Reply To: How am I doing?

[cameraclicker]

First I have seen the post.  Probably something else was posted after it and I didn’t realize this was here.  The freshness indicators on this site don’t work very well for me… Anyway, here now.

I agree with Thom regarding the first image.  I really like the light, but I am not at all a fan of the out of focus foreground elements.  It didn’t occur to me that it is voyeuristic, though now that it’s mentioned…  I just find out of focus foreground objects mess with my eyes and I don’t like the feeling so it’s immediately on to the next one.

The second one has context, it’s the ring.  Try burning his upper arm and the white patches on his shirt a little.  The ring is in focus, they are not, there may be a little too much brightness in the areas that are not supposed to be focused on but otherwise it’s a good shot.

For the third one, I don’t shoot much B&W, I don’t see a lot of B&W that I like.  It’s a personal preference thing, perhaps.  I’ll defer to Thom regarding contrasty, and so on.  I will add that either they were each facing the wrong way or you were standing on the wrong side of them.  It is an engagement shoot?  Where is the ring?  All I see is a couple making out.  They could be anybody.  Oh, and his neck and the top of the hair where it meets the sky look totally burned out.  As is upper side of her forearm and her hand between thumb and index finger.  That might be due to too much contrast or too much exposure.

It’s a small sample but you seem to know what you are doing.  Keep shooting.