How would you edit this? family portrait

[Montanamyst]

Hi everyone. I had my first practice family shoot a few days ago, and wasn't happy with the shoot overall. There are a few good ones. This is one that I'm not happy with, and would like to know how you would edit it, as I'm not great at PP yet. I see the obvious stick (would have broken the stick off, but it wasn't my property) coming out of the top of her head, that I tried to recompose for, but there wasn't any more room for the shot, and the mom wanted it in front of the mill. Overall, I think that the pic is exposed properly, but just is dark overall...does that make sense? Then you have the different skin tones from the parents to the children, I guess the Mom tans and the children are well very white. So what would you do. General CC Welcome. And of course the dog wasn't looking....but I have some where the dog is looking.

 

[tirediron]

It's not bad at all. The exposure and WB are good; I would try some selective adjustments around the face/eyes to lighten those up especially on Mom and Dad, and I also think (for future reference) I would consider using longer glass and a larger aperture to to lessen the DoF and render the background more softly and less distracting.

 

[Eveamlizya]

It's not bad at all. The exposure and WB are good; I would try some selective adjustments around the face/eyes to lighten those up especially on Mom and Dad, and I also think (for future reference) I would consider using longer glass and a larger aperture to to lessen the DoF and render the background more softly and less distracting.

Agree. I love the location, but I think that's the point of it...I'm looking at the awesome background rather than the family. I'd also even out the skin tone on Dad; he seems a little red and also brighten all their eyes a little. Actually I think it's all a bit too saturated, the red especially, (not sure if that's just my screen though). Also, just for future reference...when a vast majority of us smile, we get the slight double chin from pulling our faces back so (especially when dealing with clients on the heavier side) have them put their chin down and push forward towards the camera, but not too much so that their neck disappears. I have to do this with any picture taken of me.