Dale & Jax // Father & son portraits

[JOSHardson]

Here are a few from a last minute portrait session I did a few weeks ago. Critique as always is welcomed.

1

2

3

 

[JOSHardson]

I'm cursed by mediocrity! Not wretched enough to be ridiculed nor spectacular enough to be praised.

I'll take it... : )

 

[Derrel]

Okay, I'll bite. I like the posing and frame placement of the first shot the most. I like most things about it, except for the tilting horizon line in the background. That I do not like, and think it distracts from the upright posture of the dad. The two guys, posed in bright, open, shaded light looks good, and shows contouring on their heads, and the degree of OOF in the background is perfect! You've made the dad look young, fit, and strong, and very manly. He probably loves the way he looks in the shot. Some day this will be a treasured family shot of father/son. It really will be!

#2 feels just a tiny bit cramped, but it is an "active" father/son portrait. I would like to have seen this shot from a bit lower, and more to the left, so we would see more of the boy, and less of the dad, but see the man's arms leading the eye to the child being held aloft. It's not quite the exact, right angle that my mind wants to see.

#3 is okay. Visually, they are a bit far apart, but then again....the dad's a big strapping fellow, and the boy, well, he's still tiny. I'm not as fond of the degree of background in-focus-ness you have here, esp. compared against #1...the background seems to be competing a bit, with the tree behind the head, and that doggone bright yellowish highlight patch also up there in the upper right corner. Bright background patches are very distracting, the longer a photo is looked at. I would clone that out and make the backdrop uniformly "green leaves", and I think it would elevate this shot.

 

[JOSHardson]

#3 is okay. Visually, they are a bit far apart, but then again....the dad's a big strapping fellow, and the boy, well, he's still tiny. I'm not as fond of the degree of background in-focus-ness you have here, esp. compared against #1...the background seems to be competing a bit, with the tree behind the head, and that doggone bright yellowish highlight patch also up there in the upper right corner. Bright background patches are very distracting, the longer a photo is looked at. I would clone that out and make the backdrop uniformly "green leaves", and I think it would elevate this shot.

Thank you for the critique, Derrel. The yellow patch is all I see now. I agree I should have opened the aperture a bit on this last one.