Kiddos & Family

[Tracker]

OK, I've got my thick skin on. Ready for the critique!

#1

#2

#3

#4

 

[kurt]

1. No picture.

 

[Tracker]

how about now?

 

[RedPill]

I see #1 now.

#4: Love those baby blues.

 

[tmds3]

I think #4 would look AWESOME as a B&W pic

 

[klb1122]

#1: I love everything about this pic except I wish he was in the center of the frame. Doesn't bother me that the top of his head is cropped, but it does bother me that his ear is. Everything else looks great to me.

#2: Really nice family portrait. Everyone is looking, and with great expressions.

#3: I wish little cutie was looking towards the camera, but she was probably looking at momma. Believe me, I know how hard it is to get a child of this age to look towards the camera. Also, it seems like there may be a bit of missed focus here on her eyes?

#4: For some reason her looking slightly off and her ear being cropped doesn't bother me. I like this one alot, but who wouldn't love cheeks like that! There are a couple of small things that could be spot removed, but that's the only thing I can come up with.

What does your daughter think? This is your daughter's family, right?

 

[Tracker]

#1: I love everything about this pic except I wish he was in the center of the frame. Doesn't bother me that the top of his head is cropped, but it does bother me that his ear is. Everything else looks great to me.

#2: Really nice family portrait. Everyone is looking, and with great expressions.

#3: I wish little cutie was looking towards the camera, but she was probably looking at momma. Believe me, I know how hard it is to get a child of this age to look towards the camera. Also, it seems like there may be a bit of missed focus here on her eyes?

#4: For some reason her looking slightly off and her ear being cropped doesn't bother me. I like this one alot, but who wouldn't love cheeks like that! There are a couple of small things that could be spot removed, but that's the only thing I can come up with.

What does your daughter think? This is your daughter's family, right?

It's a work friend. Thanks so much for the feedback- very valuable. I also agree with everything you said. Question about the cropping on #1. I've seen this type of crop, but haven't really seen a good guide. This is the first time I've cropped "into" the person's image. Any tips on uber tight crops?

 

[sharkey]

1&3 seem a bit soft on the focus.

2 is a good shot with nice composition of everyone and nice expressions.

4 is a good one too but I'd center a bit more. The angle of shooting down is a nice change.

 

[Tracker]

Thanks, Sharkey
#3 has some softness for sure.
thinking about the centering input on 4. the angle was simple spur of the moment--the "shoot" was over.

per previous inputs

lighting seemed a little odd on the first one

 

[klb1122]

It's a work friend. Thanks so much for the feedback- very valuable. I also agree with everything you said. Question about the cropping on #1. I've seen this type of crop, but haven't really seen a good guide. This is the first time I've cropped "into" the person's image. Any tips on uber tight crops?

Ah, gotcha. I know I have seen her before.

Personally when I do the tight crops, I like to make them symetrical. I like your revised version better, but if you wanted to go tighter, I would give equal space from the ears to the edge of the frame, and still leave the eys on the top third line. You may lose some more from the top of his head, but that's fine.

The redo of #4... I'm not a big fan of the slight sepia tone. It looks like the right side of her face is a little "hot" now as well. The color version seemed to give a little more detail on that side of the face.

I am by no means an expert, just my thoughts.

 

[M38A1]

#1
Couple things jump out at me, first of which is the background. I wondered what it was, then went to pic #2 and figure it out. Moms sweater. My gut tells me that if doing a portrait, then have a dedicated bg, but that doesn't mean go out and purchase one. Just don't use moms sweater. The other thing is the white balance/pale yellow cast. Not sure if it's light or wb setting, but it just doesn't bring out the kids cheery disposition like a more balanced b&w might. Maybe tied to the bg in that the wall was very close to the chair they were in? Might have tried to pull the couch/chair away and put a bg flash directly on the wall to whiten it up? Maybe a bit soft? The catchlights are great and the smile perfect for something like this as was the sweater choice for contrasting colors.

#2
A few loose artifacts in the lower right kind of pull away from the family. Like above, either use the couch in full or ditch it. Put 'em on the floor all sitting? Then we'd have a baseboard issue to deal with? Again, a bit soft maybe? And those hands on the mom look really staged, almost to the point of un-natural. The yellow wall is a pretty close match to the skin tones, so maybe consider again a white flash on it or bring an entirely different bg? Like real estate, location location location. (I'm guilty of this....)

#3
Adorable! but dang it, soft at the same time. What was your flash sync speed as it looks like her hand are movement blurry instead of DOF blurry. Can you run up around 1/250th with your setup? That would take care of that kind of movement, but not the dof/focus point

#4
By far the strongest of the set. One thing I've learned is to focus on the eye closest to the lens. This looks like the one furthest from the lens was used. It's HARD to remember that when shooting - I know. Did you use a reflector on camera right? The lack of shadows is nice. And from the catchlights, what was the light setup? Looks like a three panel something or a door with individual window panes?

I've come to the conclusion that if shooting people, I'm trying to focus on the background and lighting. That means either scouting or re-arranging to make it work. Or bring a background. And I still miss stuff in natural settings. And if I have to shoot in a house, I'll try to opt away from a blank wall unless I can get some separation so it doesn't look like, well.... a wall.

I hope that helps some from another set of eyes. You've done better, but hey - if they're happy then it's in the win column. People are hard to shoot but those that do it regularly I think just have a way with people that makes the shoot go easy. I am NOT one of them. Give me an object and I'll shoot the heck out of it.

.

 

[Tracker]

#1
Couple things jump out at me, first of which is the background. I wondered what it was, then went to pic #2 and figure it out. Moms sweater. My gut tells me that if doing a portrait, then have a dedicated bg, but that doesn't mean go out and purchase one. Just don't use moms sweater. The other thing is the white balance/pale yellow cast. Not sure if it's light or wb setting, but it just doesn't bring out the kids cheery disposition like a more balanced b&w might. Maybe tied to the bg in that the wall was very close to the chair they were in? Might have tried to pull the couch/chair away and put a bg flash directly on the wall to whiten it up? Maybe a bit soft? The catchlights are great and the smile perfect for something like this as was the sweater choice for contrasting colors.

#2
A few loose artifacts in the lower right kind of pull away from the family. Like above, either use the couch in full or ditch it. Put 'em on the floor all sitting? Then we'd have a baseboard issue to deal with? Again, a bit soft maybe? And those hands on the mom look really staged, almost to the point of un-natural. The yellow wall is a pretty close match to the skin tones, so maybe consider again a white flash on it or bring an entirely different bg? Like real estate, location location location. (I'm guilty of this....)

#3
Adorable! but dang it, soft at the same time. What was your flash sync speed as it looks like her hand are movement blurry instead of DOF blurry. Can you run up around 1/250th with your setup? That would take care of that kind of movement, but not the dof/focus point

#4
By far the strongest of the set. One thing I've learned is to focus on the eye closest to the lens. This looks like the one furthest from the lens was used. It's HARD to remember that when shooting - I know. Did you use a reflector on camera right? The lack of shadows is nice. And from the catchlights, what was the light setup? Looks like a three panel something or a door with individual window panes?

I've come to the conclusion that if shooting people, I'm trying to focus on the background and lighting. That means either scouting or re-arranging to make it work. Or bring a background. And I still miss stuff in natural settings. And if I have to shoot in a house, I'll try to opt away from a blank wall unless I can get some separation so it doesn't look like, well.... a wall.

I hope that helps some from another set of eyes. You've done better, but hey - if they're happy then it's in the win column. People are hard to shoot but those that do it regularly I think just have a way with people that makes the shoot go easy. I am NOT one of them. Give me an object and I'll shoot the heck out of it.

.

#1 was a "rescue crop" from a Mom & son shot. I've got to think about how to control the situation. They wanted to shoot in their den. It was a 30 min shoot. As it was, I rearranged half their furniture and they were less than 5 feet from me--tiny space. I pulled them as far away from the wall that I could. I had natural light coming in from double windows behind me. I should have tried moving them to the stairs, maybe. Yeah, the color images; not happy with the tone overall at all.

The only flash I ended up using was the built-in on the camera.
The good news is it pushed me over the cliff and I have an SB700 with a softbox coming via BBT.
Focus seems to be my nemesis, though. I've got to drill that one in my head to check each and every time and make sure I'm on the "right" spot.

 

[M38A1]

I'm coming full circle in that when YOU control the light, it's much easier... That Bella shoot kind of reinforced that. It was a very tough thing in my head to execute and miserable at that. But the studio stuff I've done I've been very pleased with the lighting of it for the most part.

On the focus, what parameters are you using? Do you have for example, Single focus mode, choose a 'bug' in the viewfinder and move it and fire? Or do you use Single focus, put the 'bug' on the part you want to focus on and then re-compose/re-frame? And then how many 'points' are you using from the setup menu? (you can have a single, 9, 21 or 51 in my case where it takes your input, then also grabs a number of points around it) Or are you using Continuous?

 

[klb1122]

Scott brought up some good items with his critique, and things I didn't even notice when I was looking.

Being as #1 was a "rescue crop," it makes sense why you were tring to crop out the right side as much as possible, to get rid of her shirt.

 

[Tracker]

Scott brought up some good items with his critique, and things I didn't even notice when I was looking.

Being as #1 was a "rescue crop," it makes sense why you were tring to crop out the right side as much as possible, to get rid of her shirt.

If I was a Photoshop Ninja, I could just take her sweater out altogether.