Family Portrait Feedback

[SGorman]

Here is one of my latest jobs. I am okay with this, except the skin tones look too pink to me, or is it the background? I also should have taken out the alligator. They absolutely love them, I guess that's what counts, but I'd like to get some feedback here. Any other comments are welcome.

LancaricFamily2 by gormanimagery, on Flickr

 

[kennyboy]

The picture is over exposed. If you shot it in raw format, I would adjust the White balance to help warm up the skin tones. The background is to close to skin tone for me and it washes the subjects out. I would try to change the color of the background in editing, if you have the tools. Also I would crop the bottom to right above the mom's fingers. It looks better with just the child's limbs.

Just a little adjustment....

 

[kundalini]

Well, I think you hit the nail on the head with skin color. A few more thoughts are.......

The blacks in the clothing have very little detail. In the large view of the image, you can distinguish Dad's collar but the button down is barely noticeable and everything else is just black.

I think your focal point was on the tip of Dad's nose. The eyes are soft to OOF on the child.

Mom's fingers creeping in from the bottom of the frame are well, creepy. Had she placed her hand cradleing on the line of his shoulder, I think that would have had a much more loving look. Not only would we see her whole hand, this would've given an endearing effect of affection.

Now, what you've done right and it is rarely seen here in family portraits. The lines you've creative for an intimate family portrait is very, very good. First off, nobody is static. All the shoulders, even though Dad is square to the camera, are at an angle. This is good. The imaginary line from Dad's eyes, going through child's mouth and ending with mom's eyes is fantastic. This is very dynamic and showing the personality of the family unit. The closeness, heads touching along with the happiness, displays a love shared. Well done.

It looks like you used (at least) one off camera flash (main) and one on-camera flash (fill). Because the fill is such a tiny pin point, I might be swayed to clone that catch light out.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[SGorman]

Oh I have tools, kennyboy. Have you ever seen what happens when graphic designers get bored? :mrgreen: I'll take your suggestions and repost the result.

 

[kennyboy]

Oh I have tools, kennyboy. Have you ever seen what happens when graphic designers get bored? :mrgreen: I'll take your suggestions and repost the result.

lol, looking forward to seeing it. I just reposted a second altered image for your review.

 

[CCericola]

Collages.net has a blog that contains a bunch of webinars. One of them that you can download is about family portraits. Tip: fast forward a few minutes as the photog goes a bit off on a tangent in the beginning. Definitely check it out and then look back at this photo. I think you will find some easy ways to improve on family portraits.

 

[SGorman]

kundalini, good call on the lighting and the extra catchlight! This definitely helps because it's not something at the front of my mind. And the hand is not a good distraction, if there ever was one. Great pose suggestion. I will keep that in mind.

kennyboy, I just saw your edit, I think it's absolutely better. I will fix the crop, alter the white balance and change the background.

 

[SGorman]

Edit:


lancaricEdit by gormanimagery, on Flickr

 

[kundalini]

....... Great pose suggestion. I will keep that in mind........

Actually, I was commenting and complimenting on the pose you've captured. Not making a suggestion since you've accomplished a good pose.

 

[SGorman]

Thank you, and I meant the placement of the mom's hand would be a great improvement.

 

[SGorman]

Aha. I'm now on my Mac monitor... And they're pink again. lol

 

[joealcantar]

Looks like you captured a cool moment. I messed around with skin tones and here is my play. What color was that background?
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Thanks for sharing and shoot well, Joe

 

[SGorman]

Thank you! I have to calibrate my laptop. Necessary for skin tones. The background was white, and I didn't like it.

 

[CCericola]

I think in this case it would look best in Black and White

 

[SGorman]

While I would love to take the easy way out on this, I need to keep working on it. The way I look at it: I thought I knew how to draw when I went to college. Our Professor made us draw crumpled up paper bags for the first semester. Why? Because we needed to really learn how to draw, even though we thought we were the s#!t when we got there. He taught us that we knew nothing and broke us back down to the basics. So in this case, getting skin tones right is going back to the paper bag.

I think in this particular case, I'm going to have to start from the raw image again. It's probably the white balance. I'm going to play with Kelvin.