C&C on some recent candids of my kiddos

Aayria · Jun 2, 2010

I haven't posted for real C&C of my own pictures in a while, but I really have been working hard to improve.

I love doing shoots for other people, but the main reason I became so interested in photography was to take more artful, memorable, and "good" pictures of my own family. I have a harder time with this, because when I'm taking pictures of my own kids, I'm also busy being MOM, and chasing after them, keeping them out of trouble, and otherwise not completely focussed on taking the shot.

On a photo "shoot," my husband takes the kids, and I get to go off with just my camera for a few hours, totally concentrating on the work. But I want to improve my multi-tasking photography and really work on our family pictures more seriously.

So.. that preface aside, don't be afraid to give honest C&C of these.. I know they're my own kids so I may be more personally attatched in that regard, but I'm looking speciffically for technical criticism, or advice on how to improve more "on the fly" while I'm taking up the responsibilities of photographer and mom at once.

These were all edited in Lightroom 3, beta 2. I've been trying to adjust my "style" slightly and avoid going saturation wild. The adjustments were meant to be more subtle and natural than some of my past work.

Thanks for viewing, and enjoy! =)

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(this one I did a bit more editing to, since my grandmother is so self conscious of her wrinkles.. I bumped down the "clarity" in lightroom, but I'm not sure how I feel about the effect here)

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6)

lunaaa · Jun 2, 2010

beautiful kids and beautiful photographs.love them

Rrr3319 · Jun 2, 2010

just few thoughts for you...
1. looks pretty good, light looks nice, composition good. i like how the cat is out-of-focus but still clear enough to make out what it is.
2.i like this one (i'm a sucker for little detail shots), but you clipped off the bottom of the front shoe
3.not sure i like the effect... grandma's wrinkles are still pretty pronounced but the skin looks a little strange... also it looks a little overexposed on the right side, all the details are blown out
4. beautiful eyes! i'm not sure i like the pose, just seems uncomfortable with the baby looking up like that... maybe it's just me.
5. i don't know what it is... just not too thrilled overall with it
6. cute, the eyes look great too.

i think you did good job with most of the pp, doesn't look too oversaturated. i think they're a good set overall. keep working! :biggrin:

Aayria · Jun 2, 2010

Rrr3319 said:
just few thoughts for you...
1. looks pretty good, light looks nice, composition good. i like how the cat is out-of-focus but still clear enough to make out what it is.
2.i like this one (i'm a sucker for little detail shots), but you clipped off the bottom of the front shoe
3.not sure i like the effect... grandma's wrinkles are still pretty pronounced but the skin looks a little strange... also it looks a little overexposed on the right side, all the details are blown out
4. beautiful eyes! i'm not sure i like the pose, just seems uncomfortable with the baby looking up like that... maybe it's just me.
5. i don't know what it is... just not too thrilled overall with it
6. cute, the eyes look great too.

i think you did good job with most of the pp, doesn't look too oversaturated. i think they're a good set overall. keep working!

Thanks for taking the time to give your opinion on all of these, I really do appreciate it!

1- Thank you

I felt the composition was the strongest point of this one as well, but I wasn't sure how I felt about Snowball (cat) being out of focus. I'm glad to hear it works!

2- I have a serious problem framing my subjects too tightly, too often. I will definitely keep working on that, but this was my favorite of the set as well. I love detail shots because it's the details that are always hardest to remember later down the road unless you have pictures to remember them

3- I agree with everything you said here.. I like the negative clarity for some pictures, but I wasn't sure it worked here. And the blown out side still has me kicking myself for not re-checking my light meter before I snapped this.

4- I'm glad you liked the eyes in this one.. I was trying a bit more saturation/sharpening on the baby's picture than the others to make them stand out. The reason I liked this angle was because I could see the detail on her little pink lips really well.. But I have to agree, I like the shots overall more where she is looking more upwards rather than down at the camera.

5- I was the least happy with this one as well.. It actually seemed slightly out of focus, and noisy at ISO 800 to my eye. But I thought maybe the big, bold, eyes would make it stand out nicely. There was one more similar to it that I liked a little more here it is:

6- You have no idea how happy I am you liked the eyes on this one! It was about as far as I'd be willing to go with bumping up the blue saturation without making them look "alien".. and I was afraid maybe I'd still taken it just a notch too far.

Thanks again for all the great comments, keep em coming!