family portrait
Uploaded: April 08, 2007
first time shooting portraits of my family. any feedback, positive, constructive would be greatly appreciated! Happy Easter!
Michelle R. Kovach April 08, 2007
I like the poses & I think you did a nice job on the geometric diamond setup.On the CC side:
Your subjects are too close to the bg & there's not enough light on your white. It looks more gray on my end than white.
You want your subjects at least 4 to 6 ft of the background & a background light if not 2 keys on the bg.
The little girl on the right her arms are too stiff. Have her relax the elbows & more or less rest the arms down in a more natural fashion.
Looks like you shot this with either the on-board flash or a speedlight & you got a double shadow on the little girl & her brother & one behind Mom's head. Try a bracket & a bounced diffused flash to eliminate the shadowing.
Dad's face is a little soft on the focus & the really bright catchlight in his eye is distracting. I'd try a center locked focus & maybe invest in a softbox flash diffuser for either the on-board or the speedlite. They cost about $10-15 & are available at just about every wolfe camera or at b&h.
And lastly, the little girl is in really close to mom & the brother is farther out. I know working with kids can be very challenging, but next time if you can try to have them about the same distance away from mom & dad to add more balance to the shot.
Hope this is what you are looking for in the way of CC.
Good luck & keep shooting!
Michelle
#634454
Jeremy Barela April 08, 2007
Thank you so much Michelle! I appreciate the feedback. Everything made perfect sense and will allow me to grow the next time I do a session. It's just challenging getting everyone set right when I'm firing the flash with my remote hidden in my hand (yes, that is me in front of the camera rather than behind :)).As for the lighting, I was using an SB600 bounced off of the ceiling with two lights with the 85wt daylight bulbs on each side. Your comment on the background helps and is one I even wondered after looking at the photos for a while.
Thank you again for the great feedback! #4145165
Michelle R. Kovach April 09, 2007
Good job of getting you in the pic then Jeremy.Sign up for an interactive online photography course to get critiques on your photos.
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