What do you think of my work? Am I okay?

[MystikNZ]

Hi Guys!

Honest opinions please, I havn’t been taking photos for a few months now as I’ve had a “Am I good enough” spell?
I’ve recently completed a diploma in professional photography (end 2012)  before that I’ve taught myself all I know,

I don’t feel that I am good enough to be paid so I don’t ask to be! I just do it for the love of it.

I’ve only been paid twice once for a small wedding the other for some family photo shots.

please tell me what am i good at and not good at? I know i’m not so good with babies but better when they are up, active and running around

 

https://www.facebook.com/dakotasdreamphotography

[mynameisRachel]

Well, you aren’t a fauxtographer since you aren’t making people pay! Now, I’m not the most qualified person to be offering criticism, but I still have eyes, y’know?

I like your use of the shallow depth of field, but sometimes the lighting is a bit off (which I can totally understand! You don’t want to order people around and then the lighting changes, etc). And I have no idea whether or not some of your landscapes/animal pics are good because the watermark is so distracting that it’s all I could see!

There are also some issues with overexposure/lack of focus, but I can sympathize because sometimes it looks good in-camera or you don’t have enough time to double check to see if everything’s going OK. I assume that that will improve over time (I’m still waiting to improve in those fields 😛 ), so keep shooting! And keep using friends/animal as subjects, they’re fun to work with 🙂
Don’t worry about not being “good enough”, I think you’re only as good as you let yourself be and if you stop shooting you’ll forever stay at the same level!
Also I thought the pictures of the jumping dogs were really cute 🙂

[cameraclicker]

I think your own assessment is pretty accurate.  But at the same time, someone did offer to purchase a photo of their dog, and that was after they saw it.

I like your wee helper:  https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=539687046043967&set=a.307654239247250.88437.202110033135005&type=1&theater

In this one (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=523565987656073&set=a.307654239247250.88437.202110033135005&type=1&theater) it looks like it is raining.  I’m left wondering if she is under a tree or some structure so the rain is just falling behind her and she is staying dry.  Dress detail is good but her face does not seem that sharp and she has raccoon eyes.  You need to get a flash to do some fill.  A lot of your photos would benefit from a flash.

I’m curious.  You got a diploma in Professional Photography.  Did they teach the business of photography, or how to make good looking photos, or both?  How long was the course?

[IHF]

Looks like you have spent more time on promoting your page, collecting fake likes from other people who collect fake likes, ordering business cards and considering mini sessions for your clients “at a reasonable price” than you have on developing your photography skills.

eh not impressed, mostly because I don’t think you have been completely straight with us, and visiting your page leads people to believe you are in business soliciting clients and work.

You ARE a fauxtographer I’m afraid

[fstopper89]

I have to agree with IHF. You have A LOT of likes for someone who supposedly isn’t even in business. I looked through several of the portrait albums and most stuck out to me as snapshot-ish. There were a lot of white balance and underexposure issues, and a handful of images that were out of focus. You have quite a few images in each album. Your one family album has over 100 photos, many of which are the same pose. You should be weeding out the “bad” photos, like when a person was making an odd expression, and only editing and posting the select good ones. For me a typical family session might end up with 30 finished photos and that’s generous compared so some. The family photos had people wearing clothing that didn’t go together well or had distracting words or patterns. When you have a group, it’s important to consult with them on outfit choices or it will take away from the photo. I noticed some photos where the light was filtering through trees and creating spots of light on the people, or harsh bright areas on faces. It’s really hard on sunny days to avoid that, but you should have areas of complete shade (on a sunny day it will be plenty bright enough for  good exposure but will block out harsh light) and/or use reflectors and fill flash to compensate. Some of your portraits had distracting background as well. When you have a large group to shoot you can’t really get the nice shallow depth of field that you can get with 1-3 subjects, but if you have a lens with a longer focal length that will help a little. Your subjects didn’t stand out against the background well in many of the shots.

You seem to have more of a niche with the animal photography. Do you enjoy that the best? Your animal images look a lot stronger than your human portraits.

[creyes8519]

I did not like your work….. there’s a lot of bad photos.

 

[cass335]

@creyes: Lol, straight to the point.

I agree with IHF and BEG. You need to put some major work into learning fill lighting while doing portraits. I also agree that your pet/animal photos are much better than your people work. However…I really hate your giant “sample only” words across your images. It makes is extremely hard to even see the image behind them. Turn down the opacity on them and you can still have them there, but they will be more subtle. Or…upload them to a different website (such as flickr) that does not allow right-clicking on images. Then just post 5-10 on FB with a link to a full album of them. And…I, too, am curious about your diploma…

[Author]

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