CC please

[Casey carson]

Family shoot inside (which isn't my favorite) I don't have much practice inside. But I'm getting there. Would love advice!

 

[tirediron]

Ummmm... where to start? To be brutally honest, this one is a 'bin and reshoot' in my opinion.

The composition doesn't really work; your standing subjects form a 'ragged edge' with their heads, and the seated subjects don't balance each other and everyone is doing something different with their pose and hands.

The lighting is... lacking. Your windows are horribly blown out, there's a nasty reflection in the painting, and in the glasses of the gentleman standing image right. The white balance is wayyyy off; everyone looks like they have jaundice.

Start by getting your exposure right; meter the windows and then balance that with your lights so that you have a nice, even exposure; remember that the eye is drawn to bright over dark, and with a large blown area on each side of the frame, no one's really looking at the subjects. Once you've got that sorted out (and you've made sure there are no flash reflections anywhere), set your white balance (either with something like an Expo Disc/Lally Cap, or a grey card) and then bring the people in. Remember that we want diagonals and triangles in groups like this, so compose your sub-groups with this in mind. I would probably start with the two tallest men at the centre and their spouses next to them, have the senior members of the group seated, and the child maybe cross-legged in the middle.

Also, don't forget to discuss clothing. This is probably one of the single most important aspects of the pre-shoot consult (You did do one, right?) It's not as if everyone has to match, but some cohesion is important and torn jeans? Really? Baseball caps in the portrait? Come on!

All of that is not to say that this is a horrible image, it's not, but it does have a LOT of room for improvement, and if you're going to be a professional retail photographer, these are day-one issues.

Just my $00.02 - YMMV

~John

 

[Bo4key]

The posing it fine, They could have been a little closer together but that's not a big deal.

What were you using for lighting? The open windows are too bright and blown out because you were trying to expose the group properly.

Also, the white balance seems to be too warm or yellow so the skin tones are off.

EDIT: tirediron beat me to it, and I'm no posing expert!

 

[Casey carson]

Thank you John I wanted honest advice I hate this photo shoot! Haha like I said I don't like inside photo shoots! Is there away to fix some of it through editing ( I know not the arrangement of people and dress options) but some of the lighting problems they want them done by tonight and I'm stressing out! There's no time for a re-shoot

 

[Casey carson]

I definitely need to work on posing people! And still learning lighting I just used my flash with a defuser

 

[tirediron]

Did you shoot this as a raw file or a .jpg? If you shot it as a raw file, you can fix a lot of it without too much effort, if as a .jpg, then some, but with more work.

 

[Casey carson]

I shot with .jpg

 

[tirediron]

I shot with .jpg

Bad photographer! Bad! Bad! Repeat after me: I will never again shoot in .jpg only. Having the raw file to work from makes life 100x easier. Of course you need to have the right software, but since you can get Lightroom & Photoshop together for only $10/month, that part is easy.

Try bringing down the yellow channel and increasing the overall exposure slightly. Whatever you do, do it in small increments and always reference your edits back to the original file. Before you make ANY edits however, copy the original file and "put it somewhere safe" so that you can't accidentally over-write the original. Don't ask me how I know this is a bad thing, just trust me!

 

[Casey carson]

Thank you for your advice! I really appreciate it! I want to learn as much as possible because I want to make this my full time job and I know I have a lot to learn as you can tell! So thank you for your time! I get frustrated with myself cause I get some awesome photo shoots and then like this one I failed!

 

[Casey carson]

I shot with .jpg

but since you can get Lightroom & Photoshop together for only $10/month, that part is easy.

That is awesome I didn't know you could do that! I've been using GIMP which is free. I do know if I want to do this as a profession I need to upgrade in software!

 

[matthias bader]

I do know if I want to do this as a profession I need to upgrade in software!

Do it! You won't regret it. It makes life - and with life I mean adjust pictures - so much easier And as tirediron said, shoot always in .raw

I'm not at all a people-photographer, so i can't tell you much about the picture, except what was already said

 

[Casey carson]

So I have a Nikon d5000 and just so I know I am doing it right which one would suggest?

 

[qleak]

I thought I'd add. For a large group portrait like this if you intend to print them you will likely be in 8'x10".

Think of your frame as an 8"x12" and leave an inch on each side. So you need a little more room for the appropriate crop.

 

[tirediron]

So I have a Nikon d5000 and just so I know I am doing it right which one would suggest?

I always shoot NEF + JPG small/basic. I only use the .jpg files for quick viewing and searching. I never edit them. .JPG is a lossy format, that is, each time you open the file, change it, and save it, you lose a little bit of data.

 

[Casey carson]

So I have a Nikon d5000 and just so I know I am doing it right which one would suggest?

I always shoot NEF + JPG small/basic. I only use the .jpg files for quick viewing and searching. I never edit them. .JPG is a lossy format, that is, each time you open the file, change it, and save it, you lose a little bit of data.

Thank you John!!