My boys

[ORourkeK]

I feel like everyone's kids have these bright beautiful eyes, and then there are my kids, with dark demon eyes. I still love them! Anyway, I am still trying to find my "style" and I think I am close. Thoughts?

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[Braineack]

nice shots, VERY green however.

 

[ORourkeK]

I need to calibrate my screen. That seems to be a common theme.

 

[CherylL]

Handsome little guys! I like the composition and the scene. They do seem a little underexposed.

 

[ORourkeK]

I was going for a darker feel, and in fact, the green tone may be an accident from that. At the same time, I was in a garden, which is pretty darn green lol. I still have issues determining if a picture is dark, or underexposed.

 

[Photo Lady]

They are so handsome and i love their photography modeling skills .. just great!

 

[smoke665]

I think I am close. Thoughts?

You definitely have the models for it, they are a couple of handsome lads.

Couple of "thoughts". On the eyes, the darkness is caused by not moving the light in. There's a couple ways of doing that, either by using an off camera flash or a reflector. If you go with a flash, you need to be able to fire it either with a wireless trigger, or by a patch cord to your camera. An inexpensive speedlight, and a reflective umbrella will give you a decent soft fill on the face and light up the eyes. In lieu of that you can use a large white reflector. You'd be amazed how much light you can move with a piece of plain white foam core from Wally World.

Kids and many adults have a tendency to squint when they smile for the camera. Don't have a clue why--I do myself. One thing I found that works well with little ones is to make it a game. Tell them to close their eyes and smile while you count to three. When you get to three have them quickly open their eyes. The eyes will fly all the way open without time to squint. Make it fun, be silly, fake them out, the better the game the better the look will be.

 

[Derrel]

Yeah...a bit of "eye sparkle" would REALLY help. Four ideas: Reflector, flash, light modifier, moving out to the very edge of this open shade type location.