Ganny loves her babies - C&C welcome

[ronlane]

I took some pictures Sunday evening of the kids. Here is an example, not my best and not my worst. It looked fine on the computer but on this one it looks a little dark. Also, the color or wb is bugging me but I cannot put my finger on why. I used an on camera flash reflected by a silver reflector. I could/should have pulled them back away from the tree to get dof, but was in a really confined space.


IMG_7187-Edit by Ron_Lane, on Flickr

 

[Derrel]

Good posing on the kids, nice scene with the tree and also the ornate Christmas horse!!! Yeah, I suppose the kids could be brightened up a bit, made a bit more "punchy" color-wise. The most-critical thing is that you captured the warm glow of the tree lights and the beautiful ribbons and lovely ornaments!!! It's a really nice tree decorating job, and the background is simple and very appropriate. You have a bit of the rug there, the kids look well-scrubbed,well-dressed, and smiling...I dunno...it's a actually a pretty good Christmas shot...I have seen many,many,many that are much worse...this is not that far off from perfected...

I took a stab at a "punchier" look...not color-accurate, just a quick curves adjustment, striving for a more-vivid look. It might in fact be too much of an adjustment. In these kind of shots, I think artistic license has almost no limits...there's no need for color-accuracy...I'd rather have things look too warm than too color, color temperature-wise.

 

[ronlane]

Thanks Derrel. I see the punchiness of the kids in your edit. Then my eyes (probably being too hard on myself) get drawn to the orangy looking wall behind/side of her. I had desaturated the orange in LR4 and that was helping. I don't know, maybe I am just being too picky.

 

[Derrel]

I think it looks fine. Most people will not see anything wrong with the wall or the tree.

 

[ronlane]

You are right about that. Guess this site has helped me to be aware of the little stuff that most people won't look at. Here is the picture that I am most happy with out of the ones that I took. Funny thing is, it was the first picture that we took.


IMG_7186 by Ron_Lane, on Flickr

 

[ronlane]

I got my monitor calibrated today and WOW, what a difference. I re-edited the portraits of my kids for our Christmas cards.

1.


IMG_7187 by Ron_Lane, on Flickr

2.


IMG_7186 by Ron_Lane, on Flickr