My 1st cosplay

[pckee]

After some failure on previous post "Spotted" :embrass: here is the second post for the cosplay picture I have.

Under the bright sun light, her eyes was shadow by her hair. This is one of the very few shots that I get the eyes look directly to me.

Picture taken with 400D, 50mm F1.8II
ISO 100
Speed 1/4000 (bright sunlight but still want to open up the Aperture for blurring)
F1.8

Hope to get some feedback to improve my skill.

 

[kuantoh]

Taking shots under the bright sunlight is not a good decision. U could have directed the cosplayer to a more shady area for the shoot. The costume is white which makes it a challenge for the camera metering under the heavy sunlight. Tats y u can see almost the entire costume has burnt highlights causing the loss of details.

Did u crop the picture? If so, the crop does not work well here. If this pic was already lidat when taken, well, u could have try a different composition. Need not always position the subject in the center.

Even with eye contact, the eyes look blank under the heavy sunshine. Choice of location causing this also.

Juz my own opinion, not a pro here. Keep on shooting bro...

 

[RaDiKaRuGuN]

Hmm... I'm still newbie... But I find that there's too much background involved. Since you are focusing solely on the person, might as well cut out the background and do a close-up shot of the person. My two pence worth of thoughts...

 

[wing oscar]

what i read some on photography tips.. what was told is to use flash to bright the dark shadow area...

i'm a noob also...

 

[Fragnatic]

what i read some on photography tips.. what was told is to use flash to bright the dark shadow area...

i'm a noob also...

that's called fill flash.

esp is when u are shooting under the sun, or having a very bright background such that most of the areas of the face for eg is in shadows, then u can use a flash to "fill" in the shadows that are not lit up by the ambience lighting.

 

[catchlights]

composition wise.... it is just a snap shot.

 

[Garion]

1. Composition too central.

2. Lighting too harsh, her white uniform is blown out.

3. Shadows on her face, as the light is mainly from above, need some fill flash to reduce them.

kuantoh's suggestion is correct. If possible, try not to shoot under harsh lighting conditions.

 

[yehosaphat]

Any reason why you chose to shoot landscape instead of portrait??

 

[Anti-Social]

Fill the frame more with her and less with background :think:

 

[dennisc]

Under harsh lighting you may use fill in flash or reflectors (thats what I use) if the background is overbearing. Or position your subject to a well exposed angle, use the light to your advantage. Use spot or partial metering(personal preference).
Part of the subjects face is hidden. There are shadows to it, eyes too dark, I'd prefer it to be well exposed and clear, unless you're shooting horror like ju on. Overall I feel it'll be better if its a posed shot rather than standing there.

 

[pckee]

Wow thanks you all for the fast and honest response. After reading the comments, I think basically i have below problems:

1. Fill-in flash
- At the moment, i am equip with built-in flash only.
- with flash activated, the max speed is 1/200 only (correct me if i am wrong). I will have to reduce the Aperture much further in-order to use the flash. The picture is already at ISO100 & 1/4000 shutter speed.
- I tried it on other cosplayer end up very bright, that is why i did not do it for this one.
- However, best way to solve this i think is to ask the cosplayer to move away from the bright sun light :devil:

2. Composition
- I will take all your comments as think the main problem come from this "composition"
- I should have capture the subject more and reduce the back ground, also will try to use portrait as well

Seems that I am weak on composition, any suggestion for me to improve? I have heard some thing like "1/3" but dun really get it.

I think that is not all that CSers have to say, do keep the C&C coming too. I am more than willing to learn ya

Thanks to all Si Fu:angel:

 

[Fragnatic]

regarding 1/3 rule,

basically, u divide ur frame into 9 equal squares.
ie. u "draw" 2 horizontal and 2 vertical lines mentally across the frame like "tic-tac-toc".

then u position the subject on the lines or on the intersection of the lines...

then the composition would be better.


but this is a general rule, u can always try other mtds.. its up to ur creativity.
but for starters, the 1/3 rule works well most of the time.

 

[sinister]

The pics is too central and d background is overpowering d model, unless ur aiming for landscape shot.

By d way, buying a flash, u will still be limited to 1/200 shutter speed, so if u still want d bokeh effect and at lower shutter speed, buy ND filter.

 

[qING]

I think most people have covered most of the points. I personally feel that the red color in the background is quite distracting. Do take note of what is in the background before you take a photo. To me, a nice background makes a great difference.

Keep shooting!

 

[Raied]

what u can do is just stand farther from the model, portrait position, capture more of the body, use higher aperature and you will still get some bokeh

 

[blurry80]

in such bright/harsh sunlit shots can a CPL help preventing the white shirt from being blown?

 

[fabianaino]

I think it's a great take albiet the compsotion can be improve alittle with about of PS.
Hope you don't me PS abit of your photo. :embrass:

I have taken out abit of the white wall on the right so that the viewer can stay more focus on the cosplayer subject itself instead of wondering between the white skies and wall and the blouse. Cuts down distraction and forces the viewer to look at the subject. The whites demends alot of attention and so I wanna give the white blouse the attention instead of the white wall.

I am a sucker for rich colors so I had saturate the colors abit.

The cosplayer has been cropped to stay on the right. That's the rule of the third ( left to right ) . I have also cropped the top of the photo so that the face stays in the corner, on the top right, ( rules of third, top down ).

In the case of your picture here, Where you place your subject is critical. Some prefers to place her on the left even though is looking on the right, reasoning that she's facing the left direction.

But I prefers to position her on the right, even though she's facing the left, reason being that she seems to have direct eye contact with you and it is more credible to place her at such as it makes the photo more personal.

Placing her on the left side with made the subject oblivious to your presence.

She's got a nice custume as well. Good choice of subject. =)

 

[scorpioh]

The bokeh looks a bit harsh imho.

 

[pckee]

Happy CNY to all....busy lately. Thanks to all for the comments made, will improve next shot.

Would like to thanks fabianaino for putting in extra effort to help me. Ofcos i dun mind you PP my photo as it make me easier to understand. Thanks again.
PS: Hope you got yourself a nice tripod already.