Some candids from my first paid photo job - C&C very wel

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

Hi folks

I shot my first paid shoot today and loved every minute of it.

Here's some shots with my NEX-3 and Konica Hexanon 2.8/24 and LOMO 35-OKC-1-18-1 2.8/18 (indoors are the LOMO, most of the outdoors the Konica); indoors at ISO 1600, outdoors at ISO 200, all in aperture priority mode.

Most have no PP, two or three were sharpened.

I welcome C&C as I am at the beginning of a learning curve and value any advice and tips Smile

#5 is backfocused but I liked the shot so much I don't think it really matters too much.

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

#11

#12

#13

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

PP is essential on all of them better contrasts , more vivid colors.

#12 is so cute

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

Congratulations, first step is the most difficult, from now on it's downhill Smile

Some good ones there Smile

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

Cheers guys. For some reason, they look less vivid in colours after upload than they do viewed locally on my PC.

I'll have a play with PP and upload a couple to see what you think of my PP choices.

I shot nearly 700 frames, it's gonna take a while to go through them all, this is just a dozen from the first half of that task, not looked at the other half yet. Rolling Eyes

patrickh · Expire: 2011-11-18

Fine start Ian. Cool human series, they should love them

patrickh

David · Expire: 2013-01-25

That's a great series. It is too bad that #5 is backfocused. Otherwise, that would be worth entering in a contest.

peterqd · Expire: 2014-01-04

bhargav · Expire: 2014-11-24

Congrats Ian on your first assignment! It must be a great feeling. #10,11, 12 look quite good.

I agree with Peter about the composition. And I also think you could also get better results with a faster portrait lens. Also, if you are going to do more kids stuff using NEX (before you buy a FF) you could consider buying the Sony 50/1.8 as you need fast AF for kids who move very fast. Just some thoughts.

hoanpham · Expire: 2015-01-18

#1: nice portrait. Better timing next time. Kids are alway a challenge. I prefer a bit closer to blur out the man or whatever behind.

#2: Kids again, I can't do better. Shot more and pick one. Another spot to avoid harsh day light?

#3: Nice.

#4: Nice too. Your photo gear bag?

#5: oof, otherwise nice.

#6, #7, #8, #9: Start early in a party - do not wait for empty plates and glasses. Food and drink look nicer when fresh. No later than everyone just sit down. Ask them to pose before eat. Quick sweep of everybody.

#10, #11: Ask the kids to see if they can see you blink your eye through the camera Very Happy

Call their name, get their attention by other means.

#12, #13: Selling photos. #12, ask mom to move away and get a clean shot of the kids when they are standing there.

poilu · Expire: 2019-08-29

nice job, kids are not easy to capture

themoleman342 · Expire: 2013-01-24

To be completely honest, for the style and approach that you used in this case, I don't see much of an advantage in equipping manual focus lenses. I am not blown away by the quality. Maybe it's my screen. They look plenty sharp but in terms of contrast, colors, and oof areas they leave me a little flat. A touch of PP would do wonders I think.

If focusing was taken out of the equation, would there be different compositional choices? I know people today don't understand the few seconds it takes to focus a shot. In my experience I always feel pressured and take the picture before considering everything. You did much better than I would have.

If you had fun using the lenses that day than I absolutely applaud you. I probably would have left frustrated. Seriously keep it up. You'll only get better!

Lloydy · Expire: 2022-01-01

I have to agree with the comments made by most, well all, of the previous commentators. And it's all good, constructive, criticism about something that is actually extremely difficult. As soon as you point a camera at people they pose, they act differently. Kids will suddenly become 10 times as lively as they already are, and adults will breath in and try to look cool. Getting good pictures in a situation like this is a nightmare. But, with some PP and judicious cropping there's some pictures the family will love, what more can you ask for ? It has to be treated differently to any notions of 'photography as art', that's another thing altogether. That's your pleasure, this was their pleasure, and their memories.
I hate photographing people, it's something I've discussed with my therapist in passing Laughing

, but it's 'me' and I've accepted that, I really applaud you for having a go Ian, stick with it, it'll work for you. Wink

peterqd · Expire: 2014-01-04

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

Thanks for all the comments guys, I'm so busy right now but I'll absorb them when I have time.

Most of the shots were at f8, if I wasn't so worried about accurate focus and capturing expressions etc I would have thought more about composition and selective aperture to get some nice bokeh, but as it was, I just fell back on 'f8 and be damned' hoping it would ease the focus concerns.

I have a huge job on my hands to sort through the hundreds of shots, pick the best, then apply appropriate PP, but I'm enjoying it.

Here's one I've worked on so far, I think I've pretty much fixed the issues with it, despite it being slightly back-focused.

And here's another, I blurred the background with gaussian and then radial blur, the overall shot might look a bit cheesy but I think the client will like it, it's unusual compared to the standard fodder event photogs churn out I think and I do want to develop my own style if possible.

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

Hmm, after uploading the pictures definitely lose some saturation, the original files viewed locally on my PC have much richer colours, I wonder why that is?

visualopsins · Expire: 2025-04-11

#5, 6, 7, & 9 are my favorites here.

I'd try Focus Magic software on #5 -- there's a free trial version on their web site.

#6 & #7 are superb imho. #9 excellent too.

I can't imagine there not being many more among the 700...

tikkathree · Expire: 2012-12-28

heartcat · Joined: 31 Dec 2009 Posts: 371

It looks like you've gotten some good feedback and tips for next time. I think the biggest problem here was probably the harsh midday lighting washing everything out. The photos really do need PP and it's hard to imagine how they will look when finished.

I do think that they pretty much all have a 'snapshot' look to them though, as opposed to a professional look, probably in large part because of the aperture you used, though I can understand why you chose it. They really don't look that much different than what I'd expect anyone with a point and shoot to capture. I don't see any really unique angles, except for #5, or ways of approaching the subject matter that stand out to me and say 'this is why you should hire someone to take your event photos!'.

I also feel strongly that if you've missed the focus on a shot it should be discarded. Regardless of whether it was otherwise a good concept. If the photo is supposed to be of an individual, like the boy on the bouncy castle, then he needs to be nice and sharp. There are situations where a subject doesn't need to be in focus and where it is done for effect, but that is different than missing the focus. And I don't think it works here or that any amount of PPing is going to help.

If I was a paying client and a photographer showed me a shot that 'could' have been great, but wasn't quite right, personally I would only be frustrated and tend to think that I was having to 'settle' with mediocre because they didn't get the job done. My advice is to not present that one to the client.

There is a chance that they might love it, because people tend to love photos of the people/things they love and to react to them on an emotional level. But you need to consider whether this is truly what you want to be representative of your work, as other people are going to see them as well and might either point out the focusing issue and 'spoil' it for the client, or it might put them off from hiring you in the future.

I actually like the one with mom with the little girls even though it doesn't include her head or lower body, even though the majority seem not to. I will say from a woman's perspective though that she's going to look at it and will only see a bit of a 'paunch' where her top balloons out a bit. So if you're adept at editing (I'm not) and there's some way to liquify that area or something and keep it still looking natural it might be worth the effort.

My favourite of all of these is the one with the little dark-haired girl alone at the table (I forget the number now) looking up and away. Interesting expression and nice focus and composition that has her standing out as the subject even in a room full of people and other tables. Nice job on that one especially.

You've chosen a type of photography that is a lot of effort and requires a lot of fast thinking on your feet and being at the whims of the location and weather/lighting conditions. Personally there's no way I could do it, lol! I think that if you enjoy it though, be patient and be really strict with yourself...only process and present the absolute best from a session...and you will succeed. Best of luck!

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

Thanks for all the tips, I'm reading them all and taking them on board, very useful to me.

It was a Christening. I took a load of posed group shots that the client requested, I haven't shown any of those, pretty boring stuff, just line people up, try to arrange them by height so you can see everyone's faces and make sure it's in focus. I'm not so sure I did a great job on those, but I took a lot and from them I should be able to pull enough decent ones.

After I'd done all the posed stuff I spent a couple of hours shooting candids of all the kids and everyone at the reception, just as a nice bonus for the client and to get some practice, oh, and because I found it immense fun too.

tikkathree · Expire: 2012-12-28

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

I think so too, I took lots of shots of people with their kids, hopefully a few will like them and want to purchase prints.

Riku · Expire: 2017-04-30

Wouldn't the kit lens (18-55mm) have given better IQ and quicker more accurate focus?

Rolf · Expire: 2015-12-26

I didn't read the complete thread so perhaps the following was posted before.

You should do additional

1. remove dust (for example #10) and
2. resizing or cropping to remove confusing subjects (for example #1 the right side with the man going through the door or #13 the rest of the house on the left side or the masts coming out of the shoulder)

#10 for example is a typically mistake with such images. On the left side you have in the background some unsharp buildings which are without any interest for this image. And where is the head of the mother ?

So I´m thinking that you have to do a lot of PP and resizing/cropping or different format to get adaquate results. Maybe you had better used an AF lens so that you could concentrate during shooting on image build-up instead of trying to get a sharp image with an MF lens.

Wink

iangreenhalgh1 · Expire: 2014-01-07

Yes, an AF lens would have been very useful, sadly I don't own one.

The 18-55 kit lens certainly wouldn't give better IQ, it would have helped with fast focussing, being AF, but the IQ wouldn't be better.

Riku · Expire: 2017-04-30