Maynard | Harkness | Family | Troublemakers!

[D-B-J]

Probably my favorite shot from yesterday's family shoot at Harkness park. These boys were a riot, always causing some sort of "trouble" in the background. We posed them like this with them smiling, but it just looked... unnatural. So I told them to mess around, and they knew exactly what to do!

Nikon D800
Nikon 85mm 1.8G
Natural light

I'm still really learning how to use natural light with little/no flash. For those of you know know my style, you know that I'm a huge off-camera flash user, and I lean on that pretty heavily. I'm still trying to learn the ins and outs of natural light, how to use a reflector (seems simple, I know... but it's a learning process for me), etc.

Comments and critiques welcome! I'll likely have a blog post up soon enough.

"Boys will be Boys" by f_one_eight, on Flickr

Cheers!
Jake

 

[tirediron]

Great idea; well captured!

 

[D-B-J]

Great idea; well captured!

Thanks John!

 

[D-B-J]

Bumps

 

[shmne]

This isn't my preferred area of photography, and generally as long as the client is happy / you make money off the shoot it really doesn't matter so take my critique with a grain of salt. I'm a demanding CD so please keep an open mind as I walk you through what I see.

Personally the image feels entirely too staged. The idea is cute but none of the subjects feel like they are natural in this picture, the father is awkwardly leaning which is causing him to compensate by tightening muscles and not relaxing. The mother's positioning is not helping by emphasizing her neck, poor posture doesn't help this either but sometimes clients really struggle with posture so that I can understand.

The general rule of if there's two, make them different is really not being followed here (and in my opinion shows why its a good rule to follow). A quick google image search of "portrait of a couple" shows dozens of fantastic examples of how to do this properly. Shoulders visually move straight, legs are uniform, hands are uniform, there is very little interest generated by creating depth in your subjects. Even the two fighting in the background (both with hands around one another's necks) looks staged and uncomfortable because of how identical they are.

An image like this is a fantastic opportunity to introduce tremendous amounts of depth and interest, personally I feel you failed to create that.

That said, situations like these are often tricky. You come up with an idea on the spot and all the sudden find yourself juggling more than you intended to so certain aspects start to slip. This isn't a bad photo and many people will enjoy seeing it, however there is a lot of room for improvement in it.

 

[JustJazzie]

This made me laugh! I really enjoyed it!

 

[mmaria]

I really like the photo

 

[D-B-J]

This isn't my preferred area of photography, and generally as long as the client is happy / you make money off the shoot it really doesn't matter so take my critique with a grain of salt. I'm a demanding CD so please keep an open mind as I walk you through what I see.

Personally the image feels entirely too staged. The idea is cute but none of the subjects feel like they are natural in this picture, the father is awkwardly leaning which is causing him to compensate by tightening muscles and not relaxing. The mother's positioning is not helping by emphasizing her neck, poor posture doesn't help this either but sometimes clients really struggle with posture so that I can understand.

The general rule of if there's two, make them different is really not being followed here (and in my opinion shows why its a good rule to follow). A quick google image search of "portrait of a couple" shows dozens of fantastic examples of how to do this properly. Shoulders visually move straight, legs are uniform, hands are uniform, there is very little interest generated by creating depth in your subjects. Even the two fighting in the background (both with hands around one another's necks) looks staged and uncomfortable because of how identical they are.

An image like this is a fantastic opportunity to introduce tremendous amounts of depth and interest, personally I feel you failed to create that.

That said, situations like these are often tricky. You come up with an idea on the spot and all the sudden find yourself juggling more than you intended to so certain aspects start to slip. This isn't a bad photo and many people will enjoy seeing it, however there is a lot of room for improvement in it.

Thanks for the detailed critique! And you're right, this was a last minute idea, and I do see how it might look staged. I'm still learning a lot about posing, so all of those ideas and things you mentioned definitely help. I agree this shot could have/should have been executed in a better manner... I'll keep at it [emoji5]️[emoji106]

Jake

 

[gsgary]

They look like Mr & Mrs Prim and proper does not work for me

 

[D-B-J]

They look like Mr & Mrs Prim and proper does not work for me

Dressing nicely doesn't work..? Why? What do you suggest would be better? You always seem to criticize but NEVER add CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. Tell me how I can improve rather than bash my work.

Jake

 

[gsgary]

They look like Mr & Mrs Prim and proper does not work for me

Dressing nicely doesn't work..? Why? What do you suggest would be better? You always seem to criticize but NEVER add CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. Tell me how I can improve rather than bash my work.

Jake

I can't seem to concentrate on mum and dad I find the kids in the background very distracting, they probabiy love it

 

[D-B-J]

They look like Mr & Mrs Prim and proper does not work for me

Dressing nicely doesn't work..? Why? What do you suggest would be better? You always seem to criticize but NEVER add CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. Tell me how I can improve rather than bash my work.

Jake

I can't seem to concentrate on mum and dad I find the kids in the background very distracting, they probabiy love it

That's the point. This shot wasn't about mom and dad, but about the boys and their goofy personality.

 

[Lucryster]

I would of wanted the kids in focus as well.

 

[D-B-J]

I would of wanted the kids in focus as well.

Sadly I don't have the option... Should have though...

 

[Tee]

Very nice job. I've photographed at Harkness many times.