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Lesson Info

Night Portraits Critique

So Night Portrait had some really excellent night. Portrait's here. You know, some people doing some really nice work with light, some people doing some really simple but effective work with light. That's really pretty that is very evenly balanced. Well done. That's lovely. That's lovely. That's exceptional. That's awesome. That's an example of a silhouette where no faces or smooshed together that is really well handled. That looks like, you know, this clearly wasn't a wedding. This was somebody taking a picture in their front yard so that they could, although if this was a wedding, this is awesome. It's wedding ever, but that's really well handled. The lighting is really well exposed. That's really well done. That's gorgeous. You know, sometimes it doesn't have to be crazy and artistic. That is really well shot. That's well shot. That's well shot. You know, it doesn't always have to be something completely nutty. It could be a simple picture or a simple picture or just a snapshot. The...

se air really well handled everything from artificial light to I think that's man made life. But that's so well done. I can tell That's nice. You made a gazebo look great, which is not easy to Dio. That's beautiful. That is freaking stellar. You know, these are gorgeous. This isn't easy. Shooting at night is really, really hard, and these are examples of some really lovely, really inspirational night Portrait's for dresses. Gorgeous, that's really well done. Found light that Listen, there's tons of head space here. It's fantastic headspace. It helps tell the story. That's gorgeous. You know, people finding some really nice light. There's a lot of head space here, but it tells a story. But then we had some issues. Compositionally, for example. I love the light. Here I get what you're getting at. Having the swing right behind the bride and groom means the swing grows out of the bride and groom. So stepping the bride and groom to the right or to the left would have been really beneficial. Not putting the bridegroom directly in front of the tree so the tree isn't growing out of them. You got to be careful with your horizon and your horizon lines as they cut through next and arms and heads. You know the light is coming from a good direction, but it's not hitting the clients at a good angle. You know, it's a silhouette, sort of. You know, their faces were smushed together in the background is too dark. It's kind of a muddy fill, a wet compositionally. You've got a lot going on on the right side and a lot going on in the left side. Crop tighter crop tighter. Yep. Crop tighter and shove that dude out of your way. You know, there's a guy practically standing right in front of you. Move around him. This is lovely. I would Onley suggest you don't need to be at 71 for this. You could have been it. 18 You know, back off just a little bit. Let it breathe in power of your light a little stronger and you're on your way to something really nice horizon line going their heads. I know it's being super picky, but if you drop down to the ground and shot level to where they were, they would have cleared the tree line and you would have had a really stellar picture. You know, the light behind them clearly artificial light, but with their faces smushed together, you get no definition. Same thing here, you know the light is really strong. Your shutter speed is way too high, and it's just not giving me anything other than bright light fired behind. Subject Crop closer crop A lot closer. Stand up. That's a rough angle to shoot anybody at, You know, again, it's It's a snapshot. She's cut off the angles. The light is way too bright, you know. It's a tough scenario. Foot space or bottom space. Their crop it right there. You know, it's just a nice picture. But again, the 50 millimeter vertical. Which brings us into Lynn selection. You know where I'm going with this wide angle, vertical wide angle, vertical. You know, it's it's tough. Wide angle verticals are tough. You gotta back up a little bit further, you know, even it. Even it Almost 50 millimeters. It's just not as flattering as it could be shooting up a people with a wide angle. Just be really careful. It starts to distort the frame, you know, super wide. This is a pretty good example, though, of how shooting super wide gives you a little distortion. But the distortion is helping to tell. The story is pushing your eyes towards the subject. You know, just be careful. This isn't super wide angle, but it's It's a little bit wide inch. You also need some light here. It's a 12 8 Its noisiest can be need to throw a little flash onto it, which adds us right into light. If you're going to use a light behind your subject, you need to control the light in a way that doesn't make it go crazy like this. Light is so high powered that all I can see in the scene is the light blasting the ground behind it. Same thing here. The light in front of them is so strong that it's obliterating everything else. You know the lights just flat. It's just right in front of them and flat on the lights, casting huge shadows on the wall behind them. But the shadows aren't in any sort of graphic way that's helping tell the story. It's just sort of casting a big shadow onto the wall behind them. Close needs more light, needs a little bit more light. You're getting there, you know. Here's the problem. You see, you see exactly where the light is. It's coming right in front of her chest, right in between their bodies. If the photographer had had their person holding the light coming from up this way and aiming at the woman's face, this wouldn't be happening, you know, is very good. Attempt single flash coming from the side. But this subject is not looking into the flash. The subject is looking ahead, so the flash is catching her on a really awkward side of her face. If the person that was sitting down had turned her face into the light, then it would have been really dramatic. Nice light hitting her face. You know, there's really lovely light coming from behind them, but it's not illuminating their faces, so their faces remain in darkness. And, you know, I s 0 4000 F 16 I'm guessing there's no light at all. Added that this is just the light existing there. It would have benefited from more light. And if there was light added, it's not enough light, more light, too much light. You know, it's it's bursting from behind them so hard that it's literally obliterating the edges of their bodies. So dial that flash power down needs light. This desperately needs light. You know I can't see anything their faces or just shadows. So either a light video light illuminating their faces from the front or a video light or a flash coming in at an angle from the back would have given you a really beautiful skyline. Portrait need light. You know it's a sparkler exit and sparkler exits are tough. There's not enough light here. You know, when you have, like six people holding up a sparkler, you're going to need to supplement that with some light in some way, because otherwise it's just under exposed. You know too much light. It's lighting up the back of the car like crazy, but it's also falling off, and it's not really hitting the bride and groom. You know, light. It's tough when you try to add in a little light from behind its lighting up the wall instead of the subjects, and we need a little more directional light. This would really be a wonderful example of those dancing pictures that we're talking about. Where if a light was coming over her right shoulder towards his face, it would really separate him from the rest of the scene. It would be really beautiful, you know, really good attempt. But the flare in between the bride and groom is so strong that it takes me a while to even find the bride and groom. You know, there's there's just no light here. This is, you know, I don't know what to say about this. This is a one second exposure at F 22. It's not in focus. I can't see what's going on. There's not enough light. It's just not, you know, and I hate to say what would improve this while quitting and starting over, But honestly, the shutter speed is way too slow. The F stop is way too high. It needs way more light. It just it just needs refining. You know, I so 1600 at 18 and 80th of a second, it's blurry and there's light, but it's not on their faces. So while her veil is lit up, I can't see her face, and it's way too bright on their faces. They're completely blown out. I need more light. You know it's not enough sparklers. You need some additional off camera light of some kind, and I can't see their faces. And here's another example of it's not a silhouette but it's not not a silhouette, you know. You need to commit one way or the other and go for it completely out of focus, like 100% an eight second exposure at F 10. It's just there. They're completely obliterated, like they're a total blur. And we need, you know, the light that's being cast on them is too flat. And then, you know you need moments also. Yes, you wrote out love, but they're so stiff, and he is staring at her so stiffly that it needs to go hand in hand. You need to nail the writing with the sparklers, but you also need an identical, identifiable moment between the two of them and I can't see their faces, and she's looking somewhere else. You know, I need to know what's going on. I need a moment. You know, I I it's just guys. It's just not attractive. Her face is kind of her eyes, a kind of half open. Her eyes are kind of half closed. It's neither here nor there. I feel like there was a moment before there was a moment after, but it missed the moment. You know, her eyes were closed and again, the face smushed with the kissing. You know, face missions are hard. So any advice to folks out there who are shooting the sparkler sparkler shots? Because this was from Susan Fowler. I talked about this briefly on the on the live day last time. But if you don't have enough people holding enough sparklers that give you enough light, you've got to come with your flash it a little bit more of an angle. And the flash here is just so flat that all it's doing is it's smacking the subjects. And then it's not helping add any dimension. If the flash was moved four feet off the camera, left or camera right, it would be a completely different photograph. You know, she's She looks awkward and uncomfortable. It's It's a difficult pose, you know, We just I'm just looking for moments, and I'm not, you know, not really reading identifiable moments and stand over here and kiss. Sure, shoot that, but shoot the moment before they kiss and shoot the moment after they kissed. Also, you know it's in all its slightly and awkward pose, and then a few additional other issues. You know, you've got to choose your locations carefully. I'm not getting a sense of time or place or location from this picture. Other than photographer told me to lean against the wall and smile and you know this is a six second exposure at F 16. He's not even in focus. He's a big blur of motion, and they're not really in focus, either. You know, just be careful when all of your settings air coming together. If you're going to use flash from behind your subjects, try to keep it from hitting the ground and spreading around them. Because then it becomes obvious that you have used off camera flash again. I can't. I can't read the expressions. And then somebody sent in pictures of twins. I'm not sure where this came from, but that's OK. So I figured, Hey, you know, if you're not shooting weddings, if you're shooting something else and you're sending these pictures and I'm gonna help you with them anyhow and there were a handful of pictures of really, really, really cute babies, the only problem was is that they were sort of largely out of focus. For the most part, their a little soft. I couldn't read the exit data on them and the lighting is really flat. So listen, what I want to tell you guys before we move on to month three is that, you know, we talked about it and ah, lot of people are really upset because they weren't able to get their images in or, you know, saying things like, I'm gutted or I'm devastated because they weren't able to get their images. And I don't want anyone to leave this experience feeling. You know, somebody said in the Facebook group that they were in tears. Nobody should be in tears over a critique. But what we would like to dio is what we will. Dio and I will write this up a bunch of different ways and put it on Facebook in month three. All of the things that you have shot in month to keep shooting them, pick your 2 to 3 favorite images not per category, but total. So it could be a ring shot. It could be a bride, and it could be a bride and groom, or it could be a bride and groom, and it could be a first dance, and it could be a night portrait, Pick three images, size them to 12 80 on the longest side and send them into the email address that you've been sending all of your homework into so far. We will email you back and clarify that we have received them. This is an opportunity to get either something you've sent in that didn't get critiqued, critiqued or something that you work on this month to get critiqued to be critiqued. Three images total per photographer. Please name them the way you named your images this month. Bride alone party First dance 12 80 on the longest side, three images total. Send them to the Facebook group and not the Facebook group. Send them to the email address you've been submitting your homework to, and we will email you to clarify that we received it.