First Family Session

[Derrel]

I thought the processing was that new, slightly hazy, slightly desaturated look so many (female) family photographers and paying customers (moms and grandmothers and girfriends and fiancee-types with checkbooks, credit cards, and fist-fulls of $20 bills!) are fond of these days. It looks like a conscious, 2014 decision,not a mistake.

(For those that think I'm being sarcastic, I AM NOT. Women buy about 95% of all family photography services, in my experience. Buying family photos is what the women-folk do in the USA. You do not have to please the dads or the husbands...they leave allllll photography buying decisions to their women. Men pick out new water heaters and tires. Women run the rest of the whole damned household.)

 

[bigtwinky]

same goes for weddings... making the bride happy is key. Getting a few nice shots of the groom is just a bonus

 

[vintagesnaps]

Processing and/or exposures seem off - none of these look sharp to me and I agree with other comments about the color (the concrete looks pinkish white and the sky almost looks white).

If someone wanted photos done someplace you'd never been before it might have helped to go out there and do some test shots ahead of time to make sure of your camera settings, figure out how that bridge is going to look in the background, what would be a good vantage point, etc. These photos look there might be a need to develop your skills more before you get into doing shoots for people so you can have success as a photographer.

I've found that sometimes kids will act up or show off in situations like this when they'd typically not behave this way (or maybe it is typical for this child/family) - so I think it takes learning how to handle a variety of behaviors and how to direct kids when they might be feeling uncomfortable around a stranger.

 

[KelSS90]

I do tend to favor a warmer look when editing and the sun was behind subjects (shooting with no lens hood, so further contributing to that hazy look). I didn't desaturate any though. So... Maybe the issues were intended but I didn't hit the mark in terms of what I was going for?

Vintagesnaps... This is why I still shoot for free and will be for the foreseeable future I highly doubt I ever take photography on professionally, but it's certainly still flattering to be asked by strangers and I always want to give clients more than they are expecting!

 

[Scoody]

I, for one, like the bridge in the first pictures. Locally we have a railroad trestle that is often used as a location. All the photographers that shoot that location catch about as much of the bridge as in the photos posted to open this thread. I usually do a few shots with my Tokina 11-17 mm 28 and get the whole damned bridge in the picture. Go hard or Go home.

 

[kc4sox]

Just a quick edit but, maybe framed a little more like this ?

 

[KelSS90]

I like it -- thanks!!

 

[bigtwinky]

Not a fan of that edit in terms of composition. A bit too much ground and too little top. As they are sitting, I would prefer them a bit lower in the frame, less... centered

 

[kc4sox]

Not a fan of that edit in terms of composition. A bit too much ground and too little top. As they are sitting, I would prefer them a bit lower in the frame, less... centered

That's the kind of edit you get when your in and out of the house doing yard work ! It wasn't intended to be perfect. It was intended to show how much better the original would have been if it were to have been framed tighter to eliminate the distraction of the background.

 

[bigtwinky]

Totally agree and I get ya! I dont spend hours editing other's photos for the sake of examples
But still, the family a bit lower in the frame, even done quickly, would be better imo

 

[Derrel]

Totally agree and I get ya! I dont spend hours editing other's photos for the sake of examples
But still, the family a bit lower in the frame, even done quickly, would be better imo

Family either lower OR higher, would add more visual impact to this shot. As to the bridge and its intricate ironwork...that *is the location* the OP was at...it has real, significant meaning to the father, and it *is* the location the images were shot at. TO most of us it is ugly, but it is an icon of his childhood, and now he has kids of his own, and they are there, with he and his wife. This is an environmental portrait session, so, the way I see it, the bridge has simply gotta' be in the shots, in a reasonably prominent way. There's a balance in environmental portraiture; mostly people, with very little environment shown, or or mostly people and almost no environment shown--neither of those really resonate for me.

My experience is that the subjects in photos relate to the emotional content and to the people they love, more so than to the technical quality of the shots, so, I think for the clients, the environment is a net plus, whereas for us as disinterested third parties, the bridge is viewed as a negative.

 

[KmH]

I do tend to favor a warmer look when editing

There is a way to get that warm look in the camera for the people, but not have that warmth in the background, which is a way to help isolate your subjects and make then 'pop' from the rest of the scene.

This other way also gives you a lot more control over the lighting in the shot.

You use a flash unit or 2 off camera and put a 1/2 or full CTO gel on them and set your camera's white balance to Tungsten/Incandescent.
The CTO gel makes the flight from the flash unit the same color temperature as the Tungsten/Incandescent WB setting and in the photo the light looks like sunlight.
Because the WB is set to Tungsten/Incandescent the sunlight takes on a cool light blue color cast.

This technique allows you to separate your subjects in a couple of ways - a subject to background lighting ratio and a subject to background color temperature (WB) ratio.

Add selective focus (a shallow DoF) and you can have 3 techniques helping to generate 'pop'.

Light from a flash unit is natural light too. The lighting you used is more correctly called available light.

 

[KelSS90]

Thanks for that info, KmH. I am admittedly fairly afraid of my flash... Lol. But last week I did do some reading on off camera flash and it looks like, by not knowing how to use it and not having one, I am holding myself back.... I'm learning in bits and pieces still but I think this needs to be my next step.

 

[frommrstomommy]

I like these! The posing is nice.. #3 is the standout for me for whatever reason. I'm not sold on the location.. the bridge seems busy. I think maybe if they were standing on the bridge it would kinda remove some of the busy overhead perhaps?

 

[KelSS90]

I like these! The posing is nice.. #3 is the standout for me for whatever reason. I'm not sold on the location.. the bridge seems busy. I think maybe if they were standing on the bridge it would kinda remove some of the busy overhead perhaps?

That was my favorite from the set as well, particularly the BW conversion. Here are a couple of them standing up.... the first I don't think is quite sharp And the second I didn't like because of the red/yellow detailing on the bridge (although I could have cloned that out probably -- just seemed like a lot of work for a mediocre shot as it was).