Family photos

[JonA_CT]

So I took some photos for one of my former bandmates and his family this weekend for their holiday cards. I'm going to share a few here for some feedback. I ended up having to take most of the photos inside because the weather was unpleasant, and their house had limited options to play with. They also insisted that they have pictures taken in front of their bay window, which was a nightmare for my flash. I haven't decided if I'm going to go back and fix the flash in the windows...I probably will if they pick those shots as favorites.

A couple of self notes -- depth of field was too shallow in some places. I need to take the time to use the calculator. I also need to do more pose study. Hit me with anything else -- I have a few more of these types of shoots in the next couple weeks.

Nikon D600, Sigma 50mm f1.4 (I think these are all with two shoot-through 43" umbrellas).
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[JonA_CT]

Nikon D600, Sigma 50mm f1.4
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Nikon D600, Nikon 80-200mm f2.8


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[tirediron]

I feel your pain... that window, as a background is fugly! A couple of thoughts: Some need to be leveled, and if they do go with the window images, I would suggest going back and shoot an ambient-only exposure of the window and composite it ,in. I recently had something similar with a client who wanted a picture of their dog in front of the glass (highly reflective) fireplace. I shot the fireplace on it's own, tweaked it in PS and then inserted it to cover the reflection of me and my camera.

 

[JonA_CT]

I feel your pain... that window, as a background is fugly! A couple of thoughts: Some need to be leveled, and if they do go with the window images, I would suggest going back and shoot an ambient-only exposure of the window and composite it ,in. I recently had something similar with a client who wanted a picture of their dog in front of the glass (highly reflective) fireplace. I shot the fireplace on it's own, tweaked it in PS and then inserted it to cover the reflection of me and my camera.

The composite is a great idea, although way simpler if I used a tripod. I guess there’s no reason I couldn’t in the future. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get back there (even if I could get the perspective right ), so I’ll probably play with the clone stamp to get out the flash reflection, and then burn down the background. It won’t be ideal, but better than what I presented here.

I can’t believe I didn’t level when I cropped. Rookie mistake.

Thanks, John!