Posted by Paul Ferrara: 
It's actually a pretty good picture.  I don't know if it was intentional or accidental but you got the lighting perfect.  Fill up your port with more shots like this and you'll be in business.

Paul

Thanks. That was a perfect spot for doing outdoor photos. It was mainly open shade in the afternoon. So shadows were seldom a problem. It also had trees, large rocks, a creek, a bridge, an old section of, what is known around here as, worm fence. Plus Mountain Laurel & a few other wild flowers. I really miss that place.

Posted by Freelancer: 
What does everyone think of it? I won't make excuses this time. 

This is a good start. Build on this image.

A lot of photographers with better portfolios have worse looking images coming out of their cameras, they just fix them in Photoshop.

Now, it's not the most exciting image in the world. The easy answer is to have a naked woman against the tree, but there are other ways to make it exciting.

That's part of the challenge: Come up with ways to use this same location and lighting to create exciting, dramatic images with impact that people will remember, and you'll be ahead of the game.

Posted by Peter Dattolo: 
This one is better, the blurriness of the background and better lighting on the model and better cropped on the model put the model in a better light.
She stands out from the photo in this one. The quality is better in this one.
The other photos you had up seems to be way less light available and th emodel was too far away giving you more background.
This one she is closer, better lighting, background is farther away allowing yo uto get the blurriness which makes the model stand out better.
Did you edit this at all? Its looks like it has a tad blur to it.
Did you take it freehand? If it was freehand try using a tripod or monopod next time, the phot will be really crisp.
Looks good though, more like this would be great.

Thanks. The only think I have done to it digitally is resize it to fit on this site. I was using a tripod. But I wasn't using a flash. maybe that was why it wasn't exactly razor sharp. Or maybe I shot it at f/4 for the blurring effect. It was 8 or 9 years ago, so I don't remember all of the technical details anymore.

Posted by XtremeArtists: 

Posted by Freelancer: 
What does everyone think of it? I won't make excuses this time. 

This is a good start. Build on this image.

A lot of photographers with better portfolios have worse looking images coming out of their cameras, they just fix them in Photoshop.

Now, it's not the most exciting image in the world. The easy answer is to have a naked woman against the tree, but there are other ways to make it exciting.

That's part of the challenge: Come up with ways to use this same location and lighting to create exciting, dramatic images with impact that people will remember, and you'll be ahead of the game.

Thanks. The location now has a barbed wire fence along it without a gate. So unfortunately, the location is off limits because of my disability. If I still had access to this location, I wouldn't need any others. It was perfect.

Posted by Freelancer: 

Posted by XtremeArtists: 

Posted by Freelancer: 
What does everyone think of it? I won't make excuses this time. 

This is a good start. Build on this image.

A lot of photographers with better portfolios have worse looking images coming out of their cameras, they just fix them in Photoshop.

Now, it's not the most exciting image in the world. The easy answer is to have a naked woman against the tree, but there are other ways to make it exciting.

That's part of the challenge: Come up with ways to use this same location and lighting to create exciting, dramatic images with impact that people will remember, and you'll be ahead of the game.

Thanks. The location now has a barbed wire fence along it without a gate. So unfortunately, the location is off limits because of my disability. If I still had access to this location, I wouldn't need any others. It was perfect.

You said no excuses, right?

I don't want to be insensitive, but you can find another shady tree somewhere. I am sure of it.

Some photgraphers have tons of cash to drag all kinds of equipment out to an exotic location. I don't have that luxury, but I work with what I have.

Now that you know the lighting conditions and setting that worked for this photo, you could take it in a parking lot. It doesn't have to be a secluded location.

Photography is about editing sometimes. You have to edit things out of your shot by what you point your camera at and how you set your depth of field. A photo of a model standing under a rusty carport with trash strewn behind her and people walking all around could be beautiful if you shot her in the right way and edited the rest out through DOF and composition.

Posted by GWC: 
That's a way big improvement!!

Are you letting your interns learn too much from your wisdom?


==
The shot is much better.  Look at the BBC code so that you can post into the thread with an image so that the critique is not confusing if you change the avatar.

Posted by XtremeArtists: 

Posted by Freelancer: 

Posted by XtremeArtists: 

Posted by Freelancer: 
What does everyone think of it? I won't make excuses this time. 

This is a good start. Build on this image.

A lot of photographers with better portfolios have worse looking images coming out of their cameras, they just fix them in Photoshop.

Now, it's not the most exciting image in the world. The easy answer is to have a naked woman against the tree, but there are other ways to make it exciting.

That's part of the challenge: Come up with ways to use this same location and lighting to create exciting, dramatic images with impact that people will remember, and you'll be ahead of the game.

Thanks. The location now has a barbed wire fence along it without a gate. So unfortunately, the location is off limits because of my disability. If I still had access to this location, I wouldn't need any others. It was perfect.

You said no excuses, right?

I don't want to be insensitive, but you can find another shady tree somewhere. I am sure of it.

Some photgraphers have tons of cash to drag all kinds of equipment out to an exotic location. I don't have that luxury, but I work with what I have.

Now that you know the lighting conditions and setting that worked for this photo, you could take it in a parking lot. It doesn't have to be a secluded location.

Photography is about editing sometimes. You have to edit things out of your shot by what you point your camera at and how you set your depth of field. A photo of a model standing under a rusty carport with trash strewn behind her and people walking all around could be beautiful if you shot her in the right way and edited the rest out through DOF and composition.

I'm not making excuses. In your comment you said "Come up with ways to use this same location" I was just letting you know that I can't use this exact location & why.

Posted by Jack D Trute: 

Posted by GWC: 
That's a way big improvement!!

Are you letting your interns learn too much from your wisdom?


==
The shot is much better.  Look at the BBC code so that you can post into the thread with an image so that the critique is not confusing if you change the avatar.

Thanks

Posted by Peter Dattolo: 
I agree with X on his last post.
You know the factors that played into that photo even if it was years ago. The main factors by looking at it are the amount of light and the distance of the background to the model and the range (closeup) and placement of the model in the photo.
Not to much background but what is there is blurred, more of the photo is of the model instead of the background.
No flash huh? That would have really set the model off and brought her out of the image quite nicely. But dont be to close if you do that, the flash will show up more focused than you want for this type of photo. Try to keep the flash on the model side and off of the tree side. That will make the model pop out and seperate her from the tree.

Yes. It would have set her off much more. But I was afraid to use it because of casting a harsh shadow on the tree since I was only a few feet away from Jennifer.

Posted by GWC: 
That's a way big improvement!!

Thanks!!

Posted by Freelancer: 

Posted by XtremeArtists: 

Posted by Freelancer: 

Posted by XtremeArtists: 

Posted by Freelancer: 
What does everyone think of it? I won't make excuses this time. 

This is a good start. Build on this image.

A lot of photographers with better portfolios have worse looking images coming out of their cameras, they just fix them in Photoshop.

Now, it's not the most exciting image in the world. The easy answer is to have a naked woman against the tree, but there are other ways to make it exciting.

That's part of the challenge: Come up with ways to use this same location and lighting to create exciting, dramatic images with impact that people will remember, and you'll be ahead of the game.

Thanks. The location now has a barbed wire fence along it without a gate. So unfortunately, the location is off limits because of my disability. If I still had access to this location, I wouldn't need any others. It was perfect.

You said no excuses, right?

I don't want to be insensitive, but you can find another shady tree somewhere. I am sure of it.

Some photgraphers have tons of cash to drag all kinds of equipment out to an exotic location. I don't have that luxury, but I work with what I have.

Now that you know the lighting conditions and setting that worked for this photo, you could take it in a parking lot. It doesn't have to be a secluded location.

Photography is about editing sometimes. You have to edit things out of your shot by what you point your camera at and how you set your depth of field. A photo of a model standing under a rusty carport with trash strewn behind her and people walking all around could be beautiful if you shot her in the right way and edited the rest out through DOF and composition.

I'm not making excuses. In your comment you said "Come up with ways to use this same location" I was just letting you know that I can't use this exact location & why.

Did you read anything I typed after that?
The excuse you used is that you can't get to a location. There is no excuse. Never.

Posted by XtremeArtists: 

Posted by Freelancer: 

Posted by XtremeArtists: 

Posted by Freelancer: 

Posted by XtremeArtists: 

Posted by Freelancer: 
What does everyone think of it? I won't make excuses this time. 

This is a good start. Build on this image.

A lot of photographers with better portfolios have worse looking images coming out of their cameras, they just fix them in Photoshop.

Now, it's not the most exciting image in the world. The easy answer is to have a naked woman against the tree, but there are other ways to make it exciting.

That's part of the challenge: Come up with ways to use this same location and lighting to create exciting, dramatic images with impact that people will remember, and you'll be ahead of the game.

Thanks. The location now has a barbed wire fence along it without a gate. So unfortunately, the location is off limits because of my disability. If I still had access to this location, I wouldn't need any others. It was perfect.

You said no excuses, right?

I don't want to be insensitive, but you can find another shady tree somewhere. I am sure of it.

Some photgraphers have tons of cash to drag all kinds of equipment out to an exotic location. I don't have that luxury, but I work with what I have.

Now that you know the lighting conditions and setting that worked for this photo, you could take it in a parking lot. It doesn't have to be a secluded location.

Photography is about editing sometimes. You have to edit things out of your shot by what you point your camera at and how you set your depth of field. A photo of a model standing under a rusty carport with trash strewn behind her and people walking all around could be beautiful if you shot her in the right way and edited the rest out through DOF and composition.

I'm not making excuses. In your comment you said "Come up with ways to use this same location" I was just letting you know that I can't use this exact location & why.

Did you read anything I typed after that?
The excuse you used is that you can't get to a location. There is no excuse. Never.

And just how in the hell is someone with leg braces & a walker suppose to get through a 6' barbed wire fence with no damn gate!!!? I was starting to re-think my opinion of you, but I guess my first impression was right. You're nothing but a prick & I don't give a rats ass if I do get kicked off of here!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by Freelancer: 
You're nothing but a prick & I don't give a rats ass if I do get kicked off of here!!!!!!!!!!

You are the one who is making a personal attack.

I said you can take the photo under a carport.

I didn't say go back to the same location once you said there was barbed wire.

That's why I asked if you read anything I wrote. You are just finding a sentence that gives you an excuse rather than taking information and putting it to work.

What prevents you from finding a shaded area and taking a photo?

Your excuses are holding you back, not me, and not leg braces.