First Photo Session. Comments?

[Sept1785]

So I was asked by the in-laws to photograph my sister-in-law's senior photos. She has Spondylolisthesis at over 100% which means her back is pretty much broken. She was pretty upset as she is a senior this year, on the track team, and will be having surgery on Sept 21. She wanted her Senior pics done while "she can still walk". I believe the school photos are done during her recovery time.

These pics are unaltered so far, except for some cropping. (Now that i look more closely at them i think there was a definition filter cut on.)
Anyways, Is there anything i can do post production wise to these first few to make them more worthy of this important photo opportunity?

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Thanks for your feedback.

 

[Granddad]

I'd play with the levels in PSP and in some of the darker ones possibly add some fill light in Lightroom; then play with them from there. Pretty good photos of a very pretty young lady. I like most of them (not so keen on 7 & 8) and I think most of them have potential to be really nice. Let's hope the surgery is successful for her.

 

[The_Traveler]

Look at the pictures.

Which ones are most attractive?
Which ones look as if the white balance is off?
Which ones are underexposed or overexposed?
Which ones have too much extra room that don't do anything?

Do some of the work yourself or you'll never progress.

 

[Sept1785]

Thanks for your direction granddad and traveler.
Let me rephrase my question. I for the most part can and do, ask myself those questions traveler(it doesn't help to be color deficient lol). I however have a certain look that I strive for. I'm just not sure it would be appropriate for something like a Senior photo shoot...? I tend to try and make everything pop. I normally stick to macro and aquatic (actinic) photography. So I was just looking for input on what most people consider for formal photo shoots. I was afraid my mastering would be to artsy Pop culture ish.

Here are some examples of what I would manipulate to:

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#6 remaster

#5 remaster

 

[The_Traveler]

I think the originals are not well exposed and for the most part not particularly well cropped.
Your subject has a large-ish chin and, for that reason, I would discard 3, 4 & 5.
7,8 & 9 have such problematic exposures and wb issues that a really nice result would be very difficult.
I think 6 & 11 have the most potential for a traditional senior shot particularly if you are starting from a raw file.

 

[Sept1785]

thank you traveler. thats a bit more helpful.

 

[The_Traveler]

thank you traveler. thats a bit more helpful.

If you would allow editing and post larger files, it would be much simpler to show the issues and point out what we see.

 

[Sept1785]

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These aren't much bigger. The forum is resizing them. Here is a link to my album.
http://s71.photobucket.com/albums/i159/cavinca/Holly/

Password is "thephotoforum" no quotes.

 

[The_Traveler]

re: the first large one.

look how much the young women pop out when only the background is darkened.

 

[Sept1785]

LoL thank you! I was hoping you'd pick that one. I am red and green colorblind. I can now calibrate my monitor so I can see a little better.

Thank you that does look much better.

 

[The_Traveler]

Now remove the hot spot from this one that pulls the eye
then brighten the face.
Unfortunately the fill flash has blasted most of the micro-detail out of the face but now the face does hold up to the background.

 

[edddial]

re: the first large one.

look how much the young women pop out when only the background is darkened.

Nice job The_Traveler!

 

[subscuck]

Here's what I came up with. As always, it looks better on my computer than here, but hopefully you get the idea. Darkened the bg, little fill light, cloned out the bits of sky, bumped contrast and sharpened. And obviously cropped.

 

[DiskoJoe]

yeah your stuff is all over the place. over exposed, underexposed, bad white balance (the yellow shots). Also you clipped a lot of them and some where out of focus. I would recommend to work on some basic before trying to worry about post processing.