First family photo shoot- C&C please

FoxyShorty · Jul 21, 2010

Hey, I had my first family photo shoot this weekend, and I would appreciate your feedback. It was for friends of mine, and unpaid. We had fun! The oldest kid is pretty darn cute and easy to work with, thank goodness!

1. Should have asked her to take the hat off, but aside from that, whatcha think?

2.

3. The baby only turns his head to one side, otherwise they have to force it forward and hold it there, so that wouldn't have worked in this shot obviously...

4.

5. I had done this shot with a different family afterwards, but wrote their last name in the sand infront of their feet. Wish I had done it in this one too!

Thanks so much for your input, and any advice on how to make them better is great!

supraman215 · Jul 21, 2010

1. focus or movement problems, and it's distracting that I can't see the woman's eyes. Eye contact would be a great thing for this photo.

2. focus seems off. Sky is lacking detail.

3. It looks like the man is the only one in focus here. I would have closed the aperture here a bit to get some more DoF

4. Neither subject is in focus.

MHRISH · Jul 21, 2010

I really like number three, but it would have been better if the baby was also looking at the camera. I know that is sometimes easier said than done. In the second one I think the uneven shadows from the trees hurt the shot. It would be better if shot in complete shade.

dak1b · Jul 21, 2010

1) needs focus on subject(s)
2) pick a different background and the shadow and light seems off balance
3) cool capture, could use more focus.
4) very soft and out of focus.
5) cool idea...tab underexposed and out of foucs

i would work on exposure, setting, and focus.

BuS_RiDeR · Jul 21, 2010

FoxyShorty said:
1. Should have asked her to take the hat off, but aside from that, whatcha think?

I think that the white balance is off a bit... Maybe something more like...

FoxyShorty · Jul 21, 2010

Thanks everyone! Will definitely work on focus, they are certainly soft. I thought that the partial shade would be good, but I see what you mean, it just kind of muddles things.

Busrider, I like your edit... how did you get the image sharper? Or was that just from adjusting the white balance? I had tried on PS to sharpen the image, but obviously didn't work well enough. Will have to learn up on White balance

BuS_RiDeR · Jul 21, 2010

FoxyShorty said:
Busrider, I like your edit... how did you get the image sharper? Or was that just from adjusting the white balance? I had tried on PS to sharpen the image, but obviously didn't work well enough. Will have to learn up on White balance

I used Gimp and I adjusted the levels a bit and used Auto Color Enhance... It only took me a few minutes.