Recent family portrait... the Besties!!! C&C welcome

[Brinr]

Quick two hour session. One off camera 580 exii triggered by pocket wizards. Let me know what you think... I especially want to know about the processing.


#1 I did serious stray hair removal on the young lady, is it noticeable?



7_16_11 Hall Family Portrait water 013 by Brinr, on Flickr


#2



7_16_11 Hall Family Portrait water 010 by Brinr, on Flickr


#3 this one sucked, composite of 8 images each flashed individually.



7_16_11 Hall Family Portrait water 006 by Brinr, on Flickr


#4 Had the guys stand in the water...



7_16_11 Hall Family Portrait water 0052 by Brinr, on Flickr

 

[Tony S]

The light from your strobe is a bit too white on the faces and skin tones. Try using a gel on your flash to add a bit of warmth to skin tones. A CTO 1/4 would be a good start.

 

[EPPhoto]

Flash just needs dialed back a tad.

 

[Rebekah5280]

Ooooh! I like #3 a lot! I'm always trying to "squish" my subjects together.. I like this idea!

 

[KBM1016]

Be careful of the squinting especially in #4. The other thing you have to watch for is the glare of flashes on glasses. That gets me everytime! Otherwise, nice set.

 

[Brinr]

Thanks for the comments you guys! I will consider all these tips!

 

[dab_20]

I also think the flash is just a tad too bright in this set. Love the idea of number 3 as well, showing them as individual people, and then 4 shows them as a family unit.

I'd say the lighting looks difficult, and you did a good job with what you had to work with.

 

[Robin Usagani]

Invest on an ND filter man. It would look a lot nicer if you open up the aperture more on 1, 2, and 4.

 

[Brinr]

Invest on an ND filter man. It would look a lot nicer if you open up the aperture more on 1, 2, and 4.

Will do... I don't have much for fast glass yet so I worked with the aperture I had.

About the flash, what do ya'll think about having the subjects exposed a little more than the background in order to separate them from it and attract the viewer more directly to the subject. Wouldn't turning down the flash darken their faces and push them into the background thus losing them into a darker scene?

Flash on glasses sucks, my bad on that one.

 

[Tony S]

That's why I liked the flash look that you had, although you did have a little room to play with to keep the separation. I just felt that at that strength it needed a bit of warming.

 

[Robin Usagani]

No I mean because you use ND filter, you can open up the lens more because you are stuck around F/7.1 with 1/200. You could have shot it with the widest aperture you have if you had a .9ND filter.

 

[Brinr]

Oh ok got ya... thanks Schwetty.

 

[kundalini]

Nice series. Beautiful location.

About the flash, what do ya'll think about having the subjects exposed a little more than the background in order to separate them from it and attract the viewer more directly to the subject. Wouldn't turning down the flash darken their faces and push them into the background thus losing them into a darker scene?

As long as it's not too much it's okay. In your examples I believe it's too much. You can tell that your models are nicely backlit, but also have a very hard shadows from the flash coming from the opposite (near enough) direction. If possible, you could underexpose the background by ~1 stop, bring your lighting in just out of frame, and use a modifer to soften (increase the size) of your light source. As contrasty as your light is and as crisp as the shadows are, I'd hazard a guess that it was bare flash. You could also add reflectors to lessen the shadows.

Flash on glasses sucks, my bad on that one.

Google Angle of Reflection = Angle of Incidence

 

[quiddity]

is there anything one could do to frame / minimize the brightness in 4 on the left from the water

 

[Brinr]

Kundalini thanks for the link... that's awesome. Ya the flash probably should have been placed more "head on" and from a higher location. I have a 24x24 softbox and umbrella bu the wind was having a hay day with those, even with a 20lb sand bag so I just put a slip on modifyer and went from there. Reflectors also a great tip, but wind and lack of assistant were a few of my limitations.

Quiddity... I think Shwetty's idea with an nd filter would help that a lot and I think either "re framing" the shot (as you said) and pulling the exposure down would help a great deal.

You guys rule thanks for all the help!