Could anyone give me honest opinion about these photos?

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411
Name
Tom
Edit My Images
Yes
Hello folks.

I recently managed to puchase some photo gear - not what I wanted, but enough to allow some training - D5100 + N50 f1.8G. I would like to push my hobby little bit further and work with people, so started training with my own daughter ;). The plan is to get some more experience before I get proper gear. Please have a look at effects of our work.

1.
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2.
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3.
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4.
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I will be very grateful for any pointers, critique or advice.

Regards,
Tom
 
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Some lovely pictures there. My comments would be...

  1. I find the OOF branches to the front left too bright and the main pull on my eye, They're also too close to the subject and I struggle to reconcile the OOF against the sharpness of the subject. The eyes don't work for me (red-eye fix?) - the pupil would benefit from a catch light. There's also a stick growing from your daughter's neck :)
  2. I really like the angle, and in this case the same OOF foreground has worked well - perhaps because you can spot individual blades of grass at different degrees of focus that make the distance 'real'; I might be tempted to put a bit more distance between your daughter and fence if possible (looks like it wasn't) or use a slightly wider aperture to throw the fence out of focus a bit more. I like this one though. very nice.
  3. Again, lovely angle. I personally like the blown sky on this especially with shooting into the sun, but there are some strange lines above the head? I might be tempted to crop a little tighter to get rid of the 'floating' branches to the left and right.
  4. I guess same principle as No. 3, but not quite as successful in my view. No. 3 has the lovely wraparound light from the sun on the face, where as in this one, the transition seems a little harsh and the crop to he left looks a little odd when compared to the right - the green bokeh there is lovely and looks like it should be mirrored on the left - perhaps a couple os steps to the left then framing that one.
EDIT - I would say you are very lucky to have such an obliging offspring! My three run at the sight of my camera! Very jealous.
 
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Generally, they're pretty nice. I do like the way you've used the sun in many to make them more interesting. A little more engagement wouldn't hurt them though. Specifically

1. I think you've used your flash here. This has lead to the OOF foreground branches being way to bright. I think using foliage like that can frame a photo nicely, but this takes way too much of the photo.

2. ! agree with the above, but the concrete kerb she's sat on doesn't fit the photo

3 & b4 I agree with above
 
2 & 3 are lovely!

I like the low viewpoint but be aware that shooting up someone's nose isn't always the most flattering. #3 has a slight pinkish cast and #4 a green one, presumably from the grass. It's worth shooting a grey card to set your white balance.
 
Thank you so much for your replies.

Will start from the end ;).

Juggler,
I realised that I shouldn't show her nose as I did after photos were processed. She looks like a bacon seed on this photo ;). As to the cast - I didn't notice it on my laptop, can't see it now either. Will have to have a look at it again, but I can admit I am getting a lot of pink cast on many shots. Not sure if it's caused by the lens itself or some other factors.

Boyfalldown,
the problem when you're starting out is that it's not so easy when it comes to actual shooting ;). I tried to prepare myself for the shoot as best as I could, but missed so many obvious things, like comb for example ;). I kind of expected it to be nice static session, but it wasn't the case and in few moments I wasn't ready at all - hence the flash, I have no idea why I didn't just boost iso a bit, lens is more than capable of doing good shots in conditions I faced. But at this particular moment she was looking at horses and talking and this frame wasn't posed at all. Took one quickly, had a look, was too dark, so opened flash and took another one. Few seconds after she left that spot. Lesson learnt here, I have assigned iso to one function button and can only try to use it next time ;).

Furtim,
1 - for eyes I used high pass filter to try and pop them out a little, but without adding too much saturation to them. It was first time I did it, looked ok-ish at first, but longer I look, the less I like this effect. As to the branch - noticed it during post processing, in fact it's one of few shots like that and only one of two that I saved, rest was deleted.

2. This photo was taken on the bridge and the concrete she sits on is in fact walkway, grass grows just between walkway and the road. As much as there might not be a possibility to physially increase distance between her and fence, I could try with diferent angle and wider aperture. Thing I am not too sure about is again object in the background going directly through her head, so I still have few things to learn here ;).

3. Them lines are just electric cables running above, I noticed them during post process too, but couldn't really remove them due to lack of skill in PS - under equalize it looked terrible. During this shot I struggled to see anything in the viewfinder as sun was still a bit too high and I struggled to frame her as I wanted. Same case with next photo. I had hoped I would be able to take them shots relatively quickly as viewfinder was not eye friendly, but focus got lost a lot and it took me a while to get them frames.

As far as I remember these photos were not cropped at all. I tried to achieve final look before I released shutter. This was something completely new to me as I used to photograph aircraft, so was cropping a lot. Work with prime lens is also new experience as it is my first one and I only shot with zooms in the past ;).

As to being lucky, I can say I am, but she charged me for that session ;). She said it would be nice if I could make her feel like a model, but added that models get paid, cheeky...

Once again thank you all for input. I really wanted to hear someone else's opinion as it is difficult for me pick all the flaws for quite obvious reasons. I appreciate a lot your critique and pointers gents.

Regards.
 
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