my first portrait pictures C&C

[classicsrtheway2go]

These are my first portrait pictures let me knoe what you think.

1.

2.

 

[mom2eight]

I like the candid shots. They look more like snap shots imo than portraits. I'm new at this so take that with a grain of salt.

 

[Annie700]

They certainly are beautiful kids! Great capture with eyes sparkling and all smiles. I think your lighting looks good, the only thing I would change is the background. If you had a nice background, these shots would be so much better. Just getting started at this myself but I think they look Great.

 

[themedicine]

mom2eight nailed it on the "snapshots" look. these are underexposed a little bit, and are cute cause they are of your kids, but portraiture, it is not. The comforters in the first picture are distracting, and the odd tilt on the second one is the same. the lighting is actually pretty bad, cause i can see harsh shadows and and very very flat. A way to fix this is to eventually invest in some sort of hotshoe mounted flash or off camera strobe. maybe even shoot with no flash at all if you have fast enough lenses.

Great looking kids though and I hope they will continue to be so willing as you grow with your photography.

 

[The_Traveler]

I agree completely with themedicine and Annie700.

Why do you have all that stuff in the first image? It's not contributing anything. Crop the image, either in the camera (best) or in PP to fill the frame as much as possible with what you want people to look at. Since this is the US, most shots above the 19 cent level are formatted 4 x 5. This will give you a chance to get rid of some of the excess.

Then look at the colors and the exposure. Is the child's skin that color? Are the colors drab or is there a nice pop to them? Do the whites of the eye have a bluish tinge?

Look at good portraits and try to figure out what the factors are that makes them look good to you.
To me. the factors are generally these:
subject well placed and prominent in the frame
extra stuff is cropped out, OOF or too dark to detract
color looks natural but with some pop to it
color doesn't look flat
eye contact with the lens or with something so there is some emotional content to the shot.
are the shadows proper and give some emphasis to the character of the face.