Need some reviews and suggestions

[Tommy13]

I would love to hear your thoughts on these 2 pics did a shoot for a close friend of mine. He asked me to shoot his kids and I did it for free of course since I am new to this please tell me what you think.

 

[CaptainNapalm]

I think you did a good job. The photos look really nice overall. Here is my suggestions:

Photo 1:
The isolation of the subject from the background is really nice here but I think the wooden feature on the right is intrusive and takes away from the image. I would also try to introduce better lighting on the girl's face and if you have access to post processing programs (like photoshop or lightroom) you can highlight her face and try to recover some detail from the shadows and increase exposure just to bring out more detail from her eyes and brighten her face up, it looks a bit dark relative to the background.

Photo 2:
All is great here although I would have angled the shot slightly differently so that the background lamp post isn't sitting in line with the girl's face. Also, slightly more subject isolation (blurred background) would probably be favourable here.

 

[shaylou]

I agree with captain to a point. I really like the first one but I think the composition is off. I would of tried to use the wood on the left as a leading line. That would of meant repositioning and playing with the angles a bit. As for now I would consider cropping the right side in some putting your subject on the right 3rd of the pic more.
The second pic I do not like the composition at all(sorry). It is too centered and you had an opportunity to use the walkway and sides for lines but did not take advantage of it. I would of left more of the walk between you and the subject in the pic and lowered my position to create a flow.w Sometimes just simply taking a knee can completely change a picture. Good luck.

 

[JoeW28]

Good initial results. And my comments are similar to the first post.

1. First shot: subject needs more light on her face--a reflector would have accomplished this nicely. Or if you're shooting from distance, a fill-flash. Otherwise, in post processing, I'd boost the rightness (which is going to have the benefit of washing out the background even more and reducing the focus on the background to the viewer's right. Also agree about not centering the subject.

2. Second shot: lots of possibilities. It's not bad but you missed some even better options. For starters, on post processing I'd remove the lamppost coming out of the head. Ideally you'd change the angle so it's not an issue in the shot. B&W is going to emphasize lines and form. You've got a couple of attractive young kids wearing horizontal lines on their clothing. Here's what I might have done differently (in staging the shot). Shoot in the other direction if possible--have the kids walking towards to water on what appears to be a pier (no pun intended). As Shaylou mentioned, use the receding lines of the pier to create perspective and contrast with the horizontal lines on the deck and the horizontal lines of the dresses. Also, a viewer's eyes are usually drawn to the white or bright objects...in this case the boots. Depending upon the color in the photo, you may not want to go B&W (or ideally change the boots or at least darken them in post processing so they aren't what the viewer's eyes get drawn towards). I think it would also be interesting to see the symmetry for BOTH girls to be looking at each other as they walk hand-in-hand away from the camera. Just tell them on the count of 3 to quickly turn their heads and glance to each other and then turn back. It will give you some movement in the hair (making the photo dynamic), at this age the girls might view it as a game and look impish, and the mutual glance conveys relationship or connection.

 

[ShootRaw]

I agree about the first photo..Composition is off and wood is distracting..Second shot IMO is perfect..You nailed the composition,nice post processing and nice story telling..DOF is Spot-On...Great Job