Portraits of Daughter

DeCall · Aug 11, 2008

I did my second photo session using my daughter this time. We went to our local junior college where they have an area set up for horticulture studying. Please, I'd love some serious C & C on these shots as I want to do a lot more in the futre.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

maytay20 · Aug 11, 2008

Very pretty young lady! My favorites are #2 and 4. In both of those there are not any distracting bright plants, don't get me wrong they are pretty but you want her to be what a person focuses one. She also seems to be more relaxed in those ones, more natural. #1 maybe if she was a little further away so there was more lens blur.

LaFoto · Aug 11, 2008

Yes, two and four are the best of the series, easily, for they offer the least amount of distracting objects in the background. I wonder whether the blurriness in 2 is a result from severe compression? None of these look tack sharp to me, but then maybe that is not wanted in portraits (I tend to do mine quite sharp, though, but then my daughter's only 15 and needs not worry about wrinkles or anything, or let's say: we simply don't worry about them or other skin blemishes in our photos)?

In 5 and 6, your daughter looks downright uncomfortable, the poses look forced, mostly so in 5.

That said, she is very, very pretty and you should definitely go out for more sessions in the future! (I think if I told my daughter I'm planning for a session, she'd no longer play along

).

janetm1000 · Aug 11, 2008

agreed. 2 and 4! what a beautiful area!

DeCall · Aug 11, 2008

Thank you so much for the much needed feedback. I didn't sharpen these as much as I do some because sometimes I tend to over sharpen. I'll rework some of the originals and see if they look better with more sharpening. Thanks again, I really appreciate your comments!

De

DeCall · Aug 12, 2008

I was hoping for a little more C&C so I could see why my photos don't "pop" like a lot of photos I see do. I'm adding one more that I did a little more PPing to. Let me know what you think. TIA!

tirediron · Aug 12, 2008

DeCall said:
I was hoping for a little more C&C so I could see why my photos don't "pop" like a lot of photos I see do. I'm adding one more that I did a little more PPing to. Let me know what you think. TIA!

Could you provide a link to a couple of photos that 'pop' to you? That will give us something to compare to. I don't see any major issues with any of your images; I agree with the minor points menioned.

DeCall · Aug 12, 2008

tirediron said:
Could you provide a link to a couple of photos that 'pop' to you? That will give us something to compare to. I don't see any major issues with any of your images; I agree with the minor points menioned.

I've seen several in the past that I thought really "popped". I will use the ones that Kimberly just posted today as an example. My first three shots looked really dull compared to her colors, so I wasn't sure if it was just the lighting or my PPing. The last one I posted I was happy with, but maybe that's too much PPing? I guess it's all an individual's personal taste, but I'm just trying to learn what works best for me. I'm very new to portraits.

De

Early · Aug 12, 2008

DeCall said:
I was hoping for a little more C&C so I could see why my photos don't "pop" like a lot of photos I see do. I'm adding one more that I did a little more PPing to. Let me know what you think. TIA!

Perhaps you're removing the pop during the editing. What do the originals look like?

Lyncca · Aug 12, 2008

She is very pretty, but I don't think they are really sharp either and they look like they could use a little post processing. Of all of them, the last one stands out the most to me, except, does her hair really have a green tint to it, or was that your post processing?

SandShots · Aug 12, 2008

4 is my favorite. but all of them are nice.

i would of liked to see the background in shot 1 completely blurred, would of made a nice background.

Lyncca · Aug 12, 2008

I tried playing with the last one to see if I could improve it a little in PP. Everyone likes different looks, I tend to like a softer glowing look:

DeCall · Aug 12, 2008

Early said:
Perhaps you're removing the pop during the editing. What do the originals look like?

The originals don't look much different as I didn't apply much PPing on the first group I posted. Maybe I'm under PPing.

DeCall · Aug 12, 2008

Lyncca said:
I tried playing with the last one to see if I could improve it a little in PP. Everyone likes different looks, I tend to like a softer glowing look:

I really like that! What all did you do to it? I need to get over my fear of PPing...or learn to do it correctly. LOL No, her hair doesn't really have a green tint to it. :lol:

Thanks Sandshots! I will try and get another one using that as the background and just move her away a little more to blur it better.

Thanks again everyone, this helps me so much.

De