Family portrait session for some friends...c&c please.

[JAC526]

untitled-7205 by JChick526, on Flickr




untitled-7292 by JChick526, on Flickr





untitled-7180 by JChick526, on Flickr


This was really my first time doing portraits for people other than my family. I took these with a 5D and Sigma 70-200 2.8 at varying focal lengths. I tried to stop down to around f4 for good sharpness while still keeping a shallow DoF.

I feel like I need to improve my direction of the client as well as my posing skills.

Please let me know what you think and as always thanks for looking.

Joe

 

[tedfoto]

IMHO, in the first pic (child on shoulders), dad's eyes are very dark, and the shadows in his smile creases are very dark. But the expressions and composition were wonderfully captured. Nice posing as well.

 

[JAC526]

IMHO, in the first pic (child on shoulders), dad's eyes are very dark, and the shadows in his smile creases are very dark. But the expressions and composition were wonderfully captured. Nice posing as well.

Thank you. I appreciate the kind words. I probably should of used some fill flash for the first shot. It was hard because both mom and dad have narrow eyes when they smile. They also have very dark eye color which exacerbates the issue.

 

[JAC526]

bump...

 

[kathyt]

I think your posing is nice here. I would have used a reflector here to bounce a little light back into their faces as I am not usually one for too much fill flash. Overall, I think you did pretty well.

 

[JAC526]

I think your posing is nice here. I would have used a reflector here to bounce a little light back into their faces as I am not usually one for too much fill flash. Overall, I think you did pretty well.

Thank you so much. A reflector is just one more item I need to buy.

 

[The_Traveler]

There is always an exposure problem with dark skinned subjects wearing white clothes with high reflectance.
The faces get underexposed while the bright clothes pull the eye.
What you needed here is a reflector and for the subjects to wear darker clothes; then you could expose for their skin without blowing out the clothes.
The background looks dull and low contrast when we know it isn't.
All this is 'fixable' but you'd be better off shooting again.

 

[JAC526]

There is always an exposure problem with dark skinned subjects wearing white clothes with high reflectance.
The faces get underexposed while the bright clothes pull the eye.
What you needed here is a reflector and for the subjects to wear darker clothes; then you could expose for their skin without blowing out the clothes.
The background looks dull and low contrast when we know it isn't.
All this is 'fixable' but you'd be better off shooting again.

View attachment 22784

Yeah I definitely didn't pick out the clothes. A Reflector would of really been helpful.

Thanks for the critique. These are all good points I need to consider for next time.