Couples Engagement Photos

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Taken down. Disregard

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Sharpening and resizing work wonders. Resizing to 800x533 usually will work with any photo sharing sites without compromising quality. If it does. Go to some place like www.flickr.com

Touch ups are your friend. Learn how to do them and do them well.

Make sure your original shots are in focus.

Spend money on the quality lenses. I'll post a crop from a 1:1 shot from my camera this weekend when using a few L lenses. The quality is amazing and the quality of the lense far outweighs the cost.

If you're doing wedding photos, they have to be perfect. Catching the Bride and Groom kissing after "I do" is not something that you can ask for a do-over and asking a couple back to do engagement shoots when only some of the pictures turn out perfectly is not good for business.

And only show clients your perfect pictures.
 
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These photo's are tack sharp, I'm not sure what you are talking about but whatever. I took 190 shots and only had to cull 40 of them so I think we did a great job. You jump to conclusions since I only showed 4 of them. I also made it clear that I have done no post processing yet, but I never said I have no plans to. I'm really beginning to see why you may have chosen your username.

If you still feel the need to continue our debate about canon lenses vs pentax then I suggest you take it to PM's because it's getting a bit silly, it's ruining the board too.

And by the way, all my lenses are the quality lenses, Pentax doesn't make you pay extra for pro grade stuff. And your zoo shots with the L lens looked just as overexposed and blown out as the others. I didn't see anything special about them, but chose not to trash your thread since I figured that would be rude.

Thanks for nothing Villageidiot!

SLC
 
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You're still upset about that?

I was offering valid advice. Look at 1 3 and 4 and tell me they don't look fuzzy compare to:

1262340090_9257b13e6e_o.jpg


You already mentioned you had problems with the first.

The second is ok and looks like it may be suffering from compression issues as well but isn't as bad as the rest.

Just looking at the guy's face on the 3rd it looks really soft. If you took is straight from the camera as a RAW and just changed it to a .jpg, you're going to need to sharpen it. It could be suffering from the same problem as the first, but just looks like it's a soft lens or oof.

The fourth, the same as the third but not as bad. Plus it looks like the girl's eyes are closed.

I'm not debating anything, I'm just pointing out what could help your pictures if you could wrap your head around it.

I don't think that my criticism of your photos is ruining the board at all...

and by the way. The photo above was done with an $80 lens.
 
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Uh yeah...I can't remove it. You'll have to ask a mod to. It's an attachment to this post and I have no copies of it. I figured you'd say something like that...
 
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These photo's are tack sharp, I'm not sure what you are talking about but whatever. I took 190 shots and only had to cull 40 of them so I think we did a great job. You jump to conclusions since I only showed 4 of them. I also made it clear that I have done no post processing yet, but I never said I have no plans to. I'm really beginning to see why you may have chosen your username.

If you still feel the need to continue our debate about canon lenses vs pentax then I suggest you take it to PM's because it's getting a bit silly, it's ruining the board too.

And by the way, all my lenses are the quality lenses, Pentax doesn't make you pay extra for pro grade stuff. And your zoo shots with the L lens looked just as overexposed and blown out as the others. I didn't see anything special about them, but chose not to trash your thread since I figured that would be rude.

Thanks for nothing Villageidiot!

SLC

Wow!!!! Buddy, you asked for opinions. NOTHING Village Idiot posted was inflammatory. In fact it all looked like sound advice. Learn to take a little constructive criticism, it's good for you. Unbelievable reaction. ???!!!!???!
I would advise you not to post work on the web if you are unable to handle even the slightest criticism.
 
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I'll take it from anyone else, unless you know the history between us two then you wouldn't understand what's going on.

I've posted the shots at popphoto.com and all have received nothing but compliments and possible alternate cropping strategies I'd take their advice over Villageidiot's any day.

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LOL At least have the courage to leave your name when you neg rep me... please.

And it's a little silly to refer to yourself in the "3rd Person" in your elaborate comments attached to the neg rep.

You sir, are unstable.
 
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Now it looks all pixelated, I'm not taking your advice since I figured that you wouldn't have anything but empty criticism for me. The originals look incredible and don't need any sharpening. And what's so special about the pic you posted? It looks soft to me!

SLC

The pixelation comes from using a crappy program and photobucket. If you uploaded to a site like flickr and downsized your photos to a viewable size like 800x533, then when you uploaded them, you would lose no real IQ. If you just changed them to .jpg and uploaded them to photobucket, photobucket shrinks the photos and you end up with a crappy result when you don't do it yourself. Also, view the photo at it's full res if you're not. Look at their teeth. Even with the original you posted, you can see artifacts from a resize that I can pretty much gaurantee aren't in the original.

This was using an L lens that is posted in the Zoo thread:
1392949729_346bf128a9_o.jpg


Even on the original 8mp image, I could zoom in and see individual furs. It's still incredibly sharp and retains a very high IQ, despite being resized from 3500 pixels at it's widest point, to 800 pixels.

Plus, if you take a RAW straight from a camera, it has nothing done to it. If you take a .JPG out, it will probably look better 9 out of 10 times because the cameras so sharpening and level adjustments in camera. That's why it's more tedious to work with RAW to get a good picture. There's some things that -need- to be adjusted with every single RAW image for the most part.

Even with Pentax lenses, I'm pretty sure that if you buy a lens that cost $500 more than one with the exact same focal length, the the more expensive lens is going to use higher quality glass and yeild a sharp, better picture. Even other manufactures have lenses that are cheap and aren't known for being sharp.

If you want to test out what your lenses can do, take a picture of a $20 on a wall and zoom in to 100%. You should be able to view every last line and detail without losing anything to blur.
 
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I didn't neg rep you RIDE, but I would if I weren't the author of this thread, and so heavily involved. I don't do that.

Well I was on a public computer with a classmate on campus, I left him on it.

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I didn't neg rep you, but I would if I weren't the author of this thread, and so heavily involved. I don't do that.

SLC
...lol ... You must not realize that as a previous MotM I am able to see who leaves me rep. What do you have to say now?
 
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I'll take it from anyone else, unless you know the history between us two then you wouldn't understand what's going on.

I've posted the shots at popphoto.com and all have received nothing but compliments and possible alternate cropping strategies I'd take their advice over Villageidiot's any day.

SLC

Please do this:

go to http://www.photography-on-the.net/forum

Post in the Wedding section with this pictures and ask for real, honest criticism. It's a Canon DSLR forum with over 100k members. They don't care what type of camera you have. In fact, don't tell them what type of camera you have. Ask "What can I do to make these better" or "C&C these for me please" and ask for honest criticism. The problem you get when posting on online photo communities is a lot of people post comments like "good photo" "Just try and crop it this way" and not honest criticism. They don't like to hurt people's feelings.

And if you want to be a wedding photographer, just jumping in with no experience is not the best way to do it. Trust me, if you end up with some bad shots of some important events, people will be angry.
 
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Now it looks all pixelated, I'm not taking your advice since I figured that you wouldn't have anything but empty criticism for me. The originals look incredible and don't need any sharpening. And what's so special about the pic you posted? It looks as soft to me as anything I posted!

SLC

I am going to be completely honest, I do this in New York, NY and surround areas and clients can be extremely picky here, the first thing they would say is that they are slightly soft. I don't want to give you honest feedback although I know it could help, I don't want you to get hurt, or attack me or other members of the forum. So next time you ask for advice please don't attack other members (friends) just because you don't like that they told you the truth.
 
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The pixelation comes from using a crappy program and photobucket. If you uploaded to a site like flickr and downsized your photos to a viewable size like 800x533, then when you uploaded them, you would lose no real IQ. If you just changed them to .jpg and uploaded them to photobucket, photobucket shrinks the photos and you end up with a crappy result when you don't do it yourself. Also, view the photo at it's full res if you're not. Look at their teeth. Even with the original you posted, you can see artifacts from a resize that I can pretty much gaurantee aren't in the original.

Plus, if you take a RAW straight from a camera, it has nothing done to it. If you take a .JPG out, it will probably look better 9 out of 10 times because the cameras so sharpening and level adjustments in camera. That's why it's more tedious to work with RAW to get a good picture. There's some things that -need- to be adjusted with every single RAW image for the most part.

I understand that RAW files don't apply any sharpening to the image, I also understand that they do no other editing to the image at all. But these images don't need any of that. They are tack sharp, and the exposures look good straight from the RAW exposure. It's a fairly common occurrence when shooting outside. I wish you could see the original files without photobucket crapping them over. I'm still not convinced you would have anything constructive to say though. Unless I could convince you that I shot them with my brother in law's Canon 5D, and a "Holy L".

SLC
 
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And if you want to be a wedding photographer, just jumping in with no experience is not the best way to do it. Trust me, if you end up with some bad shots of some important events, people will be angry.

You again make an assumption about my experience level. I said this is my 2nd paid gig this month, not my second paid gig ever. I don't need your advising me on when it will be appropriate to shoot weddings, I've had nothing but thrilled clients, and all my jobs have come off referrals. I think I'm doing just fine thank you!

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I understand that RAW files don't apply any sharpening to the image, I also understand that they do no other editing to the image at all. But these images don't need any of that. They are tack sharp, and the exposures look good straight from the RAW exposure. It's a fairly common occurrence when shooting outside. I wish you could see the original files without photobucket crapping them over. I'm still not convinced you would have anything constructive to say though. Unless I could convince you that I shot them with my brother in law's Canon 5D, and a "Holy L".

SLC

Weeeeeeell. For starters, down size them as I stated above, upload to something besides photobucket, then post them.

And shooting outside has nothing to do with is. It's all about the lenses. I don't care if you paid $50 or $500. If it's a quality lens, it'll get the job done. If it's crap, you can tell. Shooting outside with a bad lens will get you chromatic aberations and shooting outside has nothing to do with how sharp a photo is, just the lack of camera shake and the quality of the glass being used. Why do you think it's only $150 for a 70-300 Quantaray lens when brands like Sigma charge around $300? Better glass usually cost more. Plus depending on the lens, which aperture is used will affect the sharpness. Using f/3 on the fish eye I was playing with this weekend will leave you with fuzzy pictures any day of the week. Using f/8, makes them much sharper.
 
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You again make an assumption about my experience level. I said this is my 2nd paid gig this month, not my second paid gig ever. I don't need your advising me on when it will be appropriate to shoot weddings, I've had nothing but thrilled clients, and all my jobs have come off referrals. I think I'm doing just fine thank you!

SLC

Just stating a fact. If you have no experience, just jumping into shooting weddings is not healthy. I didn't say that you had no experience and you were making a mistake.
 
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Look PowerbookG4, I respect your comment, I wouldn't have attacked you or anyone else. Village idiot and I had a go a few weeks back because I tried to point out that there are other quality cameras out there besides Canon. It went back and forth and we were both too stubborn to back off. Since then, I have not had a well intentioned post from him/her, and I'm certain that this was merely a thinly masked attempt at trolling me into another debate.

I'm taking my images down since this thread never got anywhere, I've sent the full resolution images out to some of the other Pros on my other forum and gotten positive feedback in return. I'll just remember not to seek C&C when Villageidiot is about.

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well i personally am a cannon/L guy myself, but I like nikon also never used pentax though, sorry you didn't get your C&C like you wanted, but hopefully you'll remain comfortable here.
 

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