Comments Please - Particularly on the Candid stuff

The_Bulb

The_Bulb

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659
Name
Richard
Edit My Images
Yes
It was my Mum's birthday last week and to celebrate we have a small gathering of friends and family for her.

It has been the first chance I have had to use my new 5d mkii in anger and I also thought it would be a great opportunity to try and capture some candid shots, to build my experience a little bit more.

It proved a real challenge as I knew so many of the people there, when I was walking round, they just told me to "do one" or turned and posed for the camera - not really what I was wanting!

I would therefore be really interested in any comments you may have about this set, particularly the framing, use of DOF, processing etc however harsh these comments may be.

Thanks for taking the time to look and comment.

1.

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2.

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3.

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4.

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5.

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6.

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7.

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8.

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9.

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10.

Mum-60th_-0107.jpg
 
I don't know how to crit..
You managed to get what others like me would take and it would look like snapshot... and make it look so bloody professional.
I don't see how anyone wont appreciate these. Greak work :)
 
I love the expression in number 2
Well done!
 
They look good to me Richard (y)
Great subject isolation :clap:

I presume 70-200 f/2.8 used :shrug:


Edit:
Especially like #2
 
they look good to me nice DOF and pin sharp in all the right places.
 
I agree with yoshi #2 is great, the whole set is great was this a family gathering
 
Trev Rich said:
I don't know how to crit..
You managed to get what others like me would take and it would look like snapshot... and make it look so bloody professional.
I don't see how anyone wont appreciate these. Greak work :)
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WOW - thanks very much

yoshi said:
I love the expression in number 2
Well done!
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Thanks for your comments

V8burble said:
They look good to me Richard (y)
Great subject isolation :clap:

I presume 70-200 f/2.8 used :shrug:


Edit:
Especially like #2
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Thanks V8 - a mixture of the 70-200 f/2.8 (which I love) and my new 24-70 f/2.8

neilr said:
they look good to me nice DOF and pin sharp in all the right places.
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Thanks for the comment neil

Dangermouse1964 said:
I agree with yoshi #2 is great, the whole set is great was this a family gathering
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Thanks Dangermouse - it was my Mum's birthday, family and friends over for a BBQ. I've got my neices holy communion this next weekend, so will be trying to get some more candid stuff
 
A lot of them seem quite bright, I'd even go as far as saying they appear over-exposed to me.
 
FlyTVR said:
Excellent shots. Lovely DOF and great atmosphere to the shots.
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Thanks TVR

Kryptix said:
A lot of them seem quite bright, I'd even go as far as saying they appear over-exposed to me.
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Thanks Kryptix, they look ok to me on my monitor, and I can't see many blown spots on the photos - do they look to bright on anyone elses monitor?
 
The_Bulb said:
... - do they look to bright on anyone elses monitor?
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Not on either of mine :shrug: I agree that a few are bright, but that's not in any bad way for me at least (like say #3). Both my monitors are recently calibrated.
 
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ShawWellPete said:
Not mine. It's a great set, very good use of DOF to isolate the subjects.

(y)
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Thanks for your comments Pete

V8burble said:
Not on either of mine :shrug: I agree that a few are bright, but that's not in any bad way for me at least (like say #3). Both my monitors are recently calibrated.
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Thanks V8 - Having looked back on them number 4 is probably a bit bright when you look at the yellow shirt - I've been trying to use the curves tool in photoshop - maybe I have over cooked the processing a bit :shrug:
 
Great shots, great atmosphere.

No 7 has a lot of black space and could be cropped tight to the back of he head.
The cake looked very tasty.

Graham
 
Really like these shots. Everybody in them seems very happy and at ease. They are sharp where needed, great DOF in some of them. They are the kind of shots, that look like snaps, but you know some thought has gone into the composition etc. Well done
 
Yes, lovely use of D.o.F I think an f2.8 lens is on my shopping list in the near future....(y)
 
These are great shots , they look really natural and capture a typical family gathering perfectly , everyone looks at ease and the DOF really works for me

the day i can take shots like these i'll be a happy man
 
Look good on the whole. Exposures are fine, except #4 may be a tiny bit high, but probably only a third of a stop or so.

Also with number 4, I think a crop from the left to lose the extra knee, would really clean it up.

Number 8 is a bit loose, but you got the expression.

Number 10, perhaps could be cropped from the top a touch to bring it down to the top of the fence, but it may look a bit tight then.

They're all just little clean up things. What do you think of the white balance? A lot of the skin tones are looking pretty red to my eye..
 
newyorkaddict said:
Really like these shots. Everybody in them seems very happy and at ease. They are sharp where needed, great DOF in some of them. They are the kind of shots, that look like snaps, but you know some thought has gone into the composition etc. Well done
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Thanks for your comments - they are my first real attempt at candid images, which I found especially hard because everyone is family or a close family friend. They don't behave the same as say strangers at a wedding - plus you feel a bit of a twerp floating round with the camera taking pictures of said family without talking to them as you normally would do when taking snap shots!!!!

Bikemansteve said:
Yes, lovely use of D.o.F I think an f2.8 lens is on my shopping list in the near future....(y)
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You will honestly not regret your purchase, my 70-200 f/2.8 is my absolute favourite lens, yes it cost a bomb, but I just love it. I also used my new 24-70 f/2.8 which I think I am going to equally love!!!!

ShawWellPete said:
I'm just looking through these again. Can you talk us through the processing? I'm assuming you added the vignette and processed these in Lightroom?
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I shoot RAW, import into lightroom where I only touch the white balance and exposure settings, add meta data if i am feeling particularly good :p then export JPEG and into photoshop where I do a high pass sharpen, curves adjustment or levels tweak do an additional sharpen to eyes or any specific areas that need it, apply vignette and and add the black border. I have created my own actions for some of the work, so I can import and do a batch high pass sharpen and black border automatcally to all the images. When I have finished I then do an automated save and close to all images and hey presto ready to go!

I do other things to the black and whites, and I also have created actions for low saturation, high contrast etc. etc.

mrgas said:
These are great shots , they look really natural and capture a typical family gathering perfectly , everyone looks at ease and the DOF really works for me

the day i can take shots like these i'll be a happy man
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Thanks very much and for commenting

Jayst84 said:
Look good on the whole. Exposures are fine, except #4 may be a tiny bit high, but probably only a third of a stop or so.

Also with number 4, I think a crop from the left to lose the extra knee, would really clean it up.

Number 8 is a bit loose, but you got the expression.

Number 10, perhaps could be cropped from the top a touch to bring it down to the top of the fence, but it may look a bit tight then.

They're all just little clean up things. What do you think of the white balance? A lot of the skin tones are looking pretty red to my eye..
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Thanks for your very valid comments - I did notice the knee but I try and get my framing right straight out of the camera, I don't know why, but I just don't like cropping my images and never do it!!!! Maybe I've got a touch of OCD and like all my images to have the same resolution of pixels :bonk:
 
A stolen Starbucks mug I see on no.10. They'll be looking for you.
 
just looked at these again , i'm liking them !

the empty chair really helps #10 , top photo
 
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