Help me Salvage these Portraits!!

[fmw]

You want to expose for the subjects, not the background. Your images are all underexposed. You should be able to bring up the brightness in the software. Get the faces right and let the rest go wherever it wants to go.

Thank you. This is very helpful. Tips for exposing the subjects and not the background?

There are plenty of articles and books about photographic exposure. No need for me to repeat the techniques. Perhaps you have a library in your area that can help. Personally, I like having a blown out back ground. I wouldn't have used fill flash. I would just have exposed for the subjects. A properly exposed background would just be a distraction. You did fine other than underexposing the subjects.

I don't think you are ready to charge people money for your photography.

 

[311Photo]

I understand. I have committed to several other families at this time, and if I end up doing every one of those sessions in essence for free, I would be fine with that, calling it experience under my belt.
Aside from that, what do you suggest to increase my technical knowledge and skill?

Read a lot. Practice what you've read. Look at examples of good photography. Learn the basics at the very least.

There are many would-be professional photographers who don't have as many subjects waiting for portraiture as you've got. While some start-ups may consider that a blessing, what you're doing is essentially wasting people's time, and establishing a reputation for your being a not-very-good photographer.

Yes, I know you've told them, and they are not expecting professional results, but frankly, the examples you posted are so bad that I would not be at all surprised if none of your present families will come back. If they do come back, you'd better be able to do much better.

Are basing this statement on the three photos in the main post? Because that is a bold statement to make based on my three worst photos from three sessions. I feel like everyone has bad shots they would like to salvage. Maybe I'm wrong.

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[311Photo]

You want to expose for the subjects, not the background. Your images are all underexposed. You should be able to bring up the brightness in the software. Get the faces right and let the rest go wherever it wants to go.

Thank you. This is very helpful. Tips for exposing the subjects and not the background?

There are plenty of articles and books about photographic exposure. No need for me to repeat the techniques. Perhaps you have a library in your area that can help. Personally, I like having a blown out back ground. I wouldn't have used fill flash. I would just have exposed for the subjects. A properly exposed background would just be a distraction. You did fine other than underexposing the subjects.

I don't think you are ready to charge people money for your photography.

Likewise, this is a bold statement to make based on my three worst photos. I've not asked for opinions on my business endeavors but on how to correct the three worst images I shot.

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[Designer]

Are basing this statement on the three photos in the main post? Because that is a bold statement to make based on my three worst photos from three sessions. I feel like everyone has bad shots they would like to salvage. Maybe I'm wrong.

Oh, sorry if I've misread your intent. Just trying to help.

 

[311Photo]

Are basing this statement on the three photos in the main post? Because that is a bold statement to make based on my three worst photos from three sessions. I feel like everyone has bad shots they would like to salvage. Maybe I'm wrong.

Oh, sorry if I've misread your intent. Just trying to help.

I apologize and appreciate your help. It is hard to determine one's "heart" on the Internet and how they intend what they say. It is just that nearly every person who has commented has made their primary statement that I should not be charging, when I posted only three of my worst photos for help, not criticism. If I determine that I cannot get $25 worth out of the images I took, I will reimburse each client's payment. I did not post all of that because I didn't think I needed to just to get some help on a few images. I have another session at 4 and am completely discouraged based on this forum.
In any case. I do appreciate the feedback and the help that has been offered. I just need thicker skin for this.

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[gayle23]

Are basing this statement on the three photos in the main post? Because that is a bold statement to make based on my three worst photos from three sessions. I feel like everyone has bad shots they would like to salvage. Maybe I'm wrong.

Oh, sorry if I've misread your intent. Just trying to help.

I apologize and appreciate your help. It is hard to determine one's "heart" on the Internet and how they intend what they say. It is just that nearly every person who has commented has made their primary statement that I should not be charging, when I posted only three of my worst photos for help, not criticism. If I determine that I cannot get $25 worth out of the images I took, I will reimburse each client's payment. I did not post all of that because I didn't think I needed to just to get some help on a few images. I have another session at 4 and am completely discouraged based on this forum.
In any case. I do appreciate the feedback and the help that has been offered. I just need thicker skin for this.

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Hey, don't be discouraged though I know it's is easy to be. You have been totally honest with people and that is what is important and I'm sure you have a few images that people will be pleased with. Like you said you've posted your worst on here. I'm quite new to photography and have found Mark Wallace's 'one on one photography' free tutorials on you tube really helpful, he has an episode on metering too. I feel like I have learned quite a bit from him. He made the exposure triangle really click for me in understanding how changing one thing affects another. When I first started a few months ago I took some shots of my daughter in the back garden when it happened to be dusk and the photos came out so nice, it really is a good time to take pictures, other wise on a sunny day I would head for shade. Good luck with your next photoshoot!

 

[gayle23]

I've just seen your other images, they are loads better and the subjects look relaxed with genuine expressions. It would be nice to have a bit of bokeh so the attention is more on the subjects or framing them under the bow of a tree or something. Maybe you could try mistletoe if you haven't as that would be a simple, fun and easy Christmas prop that totally tells you it's Christmas and it would hopefully catch a nice connection between a couple.

 

[The_Traveler]

I don't think you are ready to charge people money for your photography.

Likewise, this is a bold statement to make based on my three worst photos. I've not asked for opinions on my business endeavors but on how to correct the three worst images I shot.

No, he is saying this because it is very clear that you really don't know much about any part of photography.
While you are willing to learn, what you are getting are not 'tips' but hints of the basic knowledge that you should have - and don't.
What you are doing essentially is pressing the shutter button and letting the camera do its work and you don't seem to have much, if any, knowledge beyond that.
Your 'best shots' are being done by the camera and you have no clue how to do anything when the camera isn't smart enough to compensate for non-ideal conditions.

 

[Designer]

(again, constructive criticism is greatly appreciated).

Let's see if we can get a new start.

#1 Pose your subjects facing the light. Pose your subjects more evenly. Don't let someone's face be hidden by someone else. Ask the standing man to sit or kneel. Frame to eliminate extra stuff in the frame.

#2 Pose your subjects facing the light. Frame to eliminate extra stuff in the frame.

#3 Pose your subjects facing the light. Pose your subjects more evenly. Frame to eliminate extra stuff in the frame.

 

[311Photo]

This is the part I don't understand. I keep reading this but then read don't do that because the light will be too harsh and cause squinting.
Are we really starting over because I feel like that post was teeming with sarcasm?

And I don't at all feel like I know nothing about photography and am getting lucky. I have learned a great deal about lighting and exposure, and I'm sorry you do not feel my images reflect that. I would never say I don't still have a lot to learn. However, if that were the case (that I'm merely holding a camera and hoping to get lucky), that's why I'm here - in the beginner section of the forum.
Is this merely the section for professionals to degrade beginners? I was hoping to find mentors with a sincere interest in helping.
No one has answered my question yet - whether or not these images can be salvaged. But that is fine. I will call them a loss. I feel confident I am building a portfolio as a beginner, charging a fair price, setting clear expectations for my clients. If you don't agree with the way I do business or feel that because I cannot produce images as a beginner that are of caliber that many of you are as professionals and that bothers you, that is your prerogative.
I will not explain nor defend my method of charging money for my work again.
Again, much of what has been shared here has been so beneficial, and I used what I have learned in my most recent session this evening. Are there still some bad ones I'd like help with? Absolutely. Will I be posting them here? I absolutely not.

(again, constructive criticism is greatly appreciated).

Let's see if we can get a new start.

#1 Pose your subjects facing the light. Pose your subjects more evenly. Don't let someone's face be hidden by someone else. Ask the standing man to sit or kneel. Frame to eliminate extra stuff in the frame.

#2 Pose your subjects facing the light. Frame to eliminate extra stuff in the frame.

#3 Pose your subjects facing the light. Pose your subjects more evenly. Frame to eliminate extra stuff in the frame.

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[zombiesniper]

I think you received the best natural lighting advice from Darrel in your other thread. Another thing that can aid in lighting the subject is a reflector to bounce the light awards the subject. Reflectors are cheap or free if you have one of those car windshield reflectors.

 

[311Photo]

I think you received the best natural lighting advice from Darrel in your other thread. Another thing that can aid in lighting the subject is a reflector to bounce the light awards the subject. Reflectors are cheap or free if you have one of those car windshield reflectors.

I agree.
I have a white poster board that I'm currently using as a reflector but the problem is that I shoot alone and wind has been heavy lately since I can't prop it up against anything. This has been my biggest reservation in getting anything more or even really trying to use reflector. Advice on this?

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[tirediron]

I have a white poster board that I'm currently using as a reflector but the problem is that I shoot alone and wind has been heavy lately since I can't prop it up against anything. This has been my biggest reservation in getting anything more or even really trying to use reflector. Advice on this?

Yes. Get the proper equipment to do the job. A very common misconception is that shooting with ambient light only is easier and/or produces better results than using supplemental strobed light. This is patently untrue. The problem with only using sunlight is that you can't control it. The sun makes a decent main light (usually), but only in certain circumstances is going to produce acceptable, never mind good results, without some help.

A couple of inexpensive monolights, umbrellas, stands and triggers will take your lighting into a whole new area. You can keep hitting your head against a wall and trying to do this without the right tools, and, occasionally getting lucky, or you can get the right tools and learn how to do it correctly.

FWIW, facing your subjects into the light will often cause unattractive squinting. Is that better than under-exposure? Hard to say...

 

[Derrel]

I pulled the images into Lightroom tonight. First off, image 3656.JPG appears to me to have been hurt by "Portrait Sharpening" in Lightroom; this is recongnizable by the reticulated faces (see the father's face and forehead for what I mean by reticulated)...this is very difficult to work with when trying to salvage a file. If you want to salvage these, there are professional retouchers who will clean your camera-ORIGINAL images up, for $4 to $10, per file.

I decided to process these all using a Warm & Fuzzy, heavily filtered look, to camouflage the bad lens flare on two, and the poor sharpening that had been applied.

If you want somebody to salvage these, give them the camera-original images, and they can do the best work on those. The shot of the kids has terrible chromatic aberration in it, from a very poor lens. As mentioned, two have atrocious lens flare artifacts...again....lens quality when shot toward the light is very poor. This lens needs a BIG lens shade, or simply to be swapped out a more flare-resistant lens when shooting contre-jour like this.

Here's my quick savage attempt on the man and wife shot, using the Warm & Fuzzy basic starting point, from already-edited images, which is always a poor place to start. The others are too large to upload here. AGAIN...if you need to salvage these, the salvage work MUST be done on straight from the camera images; the ones you provided are badly down-sized, and have bad sharpening artifcats and blockiness...

 

[Derrel]

If you sent the above file to print, it would look better than it appears on-screen. Again--avoid Lightroom's "Portrait Sharpening". You need a much better lens in order to shoot these types of shots, or a massive lens shade, or a person holding a clipboard or hat well in front of the lens: see that horrific circle on the husband, from internal lens elements reflections? This is a bad lens.


IMAGE 3656 is at Dropbox - IMG_3656_Warm&Fuzzy.JPG

Image 4222 standard is at Dropbox - IMG_4222_1904x.JPG

IMG_4222 Warm&Fuzzy is at Dropbox - IMG_4222_Warm&Fuzzy.JPG

4233 standard at Dropbox - IMG_4233_1904x.JPG

4233 Warm&Fuzzy is at Dropbox - IMG_4233_Warm&Fuzzy.JPG