A trip to the park - C&C welcomed

ORourkeK · Jun 22, 2014

My wife and I took my son to the park today to take some pictures. I wanted to use all of the information I had learned from the last thread I had posted. I kept my aperture around f/5 to insure they were in focus. The lighting was good so I could keep my ISO low, and shutter speed above 125. I still need to work on my composition and focusing. I always think I have my subject in focus when I go to take the shot, only to find out that I missed it by a bit later on. Anyway, enjoy our day in the park. C&C is always welcomed.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

AggieBecky · Jun 22, 2014

Super cute little boy and beautiful wife. I don't think #1 is very flattering to your wife though. #3 is by far my favorite---- very nice one of both your wife and son.

IzzieK · Jun 23, 2014

#1 is pretty good...she is a beautiful lady. #2 has a bit of overexposure hear the head. Did you check your blinkies? #4 -- the sooner you introduce your sonny boy to your photoshoot the better off you will be later on when you need a model....I do not want to fault the rest of your shots. Your son has the most beautiful smiles there. What a happy child.

ORourkeK · Jun 23, 2014

AggieBecky said:
Super cute little boy and beautiful wife. I don't think #1 is very flattering to your wife though. #3 is by far my favorite---- very nice one of both your wife and son.

Thanks Aggie. I love #3 as well.

ORourkeK · Jun 23, 2014

IzzieK said:
#1 is pretty good...she is a beautiful lady. #2 has a bit of overexposure hear the head. Did you check your blinkies? #4 -- the sooner you introduce your sonny boy to your photoshoot the better off you will be later on when you need a model....I do not want to fault the rest of your shots. Your son has the most beautiful smiles there. What a happy child.

I knew I was forgetting something on my camera. I need to turn on highlight clipping warnings. "I do not want to fault the rest of your shots" Any criticism you can give will help. I can only learn if my flaws are pointed out

coffeefilter · Jun 24, 2014

A big improvement. Good job!

ronlane · Jun 24, 2014

ORourkeK, here is what I see. Overall, you have a very wonderful family to photograph.

Here are my opinions. I didn't spend 5 minutes on each photo, like John does but I did spend some time, again, they are just my opinions.

1 - I would straighten the photo. It looks to me like she is sliding forward off the frame. The skin on her leg looks blown out to me (shins), may be able to pull back the highlights to save some detail.

2 - I agree that you need to watch the highlights but if you did that, her face would be darker than it already is and would need way more fill than it currently does.

3 - This one is nice and really all I can see is to watch the highlights in the trees.

4 - Really good smile, you can tell he is having a good time. This one could use fill from a reflector or flash since the light source is behind him. But again he's cute.

5 - The forehead looks blown out to me in this one. Again, without a fill light, you have to expose for the face and you run the risk of this happening.

Over all, I think they are nice photos and definitely shows off your family. Keep on shooting and learning.

LCLimages · Jun 24, 2014

#3 is hands down the winner. Instead of picking apart every shot, I'd suggest looking at why #3 is successful and trying to apply it to other shots in the future.

It's the best lit shot of the bunch. No faces are in shadows, nothing is too blown out - the highlights between the trees don't bother me at all. They look like bokeh and don't draw my eyes away from the subject like they do in #2. This is because they are small, and both subjects are well lit instead of dark and shadowy so they grab your attention first.

The pose is very flattering to your wife. She is beautiful and this showcases it best. She's posed very naturally and angled toward the camera so nothing about her looks larger than it is. Her face isn't hidden in shadows or hair, nor do her thighs look big (#1) or her butt look flat (#2). Don't take that wrong because I am not insulting HER - it's obvious from #3 she is attractive but do you see how #1 and #2 don't show that? As a female myself, I instantly toss anything that is unflattering. While you as a male think she's great and down the road will probably think any other pretty female you may happen to photograph is great, you should try to develop the critical eye of a woman and attempt to capture images that are as favorable as humanly possible.

Composition is good in this one. The road creates nice leading lines behind the subjects that continue to draw your eyes upwards and ding ding! There's your subjects! They're nicely framed - no excess space above or below them, it's not crooked one way or the other, and you didn't chop any limbs off (didn't in any of these really). The only nit I have is to me WB is a bit cool.

It's a lot to take note of and sounds overwhelming at first but the more you do it the more second nature it becomes.

IzzieK · Jun 24, 2014

Take a look at this video to learn a little bit about angles of legs when posing a woman. Maybe your shot will improve if you use the shape of her legs to angle your shots of her. She is a beautiful woman. Take advantage of that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCqTinpxRC0#t=27

ORourkeK · Jul 3, 2014

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I don't know how I missed these comments! These tips will be useful on my next outing. I can definitely see what you are saying about her positions now and how they aren't as flattering as #3. I will make sure I check out the video and learn more on the topic. It is funny how many different things go into making a picture great that I never even thought about before I started photography. Thanks again for everyone's comments!