Reply To: Be nice!

[Bill]

Your not terrible but you have a few things that jump out at me that you need to work on.

Before I say anything, always keep an open mind and never take criticism personally. It’s cool that you want to get good feedback and are opening yourself up and showing us your work, but what ever I or anyone else says, it is for your benefit to progress.
Okay, that is out of the way.

Photo #1 – You have to prep your subjects and your props and watch your editing. The violin is dirty, I see white dust below the strings. The dust is distracting since the violin is subject front and your model is subject back. There is also some strange edit marks around the edges of the violin.
As for your model, his complexion is typical of teenagers but since he is out of the DOF he could benefit with some skin softening, since his details are pushed into the background. I see what you were going for but a little prep or editing would make this better IMO.

Photo’s #2-#5 – nothing really here grabs me. Nothing really bad, but look like snapshots. The poses are kind of generic, okay but nothing really pops, sorry.

Photo #6 – These are nice photos to get before the ceremony, but this is not a preferred pose. Reason being, your shooting into the crotch of the groom. Most times you get these shots with their hands up near the head or shoulders. The focus is soft, not sure if that is what you were going for. The pose does not do it for me.

Photo’s #8-#10 – Out of these, I like the dramatic lighting of the flowers, the other 2 are just too plain. #10 again, you need to dust the table before taking photos of anything on it or edit the dust out.

Photo’s 11-15 – You need to work on your DOF and focus points. I see you were using f/2.2 for most of the shots with the girl. You have to remember that f/2.2 is a very shallow DOF, so full body shots don’t really work to well when trying to encompass all the details of her [holding the violin] even with some distance added. I am guessing that you were about 10′ from her, that gives the DOF range of about 1′ from you focal point so the details start blurring at that point.
Usually shallow DOF are used for close in portraits or to make the subject “pop” from the background. It’s not to say you can’t use it for anything else, but this is where they excel in performance.

I know others will probably point out some other things and that is fine.
Your not terrible, but use this and anything that others may say and keep shooting.