Family C and C

smackitsakic · Apr 16, 2011

Looking for some honest C and C on these four photos. They are of my own family, but am wanting true feedback on how these images are as exposures, not on the cuteness of my child.

Through the eyes of a photographer, how are these pics? What would you have done differently to make them better? I'm about a year into the craft and am fairly satisfied with these results. Are they too snap-shot'ish still? Or does it look like i'm evolving past that point?

1

2

3

4

The_Traveler · Apr 16, 2011

#3 & #4 are reasonably well exposed, reasonable well lit pictures of a child.
#3 is a little too horizontal for my taste.
#4 would work better if it was trimmed to 4 x 5. That way it won't look as if the clipping of the baby's right hand wasn't a mistake.

IMO, the jury is still out on #2 if you can fix the over-exposed background and the blown out part of Gram's face then lighten the rest of the faces considerably.
I would crop it tighter to minimize the blown out parts.

#1 is another thing entirely.

Absolutely wonderful composition, nicely sharp, excellent use of DOF.- the problem is that it is over-exposed and undersaturated.
The light is so contrasty that the left side of her face is too dark and the right too light. A reflector would have helped a lot here.
(also her sweater is brilliant white and attracts the eye.)
It can be fixed some, but, if you have the mother, baby and grandma available, shoot it again.
but it is a lovely shot.

(right face and sweater darkened, left face lightened, sharpened, cropped, slight vignette)

camz · Apr 16, 2011

I'll CC number 1 since it's my favorite of the bunch

Before you even shoot perform a spot check and make sure there isn't much disparity of exposure between multiple subjects. Without the use of flash or modifiers it's good to have an eye for it.

I think in addition to what the traveler stated, having her head cranked toward the camera created some folds in her neck - I touched that out with a healing brush.

The overall exposure I changed it in curves and I burned grandma(which I might have slightly overdone-there's also doubling in the blend) in since she was blown out in the background. I also blended it with a 52% opacity softlight to bring it out.

FYI - There is a slight trick in camera to create a soft look by slightly overexposing a subject and it can easily be performed with window lighting. It removes blemishes in the face. Notice
how you did it in #1 with the lady upfront? You take that exposure down and you can easily see natural facial contures.

Here's my take...

lyonsroar · Apr 16, 2011

The_Traveler said:
#3 & #4 are reasonably well exposed, reasonable well lit pictures of a child.
#3 is a little too horizontal for my taste.
#4 would work better if it was trimmed to 4 x 5. That way it won't look as if the clipping of the baby's right hand wasn't a mistake.

IMO, the jury is still out on #2 if you can fix the over-exposed background and the blown out part of Gram's face then lighten the rest of the faces considerably.
I would crop it tighter to minimize the blown out parts.

#1 is another thing entirely.

Absolutely wonderful composition, nicely sharp, excellent use of DOF.- the problem is that it is over-exposed and undersaturated.
The light is so contrasty that the left side of her face is too dark and the right too light. A reflector would have helped a lot here.
(also her sweater is brilliant white and attracts the eye.)
It can be fixed some, but, if you have the mother, baby and grandma available, shoot it again.
but it is a lovely shot.

(right face and sweater darkened, left face lightened, sharpened, cropped, slight vignette)