C&C Please! First attempt at childrens portraits

ga_shooter · May 11, 2008

I shot these yesterday, it is the first time i have attempted the whole staged portrait type of thing. I forgot to swith the camera back to RAW because i had been shooting snapshots for ebay in jpeg, so these have no processing done. Please C&C!

jcolman · May 11, 2008

The first shot has way too much headroom. The second shot would be much better if the background was out of focus. Gotta watch for things like trees growing out their heads. The third shot is my favorite. Good job of catching their expressions! The last shot is nice but the blanket in the bottom of the frame bothers me.

ga_shooter · May 11, 2008

jcolman said:
The first shot has way too much headroom. The second shot would be much better if the background was out of focus. Gotta watch for things like trees growing out their heads. The third shot is my favorite. Good job of catching their expressions! The last shot is nice but the blanket in the bottom of the frame bothers me.

Ok, i didn't even think of the tree head thing, and that is so funny. I will never see this picture the same way again. In total agreement with your accessments, next time i'll slow down.

K_Pugh · May 11, 2008

The third shot is my favourite, great capture. The rest are really sharp, and the last one is quite nice..

soul.glo · May 11, 2008

3rd one is definitely the best of the bunch. I'll have to agree with the other critiques as I would have said the same thing. Keep practicing.

The_Traveler · May 11, 2008

I implore you to look at the cropping of your pictures. Very nice composition but they are adrift in a sea of empty space.

4 x 6 may be convenient for 17 cent prints but 4 x 6 is more often then not terrible for pictures of people.

VERY nice pictures but you need to plan your finals when you look through the viewfinder.
Don't cut off feet or hands.
If it isn't contributing to the final, crop it out.

ga_shooter · May 14, 2008

Thanks Traveler, I think that the next round i print out for Grandma I will crop them better. It never pays to rush, eh?

Sarah23 · May 14, 2008

Yeah, the cut off feet and limbs bug me.

Just pay better attention to composition next time, and maybe get some bokeh in the background next time to separate the subjects from the background.