Some more family snaps

[Simonch]

Really enjoying my D5300, especially the 35mm prime lens!!

Took a few more snaps, let me know what you think.

Si

 

[tirediron]

Nice family memories. Flat light is safe light, but it's generally NOT exciting light. Try pushing your boundaries a little and working on compositions which include full sun and shadow. Beach sand can make a great reflector, so pleasing light could be as simple as turning your models a bit one way or the other.

 

[Simonch]

Nice family memories. Flat light is safe light, but it's generally NOT exciting light. Try pushing your boundaries a little and working on compositions which include full sun and shadow. Beach sand can make a great reflector, so pleasing light could be as simple as turning your models a bit one way or the other.

Tirediron, thanks for that! So for shooting in full sunlight, what would your advice be? At present i've generally been shooting in aperture priority as I find it easy to manage, and get well composed shots. Appreciate the feedback!

Si

 

[Derrel]

Aperture-priority automatic is generally pretty reliable with a modern Nikon d-slr. Flat light at the beach is what it is...shoot in it if that's what is there, and on some days, that's what there is...flat,even lighting. I do not mind it at all on family shots like these.

The shot of the woman from behind as the kids frolic in the surf in front of her--good idea! Perhaps not the very strongest composition/placement of the figures, but an excellent idea, and one that is well,well worth shooting more shots of.

Yes, the high-speed, meaning maximum aperture value of f/1.8, 35mm prime lens is a nice piece of equipment to have these days, especially now that we have good, usable ISO 800 to 2,000 cameras. Back in the day, maximum usable, good color pictures were at ISO 400, and anything faster was marginal. Today, you can close down the lens from f/1.8 a little bit, to f/2.0, or to f/2.2 or to f/2.5, just a little bit closed down from wide-open, and can get very high quality images, plus a tiny sliver more depth of field at the 10 to 20-feet distances.

You asked what we think. One observation; you are in most of these, leaving a little bit too much "top space", above the people. Shots 1 and 2 have slightly awkward use of the compositional space. In shot 1, your daughter is too low in the frame, and her eyes are at the center-line height of the horizontal frame,and her chin is way low in the frame--this is because there was "too much top space" allocated. In shot #2, of the three kids, big sister's head is very close to the top of the frame, a tree sprouts from the head of one child, and Barbie is cropped off; shot #2 really cried out for a vertical framing, and two or three big steps to the right, to eliminate the tree out of head, before framing up the group. A vertical would have also gotten Barbie into the picture. As-shot, photo #2 is too tightly-framed.

Shots 3,4,5,and 6 all have too much top space for maximum compositional impact. The best thing is....they can be cropped and still make fine shots. THAT is the true beauty of a sharp prime lens, and a 24-million-pixel camera...there is a huge degree of post-capture cropping that can be done. I just want to point out however, that not every compositional decision can later be improved upon by cropping.

You've got a fine camera, and a great-looking family. I encourage you to keep shooting the family pictures, no matter what. Here are a couple of crops, trying to demonstrate the amount of top space and or cropping that are easily possible with files made b y your D5300's 24-MP sensor.

This shot was tricky to crop, but I did crop it and rotate it a slight bit, and did a one-click white balance on the white of her eye, which mostly corrected the under-trees color cast of the original, and I did a little highlight recovery on the light-dapple that hits the top of her head. This type of lighting is very difficult to expose, and this is not a "perfect" edit...it's perhaps too bright to represent reality, but it is what it is, a wonderful family memory shot.

Cropped, and corrected the pincushion distortion of the horizon in Lightroom. The crop brings more attention to the woman watching the kids.

 

[Simonch]

Aperture-priority automatic is generally pretty reliable with a modern Nikon d-slr. Flat light at the beach is what it is...shoot in it if that's what is there, and on some days, that's what there is...flat,even lighting. I do not mind it at all on family shots like these.

The shot of the woman from behind as the kids frolic in the surf in front of her--good idea! Perhaps not the very strongest composition/placement of the figures, but an excellent idea, and one that is well,well worth shooting more shots of.

Yes, the high-speed, meaning maximum aperture value of f/1.8, 35mm prime lens is a nice piece of equipment to have these days, especially now that we have good, usable ISO 800 to 2,000 cameras. Back in the day, maximum usable, good color pictures were at ISO 400, and anything faster was marginal. Today, you can close down the lens from f/1.8 a little bit, to f/2.0, or to f/2.2 or to f/2.5, just a little bit closed down from wide-open, and can get very high quality images, plus a tiny sliver more depth of field at the 10 to 20-feet distances.

You asked what we think. One observation; you are in most of these, leaving a little bit too much "top space", above the people. Shots 1 and 2 have slightly awkward use of the compositional space. In shot 1, your daughter is too low in the frame, and her eyes are at the center-line height of the horizontal frame,and her chin is way low in the frame--this is because there was "too much top space" allocated. In shot #2, of the three kids, big sister's head is very close to the top of the frame, a tree sprouts from the head of one child, and Barbie is cropped off; shot #2 really cried out for a vertical framing, and two or three big steps to the right, to eliminate the tree out of head, before framing up the group. A vertical would have also gotten Barbie into the picture. As-shot, photo #2 is too tightly-framed.

Shots 3,4,5,and 6 all have too much top space for maximum compositional impact. The best thing is....they can be cropped and still make fine shots. THAT is the true beauty of a sharp prime lens, and a 24-million-pixel camera...there is a huge degree of post-capture cropping that can be done. I just want to point out however, that not every compositional decision can later be improved upon by cropping.

You've got a fine camera, and a great-looking family. I encourage you to keep shooting the family pictures, no matter what. Here are a couple of crops, trying to demonstrate the amount of top space and or cropping that are easily possible with files made b y your D5300's 24-MP sensor.


View attachment 161759

This shot was tricky to crop, but I did crop it and rotate it a slight bit, and did a one-click white balance on the white of her eye, which mostly corrected the under-trees color cast of the original, and I did a little highlight recovery on the light-dapple that hits the top of her head. This type of lighting is very difficult to expose, and this is not a "perfect" edit...it's perhaps too bright to represent reality, but it is what it is, a wonderful family memory shot.

View attachment 161758

Cropped, and corrected the pincushion distortion of the horizon in Lightroom. The crop brings more attention to the woman watching the kids.

An awesome, very detailed reply for which I am very grateful. I like your edit of young Ava's picture, the colours have come out really nicely. I've watched many a youtube video, but don't find photoshop comes naturally to me. Would love to spend a couple of hours with photos of my own, to get some pointers from someone! maybe one day.

Some good points and a lot to think about for me re cropping and composition. Keep an eye out for my future shots!

cheers,

Si