First try at some outdoor portraits. C&C welcome.

[jwbryson1]

Just a couple of photos of my wife and daughter at the park. Comments welcome. Trying to improve. Thanks!

1. I like this shot but I suspect the comments will say to show more of their faces. I dunno.

2. Perhaps a bit heavy on the editing but I like the skin tones. We had a big golden sun and I took these shots as the sun went down.

 

[JAC526]

That baby looks like a tiny version of the Michelin Man.

But seriously, I like the first one.

The second one looks soft to me? And isn't particularly interesting.

 

[Robin Usagani]

Need to work on your processing. Blurring the whole image for skin softening generally not a good idea.

BTW.. your daughter is so cute. She looks like she has 5 joints on her arms LOL (i mean it in a good way.. she is chubby cute!).

 

[jwbryson1]

Thanks. Yeah, I definitely WAY overdid the edits on 2. :lmao: I didn't realize how bad it was til I posted it and then could not focus my eyes. Still working on learning LR3.

 

[andrewleephoto]

for the second picture, you don't want to blur the hair. If you want to blur the skin, you should do it in photoshop or use the brush tool in lightroom

 

[Robin Usagani]

the only time you should use whatever you did is when you have a model dressed up like an angel LOL.

 

[jgooz]

ya i agree with schwett. there is a ton of resources and tutorials online regarding skin smoothing(if really necessary) and other techniques. very cute kid too! sometimes a tripod can free you up to jump around like a monkey to get the kids attention

 

[jwbryson1]

I shot these in RAW, and made all the edits in LR3. I softened her skin a bit and also tried a GND layer to darken the sky a bit, but there was some overlap on her face. The blurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr must have come from noise reduction. God, that's hard to look at.


jgood, I had my 7 year old behind me hopping around like a friggin' monkey to get the baby to smile. I have a bunch of other shots, but left it to 2 so I could get some feedback.

Thanks for the comments and criticisms.

 

[Derrel]

That baby looks like a tiny version of the Michelin Man.

Sure does!!! TheMichelinMan.jpg

 

[SNL]

When skin smoothing you still want it to look as natural as possible. Also do not smooth over the nostrils, eyes, eye brows, and mouth. That will help keep the photo from looking over done. The first one has some harsh shadows, it looks like you shot at on a bright sunny afternoon. When dealing with bright sun try back lighting, or have you subject stand in a shaded spot. Adorable baby though!