Family Photo Session....

[ababysean]

I had the chance to photograph a friend and her kids yesterday.
Just wanted to share and get some cc.
I've been in a funk lately.
I can't seem to get clear pictures or I just cant tell if they are clear, in focus or if it is my monitor or my bloody eyes!

Thanks guys

1.

2.

3.

4.

 

[Emilymarie]

I had the chance to photograph a friend and her kids yesterday.
Just wanted to share and get some cc.
I've been in a funk lately.
I can't seem to get clear pictures or I just cant tell if they are clear, in focus or if it is my monitor or my bloody eyes!

Thanks guys

1.

2.

3.

4.

What time of day was it? By the harsh sun rays I'm guessing mid day with the sun directly above. This is a bad time of day unless you are COMPLETLY in the shade( I see you went under the trees but the trees failed to provide full shade thus making annoying sun spots over the faces. Can you provide your EXIF data?

 

[Robin Usagani]

your sharpening is a bit much there Crystal. The only collage i like is the last one. The rest dont really tell a story.

 

[ababysean]

I ran a sharpening action for facebook....
but you know, not on those.
Is that why they look so pixelated?
You know, I did these in lightroom and I did not mess with the sharpening slider, but it seems to default at 25?

and yes, it was 2pm. Very very harsh sun.

I think before I did not sharpen at all, even in photoshop, my new action set includes a sharpening layer, maybe I'll try to redo them without sharpening.

 

[MissCream]

What time of day was it? By the harsh sun rays I'm guessing mid day with the sun directly above. This is a bad time of day unless you are COMPLETLY in the shade( I see you went under the trees but the trees failed to provide full shade thus making annoying sun spots over the faces. Can you provide your EXIF data?

I disagree. I have taken great photos in harsh sunlight, you don't need to be completely in the shade, all you need is a good fill flash to avoid shadows.

 

[ababysean]

I had the chance to photograph a friend and her kids yesterday.
Just wanted to share and get some cc.
I've been in a funk lately.
I can't seem to get clear pictures or I just cant tell if they are clear, in focus or if it is my monitor or my bloody eyes!

Thanks guys

1.

f4 1/125 iso 200 f4 1/250 iso 200
2.

f4 1/800 iso 200 f4 1/125 iso 200
3.

f4 1/200 iso 200 f4 1/250 iso 200
4.

f4 1/200 iso 200 f4 1/200 iso 200

added data and they were all shot with my 35mm 1.8

 

[ababysean]

What time of day was it? By the harsh sun rays I'm guessing mid day with the sun directly above. This is a bad time of day unless you are COMPLETLY in the shade( I see you went under the trees but the trees failed to provide full shade thus making annoying sun spots over the faces. Can you provide your EXIF data?

I disagree. I have taken great photos in harsh sunlight, you don't need to be completely in the shade, all you need is a good fill flash to avoid shadows.

I have an sb600 but I left it in the van. I have been using it in my last few shots but I've been very disappointed with the results so I decided to go back to the days where I did not use flash, I however forgot to also go back and realize I only shot at 9am or 1.5 hours before sunset..

 

[TracyWatkins]

I am new to this and new to photography but from my honest opinion looking at these, I wouldn't be disappointed if these were my pictures. I am sure your friend knows that you are a beginner so I am sure she is not expecting them to be perfect. The only way we can do better is to keep trying right? The photos do look a little to grainy but I am sure you can try to edit again and take away some of the sharpness. Otherwise, I think you are off to a great start and I feel these photos look very good for a beginner.

 

[lildlege1]

I second that Tracy. Good job for a beginner! We all have to start somewhere!!

 

[KmH]

Why are they all B&W?

 

[atabrem]

they are way over sharpend. and i'm not digging your conversions. the hotspots all over the faces is really distracting. next time you should back light your subjects as much as you can to get evenly properly exposed skin.

 

[Josh66]

You know, I did these in lightroom and I did not mess with the sharpening slider, but it seems to default at 25?

Yes, I'm pretty sure it defaults at 25. No offense, but these all look like something way past 25... I mean, you can push that slider to 50 or 60 and it still won't look like that.

Did you shoot RAW or JPG for these?
I only ask because I'm thinking maybe there was in camera sharpening applied, and then you sharpened it more in LR. If you shot JPG, I could see that happening. (Though, I think LR might change the defaults for JPGs...not sure.)

If you're sharpening something that's already been sharpened, that might explain it.


Whatever the problem is, it's gotta be PP - so at least once you figure out what's off, these should all be savable.

 

[kundalini]

I challenge you to properly expose an image. Front to back, the entire depth of the image. I pulled these photos into ACR and there are many areas in the background that read 251-254 and a few areas at 255. The face of the subject should be the brightest area of the image so the viewers' eye connects immediately. Although you claim to prefer 'bright images', this is not a post processing issue IMO, it is a shooters problem. B&W is not to be used as a crutch for poor exposure.

Just my 2¢.

 

[ababysean]

I can not remember if I put a "facebook" action on these or not and I posted from facebook but I don't think I did.
I know in my actions, I do have a sharpening layer.
I'm going to re edit them tomorrow.
and yes, the exposure was pretty crappy, I was exposing for the skin, not the background.

 

[ababysean]

a few of them in color