New Fall Portraits

Stacey · Nov 10, 2007

I did another session of fall family portraits with some friends of mine and generally, I'm happy with what I've got but I'm very critical about my photos and I think I could have done better. These pics were done at about 10 am in the morning and it was very cold and windy! THe sun was also really bright and I don't know how to fix/avoid that....She was happy with them but still.....Please C/C!

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JDS · Nov 10, 2007

If the shots -must- be done in bright, harsh light, a couple or three things you can do:

1) Shoot in the shade. It will overexpose everything that is in direct sun, so this isn't always the best option

2) Use fill flash. Sometimes the flash isn't quite strong enough to combat the harsh shadows, but it's better than nothing.

3) Use a reflector to bounce some light back in the shadows.

The best time of day to shoot outside is in early morning light, or late afternoon light, just after the sun has come up, or just before it goes down. This is what they call the 'golden hour' of light outside.

Also, overcast days are good to shoot in, because, as one member put it, it's God's natural softbox..It diffuses the light perfectly. It knocks the contrast down, however, so you may want to bump that back up in Photoshop or Gimp after the fact.

Hope this helps..

BTW..These are great photos other than the harsh light..I like 'em!

Sw1tchFX · Nov 10, 2007

on 4, keep the eyes natural. sure, their iris's can be blue, but not the eyelids too.

Stacey · Nov 10, 2007

Sw1tchFX said:
on 4, keep the eyes natural. sure, their iris's can be blue, but not the eyelids too.

I hate to be retarded, but I don't follow what you are saying. I realize they are squinting but I don't understand what you mean by the eyelids being blue? Do you mean his or heres? I didn't do any editing to the eyes really just played with the saturation/color bumping kinda thing. I'm sorry I don't understand, just trying to learn!

Thanks for the critique!

Sweetsomedays · Nov 10, 2007

Um...eyelids can be blue if she had eyeshadow on.

Sweetsomedays · Nov 10, 2007

Do you use fill flash? If not, you need to. Only way you are going to be able to controle that harsh light and not blow out all the highlights is meter for the sky and use the flash.
I think 2 is the best with a bit of a crop off the top but it is so blown out all around them.

Sw1tchFX · Nov 10, 2007

It's inconsistent with the other images and looks unnatural. nobody's eyes are that blue. It's like something out of the movie dune.

Stacey · Nov 10, 2007

Sw1tchFX said:
It's inconsistent with the other images and looks unnatural. nobody's eyes are that blue. It's like something out of the movie dune.

I'm sorry, I still don't follow. You mentioned earlier that someone's eyelids were blue..I guess you were talking about her and I see a bit of shadow but not blue....but if you were talking about him, yes, his eyes really are that blue. (Sorry, I've never heard of/seen the movie Dune!

) I just don't understand why it looks unnatural? Is it just because of his eyes or the skin tone or lighting or their position? I saw a picture similiar to this either on TPF or Google and thought it was cute and wanted to give it a go. How do you mean inconsistent?

Sorry to ask so many questions! I just really want to try and get better at this - I really have fun with it and want to learn everything that I can...unfortunately, that means asking zillions of questions, LOL! Someday I'll get there though! Until then, I may bug you all!

Sweetsomedays-thanks for the critique! You gave me some good ideas as to what to do with the lighting. Eventually I'll get it all down! HA HA! Until then! Thanks again!

Sw1tchFX · Nov 10, 2007

The womans eyes in 4 are very blue, but they look more borwn in the other images. Same for the male. Also, if she was wearing blue eye shadow, than why isn't it showing up in the other images?

I don't mean to sound condescending, it's just odd that their eyes look so much different in 4 than all the other images.

Stacey · Nov 10, 2007

Sw1tchFX said:
The womans eyes in 4 are very blue, but they look more borwn in the other images. Same for the male. Also, if she was wearing blue eye shadow, than why isn't it showing up in the other images?

I don't mean to sound condescending, it's just odd that their eyes look so much different in 4 than all the other images.

You don't sound condescending in the least! I just didn't understand what you were trying to say! I'm not sure why her eyes look so blue. I guess for me, I just don't see it. Her eyes are actually hazel but border more on green actually. I went through all the photos I took on that day and her eyes look "normal" to me!

But his eyes do look really blue and I'm glad for that because I actually wanted to edit them to be more blue (sadly, I don't know how to do that though! LOL) She was actually wearing a brown/nude eyeshadow shade that day so I'm not sure where the blue is coming from....Maybe my monitor is off or something. Oh well!

Thanks for explaining what you meant though! LOL, sometimes I can be slow to pick up on stuff!

Thanks for the critique!