2nd portrait session w/ people not related to me :-/

[PreciousJessie427]

Bbb

 

[SabrinaO]

These arent bad... not as bad as you were making them out to be. I think a little PP can make a nice change. Add some contrast and fix the tint... the tones look a little pink. What do you want CC'd? Just dont cut off limbs(i think the first one is fine though).The background is blown out nicely but get rid of the wrinkles with a rubber stamp or just color it in.
What was your lighting setup?

 

[PreciousJessie427]

I realized I worded my post weird but the first session i did with a different family turned out pretty bad and that is what I didn't want to show, lol. I have 2 strobe lights, and at first I tried the whole key light and fill light thing, but my background which is muslin seemed too distracting because you could see every wrinkle and crease, so I used one of the strobes to light the background, and used the other to light the girls.

 

[kundalini]

The background markings are unacceptable IMO on both images.

#1 - On the blondes face, there is a vertical line with a hard edge running between her eye and ear. As you have the main light camera right, this may be light fall off from its position reletive to her face. some fill light would help here. Her left hand looks odd sneeking into the picture from underneath her armpit. There seems to be definite tension in her neck and shoulders. I think having her roll onto her left hip wouldv'e resolved this. You've cut her off at the knee joint. It is better to have the crop/cut off mid-way between joints. I think the red head's left foot is distracting. Had she slid her foot closer to her butt, I think it would then be hidden from view.

 

[KmH]

Foundations of Lighting Placement

10. The Rules Of Good Portraiture

Light Science and Magic, An Introduction To Photographic Lighting, Fourth Edition

Master Lighting Guide for Portrait Photographers

Corrective Lighting, Posing & Retouching for Digital Portrait Photographers

Portrait Lighting for Digital Photographers: The Basics and Beyond

 

[gsgary]

To be honest these belong in the recycle bin, aperture should be minimum F8, lighting is very flat (Sabrina's type of lighting ) thats why she thinks they arent bad, if your shooting in a studio you should not need to fix background exposure

 

[PreciousJessie427]

Thank you kundalini for your constructive criticisms. I find them all useful as a beginner with less than 2 months experience who is also a full time mom to a 5 month old and who also works full time outside the home! I am basically saying that I have not been doing this my whole life and have not made taking portraits my # 1 priority since I began. I don't expect my pictures to come out phenomenally great, but I can understand how some of you professionals forget that your first photos weren't as amazing as they are now. I'm gonna guess that anyone who would say that pictures of children belong in the recycle bin doesn't have any children of their own, and may be missing a soul of their own. Regardless of the quality of the photos, a parent can appreciate any photo of his or her child wether the aperture is less than F8 or not.

 

[gsgary]

Thank you kundalini for your constructive criticisms. I find them all useful as a beginner with less than 2 months experience who is also a full time mom to a 5 month old and who also works full time outside the home! I am basically saying that I have not been doing this my whole life and have not made taking portraits my # 1 priority since I began. I don't expect my pictures to come out phenomenally great, but I can understand how some of you professionals forget that your first photos weren't as amazing as they are now. I'm gonna guess that anyone who would say that pictures of children belong in the recycle bin doesn't have any children of their own, and may be missing a soul of their own. Regardless of the quality of the photos, a parent can appreciate any photo of his or her child wether the aperture is less than F8 or not.

I have got children why keep bad photos when they can be re shot with correct exposure and DOF, this is something you should check when shooting, i would always want my children to look their best

 

[kundalini]

I don't expect my pictures to come out phenomenally great, but I can understand how some of you professionals forget that your first photos weren't as amazing as they are now.

Let me preface this with I'm not a professional, but I have a pretty good idea of what I'm looking at. It's not my intention to ever forget how my first shots came out, it keeps me humble..... to some degree anyway. That is what a lot of the good people on here will try to get across, to lessen the learning curve a bit. Don't take it personal, check attitudes at the door, attune yourself to the different characters you'll find lurking around this place. It also helps to have good olfactory nerves intact to smell some of the BS that gets dumped from time to time. Oh yeah...... have a sense of humor.


Now with Gary........ he's another kettle of fish.

 

[gsgary]

The main problem with them is the distance they are from the backdrop they are that close that light is coming off the backdrop and overexposing the children, they need to be another 6 feet away

 

[Derrel]

These are suffering from what many people call "blowback" or "wrap"; words describing too much light from the background reflecting back toward the camera and "wrapping around" the outline of the portrait subjects. Blowback occurs when there is too much light shined on the background AND when the background is too close to the people; you can use the same amount of light on the background when the background is 15 feet behind the subjects, and when it is 5 feet behind them--and in the case of the 15-foot distance, you'll blow the backdrop out to a nice, pure white, while in the case of the five-foot distance, you'll get a bad case of blowback.

TYhere'sd a web-based photo instruction site run by a guy named Zack Arias. He has a simply superb tutorial on how to shoot photos so as to achieve a clean, white background. Let me look that up for you and paste the URL. Here, hang on just a second....okay, here it is....zarias.com :: The blog of editorial photographer Zack Arias » White Seamless Tutorial :: Part 1 :: Gear & Space

Keep at it. You'll only get better and better!!!!

 

[gsgary]

I don't expect my pictures to come out phenomenally great, but I can understand how some of you professionals forget that your first photos weren't as amazing as they are now.

Let me preface this with I'm not a professional, but I have a pretty good idea of what I'm looking at. It's not my intention to ever forget how my first shots came out, it keeps me humble..... to some degree anyway. That is what a lot of the good people on here will try to get across, to lessen the learning curve a bit. Don't take it personal, check attitudes at the door, attune yourself to the different characters you'll find lurking around this place. It also helps to have good olfactory nerves intact to smell some of the BS that gets dumped from time to time. Oh yeah...... have a sense of humor.


Now with Gary........ he's another kettle of fish.

Let me try again
What wonderful photos, exposure is perfect colours are so vivid, how do you get your shots so pin sharp

 

[Aayria]

Hi PreciousJessie,

I was going to offer some CC for these, but it appears from your last response that you weren't looking for real CC? If you just wanted to share, that's perfectly fine, but it would help other posters if we knew what you were looking for. (This is not meant sarcastically, so please don't take it with a negative tone.)

What is it that you like and dislike about these pictures? What measure did you take to help this shoot go better than your last, and how do you feel it has improved? That's a good start. =)

Also, you said:

I'm just looking for comments and suggestions that the trained eye can spot, that I cannot.

Followed quickly by :

I don't expect my pictures to come out phenomenally great, but I can understand how some of you professionals forget that your first photos weren't as amazing as they are now.

So therein lies my hesitation to offer honest CC...

 

[mrpink]

Let me try again
What wonderful photos, exposure is perfect colours are so vivid, how do you get your shots so pin sharp

X -1.

OP. More detailed information on your setup will yield more focused CC thus helping you a lot more. If you just throw up some photos and ask what we think, well, we are gonna tell you <insert gsgary (who is spot on btw)>

Take some of the advice given, apply it, and repost. As you show effort, others here will as well.






p!nK

 

[JWellman]

cri·tique (kri t&#275;k&#8242;)

noun​

• a critical analysis or evaluation of a subject, situation, literary work, etc.
• the act or art of criticizing; criticism

Origin: Fr < Gr kritik&#275; (techn&#275, critical (art) < kritikos: see critic

transitive verb, intransitive verb critiqued -·tiqued&#8242;, critiquing -·tiqu&#8242;·ing

to analyze and evaluate (a subject, literary work, etc.); criticize​

As difficult as it is to swallow sometimes, the advice given here will help you tremendously. 99.9% of all photos have something wrong with them. If you allow yourself to be open to the suggestions, learn from your errors, and put those suggestions to use, you will grow by leaps and bounds.

Since I have so much to learn myself I rarely offer comments, but I can say that the very first thing I noticed was the lines in the backgrounds.​