2012 Christmas Card pic

[Johnboy2978]

Well, here it is. Just uploaded to Mpix for our annual Christmas Card. Each year, I think it will be the last before my daughter stops believing in Santa. This year I incorporated "Luke" our Elf on the Shelf. Luke has been found in some interesting spots this year since it may very well be our last. Anyway, he decided to take part in the annual picture. I'd welcome your thoughts, comments, critiques, etc. It's been a while since I shot any photography. Have at it.

Technical details were pretty basic. Single monolight just right of camera, but almost centered. Background was a black reflector as I didn't want to drag out an actual background, stand, etc. f/8, 1/180, ISO 100. That's pretty much it.

 

[snowbear]

Nice concept, good balance, cute model. The one real think I see that could be an issue is the way her top blends into the background. Although not a real problem, IMO, the fingers on her right hand are "chopped" by the table.

On another note, I have a long-time friend whom is from Norton. He also has people in Clintwood.

 

[AgentDrex]

Foreground and background are so similar in color that it is hard to distinguish between the two and so the girl looks she is cropped strangely. I'm not able to comment about the studio lighting too much as I haven't much experience using that but it would seem that almost centering the light as you mentioned would serve almost no better purpose that a pop up flash, the light seems to be flattening out her features.

I still believe in Santa and I refuse to believe he's not real!

 

[Johnboy2978]

I agree, I should've went with a different color for the BG, and her hand is chopped. I didn't notice until I put it is PS and looked at the result. With kids, once the dress is off, "we're done".

Clintwood is about 30 minutes from here and Norton is about 45 minutes. There's some nice landscape material in both locations.

 

[Johnboy2978]

Foreground and background are so similar in color that it is hard to distinguish between the two and so the girl looks she is cropped strangely. I'm not able to comment about the studio lighting too much as I haven't much experience using that but it would seem that almost centering the light as you mentioned would serve almost no better purpose that a pop up flash, the light seems to be flattening out her features.

I still believe in Santa and I refuse to believe he's not real!

I agree about the FG/BG. I should've went with another color in retrospect. I'd probably also agree with the comment about lighting. I should've gone with something more interesting like Rembrandt or butterfly lighting, but just wanted to light the scene before my daughter lost interest.

Santa is real by the way.