First Photo Shoot

[Jessica Eldredge]

Here are some pictures from my first paid photo shoot. The couple was really happy with how they turned out. I did some minor editing, but nothing fancy. They were all shot with my Nikon D50, and with available light only. I'll probably post more later.

1.

2.

3.

4.

 

[Rachel Foster]

I like the lighting on #2, but that's not conventional portrait lighting. (That could be why I like it, in truth!) It looks a little burned to the left of the couple, but my monitor is not calibrated correctly.

 

[Marshall Everett]

Congratulations Jessica, that first one is always so cool to get behind you!
Here are my thoughts, hope you do not mind the honesty. Recognizing that you said it was all natural lighting, but some fill flash would have worked very well for you here. I shoot with a D50 also and the on camera flash, turned down a little, works for fill flash.

How did you meter the light? Hand held Light meter or on camera meter?
The man's hat fades into the black range and the detail has been lost, number 4 shows the hat the best.
Your lady has a beautiful smile and the poses do seem to bring out some nice personality between the two.
The background is really blown out and this could have been dealt with through some fill flash, which would have allowed for a faster exposure on your couple.
The tree is distracting in #3, hanging in front of the man's hat.
There seems to be a level of disconnect in #3. She seems to be in the moment, but he seems to be somewhere else. She is leaning into him with a big smile, while grasping his arms and he is not smiling and seems uncomfortable with his hands.
#4 - I like connections, in this shot I do not see any. You could have asked him to hold her hand that is on the tree, that would have brought them together more.

You have already accomplished the most important thing, pleasing the customer. We all learn from looking over our shots to find ways to improve for the next time. You have done some very nice things here, posing, creating some fun, connections, keep it going.

 

[Jessica Eldredge]

Rachel,
Thanks for you comments. There was a river behind the couple in #2 and the sun was shining off of it so much that it was really difficult to try to get a shot with the couple and the water exposed correctly. #2 is still one of my favorite shots though.

Marshall,
I did the metering with the in camera meter. I haven't been able to get a hand held one yet. I'll have to play with the on camera flash a little to see if I can get a good fill flash. I didn't even think of that at the time. This was the second day of a two part photo shoot. On the first day, I had my friend working a reflector for me so the shadows weren't as harsh. Sadly though, he was out of town on the day I did these shots and I couldn't find anyone else who was free to help me. I'll keep the fill flash in mind next time.

I agree that the tree in #3 is distracting, but I thought it was such a fun shot. She was high heels in a canyon so he had to steady her a lot.

I knew something was missing from #4 but couldn't pin point it. You are right though. He should have held her hand or something for that shot. I'll have to remember that.

 

[Marshall Everett]

Jessica,

With that much bright light, the camera's light meter will get confused and your main foreground will not get metered properly. There are techniques to overcome this, some call it "shooting to the right", where the light meter tells you that the shot will be overexposed so that the main subject is properly lit. The downfall to that is that the bright light is still blown out.
Do you shoot in RAW? If so, there are some Photoshop techniques that can really bring the various parts of the shot together. I'll look up some links to some articles that I have read and post them tonight.

Marshall

 

[Robert Weatherall]

In harsh light like this, I like to bracket my shots, then can merge them in PS.

Also, I would try not to cut everyone in half. (MOO)

 

[Asher Kelman]

Jessica,

Congrats on your new work and for the happy couple! High sun around mid-day is a harsh light for weddings! In such cases, use a simple stand to have a controlled limitation of sunlight over the couple. Use a scrim or a large filtering white fabric to cut down the harsh light and use a more open aperture or else a low amount of fill-in flash to open up the shadows.

When there is harsh light, don't try to overwhelm the sun, (you'd be taking on a big guy up there and he's always got much more candle power than any of us)! It's easier to create you own milieu with no light from above or else just a remnant of diffused light coming through several layers of white fabric.

I'd go to manual, and meter for the background. When you can take the picture and the b.g. exposed well, all you need to do is add illumination for the couple.

However, the first order of business to is drop the dynamic range from super-bright to dark shadow from the harsh light by limiting direct sunlight. Then you can add back light from your camera flash to the people.

Keep shooting!

Asher

 

[Jessica Eldredge]

Asher,
Thanks for the advice! I'll definitely keep that in mind for my next shoot. I've conned my 4 best friends into being models for me sometimes in the near future. I'm hoping to play around with a lot with lighting and how to manage different sunlight conditions.