Opinions Please...

[allinschenk]

I've been out practicing These are my latest shots of a friend's children. I liked the ones of the older boy, but I'm missing something in the eyes of the baby. Help please! In case it matters, I'm using a Panasonic Lumix FZ35. Thanks in advance everyone.

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http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/9jX34l8fTL0BAlT6j8dsRA?feat=directlink

 

[sobolik]

Try post processing them. I use PS Elements 5.0 and it is: select one eye, feather about 5. unsharp mask about 50-150. Repeat for the other eye. You could also do a lighting adjustment while selected and brighten the highlights of each eye.

 

[JasonLambert]

One and two looks like you missed the focus a bit... The black and white conversion is flat and lifeless. Three and four are a little better... The depth is nice and looks like a good choice in aperture. Your subject is in focus all over and the background is nicely OOF. Nothing about these, however, gives me a "aww, how cute" moment, but that's the photographers fault and not the kids.

Pay attention to where the light (sun) is, especially when you are not in the cover of a tree or something.

 

[allinschenk]

Total newbie alert here, but when shooting in natural light, shouldn't the area behind the subject be lit while the subject be in the natural shade of a tree or such? Any other suggestions on ways to improve versus post editing?

 

[allinschenk]

Also...am I out of focus because of my own movement? Should I look at using a tripod?

 

[sam_justice]

You're not out of focus, you're on auto focus which I find usually focuses on the nose of subjects. Try and get used to using manual focus for portraiture.

With the question of the light, that is all subjective and depending on whether you want it to or not. In terms of suggestions on improving.. Well if you're new to this I could write an essay on good portraiture, you're photos are certainly not bad at all. Take a look at other portraits on flickr and such, decide on which style you like and would like to emulate (baring in mind using ambient light over flash, since flash lighting will cost you a lot) and try to achieve the same results (composition, framing, exposure etc).

 

[SrBiscuit]

set your AF for single area, and make sure you focus with the active bracket on the eyes, hold focus then recompose if need be.

sam you dont necessarily need MF to get focus on the eyes. follow the above advice, and hopefully it will save some time and aggravation.

 

[Shanny]

I think they're really great, a little PP would do wonders! I hope you don't mind, but I was bored so I did a little PP on your photo. I think it's an adorable photo. Nothing too drastic just curves and levels.

 

[KxBlaze]

Those are good pictures but if you want to focus on the eyes (which I think would add a lot to the pics) then you should definitely do some PP. You can brighten, +vibrance, +saturation, etc... on the eyes and that will make the photo stand out more, just my opinion.

 

[allinschenk]

Thanks for the tips everyone. I wasn't sure if I could achieve what I was wanting from the eyes with my Lumix FZ35. The last true SLR I had was a film one and I'm hoping to upgrade to a Canon or Nikon DSLR after the first of the year but I'm still hungry for the experience of photographing. Editing scares me a bit, any suggestions on programs or general reading material? Thanks again everyone!