Opinions Please

[dlee]

I recently did some portraits for a daycare that said they were in a bind. I am new and thought it would be a fun opportunity. The director said that she was disappointed and that all the pictures were awful. Before I throw out my camera and it call it done, I wanted some other opinions. Her complaint with this one was that the overall quality was bad. Thanks for your candor!

 

[fwellers]

I'm a newbie too, but even I can see that there are some pretty bad things there.
The balls make it too busy, plus the light is reflecting off of them, totally distracting.
The backdrop sheet is all messy and crinkled, another big distraction.
The picture is too dark.

What I do like about it is her face has a nice glow in it and the lights in her eyes seem nice to me too.

 

[NateWagner]

I think one of the primary problems with this photo is that it is underexposed. If you shot in raw you might try boosting the exposure.

 

[bigtwinky]

You got her to have a good expression, which is hard with kids.

The exposure is too dark, it needs to be brighter.
Her pose isn't all that great
You cut off her feet

Getting down to their level and not standing up will often yield better results

 

[Harmony]

You say they were in a bind? So you did it for free? Bad quality? So, like, noisy? Or the paper the photos were on ripped? Or...?

Why would you want to throw in the towel? Maybe get a little more experience, and then try portraits again - but that doesn't mean that you have to give up photography all together!

 

[tsaraleksi]

What was the purpose of doing the photos? This one here has a couple of problems, namely that it's underexposed, there is a lot of flash reflection off of the ball that distracts from her face, she's a little out of focus, and the background is quite distracting. Also, it looks like you used a direct flash, which is a contributor the problem.

 

[dlee]

Thank you very much for your input. There are a couple of things that this photo doesn't accurately represent. I was trying to make the photo fit better for the forum and I cut off her feet here, but in the print I didn't. She actually had gum on the bottom of her shoe and I had a lot fun playing with PS tools to cover that up! It also didn't print this dark. But I do struggle with darker complexions. I tend to underexpose them.

Posing is another thing all together! I have been looking at other websites and reading books to get ideas and what not. The thing I struggle with most is resetting the kids every 15 seconds...which is just their nature. Often times, I will pose them, step back to make them smile, and they move.

Anyway, thanks again!

 

[dlee]

What was the purpose of doing the photos? This one here has a couple of problems, namely that it's underexposed, there is a lot of flash reflection off of the ball that distracts from her face, she's a little out of focus, and the background is quite distracting. Also, it looks like you used a direct flash, which is a contributor the problem.

The director of the daycare wanted "holiday" portraits. Another photographer came through in October to do "holiday" portraits with the kids, but they were all still wearing shorts! October is still in the 90's here! I think I did use direct flash.

 

[dlee]

You say they were in a bind? So you did it for free? Bad quality? So, like, noisy? Or the paper the photos were on ripped? Or...?

Why would you want to throw in the towel? Maybe get a little more experience, and then try portraits again - but that doesn't mean that you have to give up photography all together!

They were in a time crunch. Called me on Tuesday to do on Friday kind of thing. I used professional lab, so I guess noisy. From comments here, there are things I didn't notice. I was so focused on her little face, that I didn't notice flash on ball or wrinkles in backdrop. I remember thinking that some of the reflection was cool on the balls in some of the other exposures. But I need to learn more about using props.