Reply To: Photographer in Training

[Bill]

I am stunned just like CC, that Lighting is not offered as a course for you photography. I mean, WOW!
No negativity towards you jeigh, but damn. How in the world can you perform decent photography without referring to the most important factor, lighting.

I know most courses have their student start out with inanimate objects like an orange or an apple with a single light source. The object with the 1 subject and 1 light is to take photos from various angles and too see how the light wraps around an object and starts to fall off. Oranges in my opinion are better for this, since they have greater texture.

The only thing I can think of why the course is lacking in the lighting department is that they are referring lighting as flash or off-camera lighting and not your basic lighting situations.

Jeigh, as for your photos, I think some of your composition is fine, but I see a lot of out of focus and soft shots. There are some where your point of focus could use a wider DOF to catch all the subjects in focus and render the BG in a bokeh. Since I cannot seem to link to a specific image, it is the image in the wedding series of the wedding guests sitting. It appears that you focus was on the last guest furthest from the camera, and the rest of the guest fall into blur. This image should have had a wider DOF.

With the Lee family photos, your color varies from warm to cool and is very inconsistent. I like some of the poses and the kids are looking they they are having a good time. With younger kids, the runny noses you have to watch for.
There are several shots again, where your focal points are not right on but close and some that are slightly out of focus.

For a 2 year student, I don’t think you are that bad, just need some improving. Trust me and I say this all the time to some of the people I train, “We all start from 0.”
Good and honest criticism will help you if you continue on. It may be hard to take some times, but that is what makes us better, learning from our mistakes and using the knowledge of others.

Good Luck and keep shooting!