239/laura11383/100.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y239/laura11383/111.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y239/laura11383/DSC_0161copycopy.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y239/laura11383/197.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y239/laura11383/176.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y239/laura11383/124.jpg

Thanks for the input, guys. I've never taken a photography class or anything, so I'm very "green".

Answer 1

1) The composition is good, but you need some fill flash with the back lighting as strong as it is. The highlights are harsh.

2) I find the composition unpleasant. There's nothing to balance her body shape. I find the background and her knee distracting (I find my eyes returning to those spots, rather than looking at her). And there's something odd about the way her arm is bent. It looks uncomfortable. Maybe some cropping would help?

3) Generally a good shot. What was the focal length, though? It looks sort of short to me, giving a wide angle distortion to the photo.

4) Harsh highlights on the face and jeans. Did you want the steps at an angle?

5) Nice composition. The left side of her face and neck are dark and could stand some dodging.

6) Also a very nice composition. I would dodge the left side of her face just a bit.

In general, thery're all better photos than most people would take. Possibly my comments regarding darkness and harsh lighting may be due in part to how well the photos survived the internet and my monitor (my monitor is color calibrated using PrintFix Pro). Your originals may be better than how I am seeing them, though.

Answer 2

These are a fairly decent amateur effort. Your worst problem is in posing and amputating limbs. You might get away with straight into the camera posing with young, skinny models. That will never fly for people who don't have small, slender frames.

In the first, there are some really distracting highlights, particularly on her shoulder.

You have cut half her body off on the second, and she just looks uncomfortable. The DOF and lighting are nice, though.

The third has a "disembodied" hand floating in the corner. Also, the focal length has made her nose disproportionately big. But the lighting in her eyes is great.

The fourth one has too much in focus and the steps are crooked.

The fifth is nice. The posing, again, seems awkward, but because she is young and slender, she pulled it off. Her face is a bit dark.

The last one has an awkward crop at her elbow, and her hand on the other arm is missing. Also, the chain is a big distraction, along with the stray flower on the left. Use a reflector to bounce a little more light in her face. Nice job on the b&w conversion, though,

Overall, not a bad job. Work more on your poses, and lighting. I'm sure she liked her pictures. Best wishes!

Answer 3

Pretty good actually, the only thing I would suggest would be to watch your cropping. In the second shot, you've cropped out almost half of your subject's left side. The third shot has great lighting but again, you're cropping is a bit haphazard. Try widening your shot a bit from where it was taken. Other than that, your subject is beautiful and so are the compositions and lighting. Great job!

Answer 4

You have an instinctive grasp of composition. Most of your images generally follow the rule of thirds, http://photography.about.com/od/takingpictures/ig/Rule-of-Thirds/index.htm.
Keep practicing and reading all you can about the subject. Also remember to watch your cropping so that you don't cut off more of your subject than you mean to.

Your biggest issue seems to be the lighting. For help with this on a student's budget, I would suggest a large piece of white posterboard held to the side of the subject to reflect some light back onto the face.

Good luck!
~Liz

Answer 5

Not half bad.

I'd say the biggest things to work on are composition and model posing.

In some of the pictures, the limbs tend to get cut off, or parts of the model ar chopped on the sides, making the person lok weird.

A lot of the compositions are ordinary or seem uncomfortable.

Answer 6

Watch your placement of your subjects. A couple of them you've put them too far too the side and they don't look right. Other than that, they look great. Use some fill flash when the lighting is harsh. On the first one you could have used some fill lighting.