Niece and family portraits

[CherylL]

My niece was in town and asked for family photos. We planned on going to the sunflower field, but was too muddy swampy from all of the rain. We opted for a local uni garden.
C & C welcome

1.

2.

3. Gave him a prompt to whisper

4. I cropped this much closer for a 2nd version

5. walk super slow and act like you like each other

6 .

 

[Derrel]

Id give these an 8/10 overall. Not too bad really. A few small niggles. I am at Les Schwab Tires geting two new fronts for my Honda Civic...it's gonna be 99 degrees today, or so they say....83 right now at 11:21 Pacific time.

 

[smoke665]

Overall great set. Exceptional job on the glasses. Overall I think I like #6 the best. Good composition, feels the most relaxed of the set. I really want to like the closeup #4 but there's something about the pose and expression, it looks forced and not at ease.

 

[Derrel]

#6 really leverages the shooting location. Excellent use of the trees and the OoF foreground plants.Good framing.His shirt's wrinkles are the only obvious flaw worth noting.

 

[CherylL]

Id give these an 8/10 overall. Not too bad really. A few small niggles. I am at Les Schwab Tires geting two new fronts for my Honda Civic...it's gonna be 99 degrees today, or so they say....83 right now at 11:21 Pacific time.

Thank you Derrel, as a hobbyist an 8/10 I'm happy

Overall great set. Exceptional job on the glasses. Overall I think I like #6 the best. Good composition, feels the most relaxed of the set. I really want to like the closeup #4 but there's something about the pose and expression, it looks forced and not at ease.

Thanks Bill. Yes 3 glass wearers was a challenge. He son is very tall so that helped, but he wears his glasses sliding down the nose cutting off the eyes. We had to tell him to push them up many times. As for her expression that is her naturally smirk. She is funny sarcastic and gives that look often.

#6 really leverages the shooting location. Excellent use of the trees and the OoF foreground plants.Good framing.His shirt's wrinkles are the only obvious flaw worth noting.

I wish I had more room to shoot the last one. I was standing in the middle of the plant beds and if I backed up the plants were too high. Do you think this would have been better landscape? That was my plan, but the plant situation wouldn't allow. Yes I see the wrinkles now, thank you I'll add that to my mental check list My checklist was hair, glasses, necklace, shoulders, arms, POV, background, expression. Any others to consider besides the wrinkles? I did PS his man nipples a little. Is that a consideration?

Question, #1 I didn't care for her elbow creases and lightened them up in post. How would you have posed her arm? What other posing would you have changed in #1?

thanks for all of the feedback!

 

[Derrel]

Everything's a consideration: nipples, wrinkles in clothing, elbows, rings/stones, necklaces/ clasps, lint, pils, pet hair, neck wrinkles, underwear lines, tummies, etc..

You did pretty well overall. #6 could have been framed landscape, but it's skillfully composed as a vertical.

 

[smoke665]

I did PS his man nipples a little. Is that a consideration?

Thankfully that is ONE edit I have yet to do.......think I'll keep it that way.

 

[CherylL]

Everything's a consideration: nipples, wrinkles in clothing, elbows, rings/stones, necklaces/ clasps, lint, pils, pet hair, neck wrinkles, underwear lines, tummies, etc..

You did pretty well overall. #6 could have been framed landscape, but it's skillfully composed as a vertical.

That is quite a list to remember! There were a few times I did remember to move a step or few to get a different perspective. There was one that she wanted with the 2 of them on the bench intertwined. I shot the first from an angle and then moved in front of them. The front view was much better.

On a private FB page a photographer shared a how to senior quick shoot. He had two light umbrellas set up about 10 feet away. At the first location he had the senior move into 4 different poses quickly and then they walked to the second light and walked thru 4 poses. All in about 3 minutes. He is experienced and said a few times to move the hair or fix the necklace.