Maternity Shoot, C+C

[ChrisedwardsHT]

My good friends are having a child soon, and I took a couple shots of them the other day.

Shot with my 7D, 70-200 2.8 IS, all natural light...

C+C please, I would like nice comments but I would LOVE to get some rude and crude comments.

Enjoy.

TJ & Jana by HTchris, on Flickr


TJ & Jana by HTchris, on Flickr


TJ & Jana by HTchris, on Flickr

 

[Ballistics]

You are in dire need of a reflector to add some of that natural light onto their faces.
Also, you have a blown spot on the right shoulder of the man in #1.

 

[frommrstomommy]

You definitely need them better lit.. elbow in the second is not ideal. If she were say tucking her hair behind her ear in that moment I'd say getting the whole scene there could have made for a nice natural shot but as is the elbows gotta go.

 

[Derrel]

You could just re-process these and lighten them up. I gave all three a quick 15 second adjustment each, then exported them from Lightroom.



I added "digital fill light" to the two color images, but it would have been better to have gotten more "real" in-camera exposure on their faces, either by a reflector, or flash, or even just exposing more-generously for the shadowed side, and allowing the background to go very bright. One thing that you can see in the second image is that his yellow shirt is causing a color cast; that is 100%R natural, and happens a LOT when shooting in brighter spring/summer conditions. I didn't correct for that color cast, but you could remove it, but then again, you could leave it too, and chalk it up to realism. "Real" light is virtually never "white". On the B&W image, I burned the edges down a bit, to make the heart appear more prominent.

 

[tirediron]

Most of the key points have already been mentioned, but I'll re-emphasize composition. Open up your shots a bit. Especially in #1, they're way too tight. You should never crop a limb along a lateral axis or at/near a joint. As well, fill light, fill light, fill light!

 

[jowensphoto]

They've got it all covered!

One thing you did really well was the posing; I really like the second and don't mind how tight the shot is (though the others do need comp. help). Don't be afraid to step outside the box - safe poses are fine, but it's more fun to mix it up!

 

[esselle]

agree with the others...and with jowens on the poses. very thoughtful and sweet pics!
(i would have done them in black and white) just not a fan of people in color.
unless the colors are vibrant in the clothing...and/or the background is vibrant, like there's a beautiful field of flowers behind you ...or a bright blue classic car, for example. then it makes sense to leave color, as color.

if it's close up shots like these with uninteresting or minimal background, black and white (to me) is better.
therefore, i love the belly shot. :mrgreen:

 

[beanerbeta]

If you have a beach anywhere.... use it, that way you can have more natural light on their faces, and who doesn't love some shots on the beach?
Definitely get more creative, if theres one thing ive noticed about pregnant women, its they care more about whats in the picture than how it was shot, shes not gonna notice a blown out shoulder, shes gonna notice her husbands hand on her future child. Emphasize the child in every picture!!!

 

[Gavjenks]

A speedlight flash + simple remote connector (so you can hold it one arm's length radius in any direction easily) with any halfway mediocre diffuser on it will make fill light way better in a pinch, or if you have nobody to hold a reflector for you and/or no time to set up fancy things.