studio family shoot

[tirediron]

...Oddly, the oldest girl appears to be squinting in all three shots. This might be her natural expression, or she may be anticipating the flash, or maybe your modeling light is too bright. Mom is squinting in two of the shots as well. Watch for that, and figure out why, and make adjustments.

With the daughter, it looks like it might a natural expression. A trick I use is to ask people to physically force their eyes open as wide as they can, and ask them to hold it... and hold it... and then tell them to relax and as SOON as you tell them to let go, take the shot. You may need to this several times, but you will usually get at least one "normal" eye expression out of this.

 

[lindseydy]

Cc welcome.

This is a good example of when posting more than one shot will help with further critique. Ordinarily I recoil at someone posting half a dozen shots asking for C&C. I usually don't offer much in that case.

Here that giant watermark superimposed over one subject is right out. I presume this is one shot that the family will not receive.

The couch and most of the group is nearly centered in the frame, but one person's legs and feet are way off to one side. That pose will work in different circumstances, but not this time.

To get a more "photographic" balance in your lighting, you might try moving the PLM more to the left, and just a bit closer to your subjects, and aim it to "rake" your subject's faces more, and catch the reflector more. Think of the set as a circle, where the camera is at "six o'clock", the subjects are at 12 o'clock, your main light is at around 8 o'clock (you'll have to experiment with the exact placement) and the reflector is at 4 o'clock (same for that).

Having fixed the legs sticking way out to the right, the next thing you'll notice is that there is a lot of empty space around your subjects, particularly a lot above their heads.

Speaking for myself, I would like to see a couple more shots from this session, particularly if they are way different. If they're the same, then never mind.

I added a few more images in the thread. Thanks!!


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[lindseydy]

Thanks for the other shots. The one on top (#2?) has a very nice "line". If you connect the subject's faces, you'll see that the line goes in a nice sweep, catching all but the smallest child's face. This is good.

#3 the line is broken badly, with the boy's face being completely out of line with everybody else's face.

Oddly, the oldest girl appears to be squinting in all three shots. This might be her natural expression, or she may be anticipating the flash, or maybe your modeling light is too bright. Mom is squinting in two of the shots as well. Watch for that, and figure out why, and make adjustments.

Yeah, too bad they aren't all dressed to coordinate. That really spoils the whole session.

Would #3 have been better if I had swapped the boy with the girl next to him? Or scrap this pose all together in the future?

And yes, oldest girl and mom naturally have very squinty eyes.

 

[Designer]

Would #3 have been better if I had swapped the boy with the girl next to him? Or scrap this pose all together in the future?

For that shot, yes.

To be sure, there are other considerations beyond "making a line", but I mentioned it mostly because you missed it rather obviously in #3. That's unfortunately the way some people give criticism; we see 20 things done well, and one done poorly, so we're likely to mention just that one thing done poorly. It doesn't mean that's the most important thing, just that we assume you paid attention to the 20 things you did right, so there is no point in mentioning them. I hope I haven't confused you.

 

[lindseydy]

Would #3 have been better if I had swapped the boy with the girl next to him? Or scrap this pose all together in the future?

For that shot, yes.

To be sure, there are other considerations beyond "making a line", but I mentioned it mostly because you missed it rather obviously in #3. That's unfortunately the way some people give criticism; we see 20 things done well, and one done poorly, so we're likely to mention just that one thing done poorly. It doesn't mean that's the most important thing, just that we assume you paid attention to the 20 things you did right, so there is no point in mentioning them. I hope I haven't confused you.

I greatly value constructive criticism. If I wanted a pat on the back I would have just showed my mom the image. Thanks for your help.

 

[JustJazzie]

For whatever its worth- If it were my family portrait, I would be very pleased!

 

[lindseydy]

For whatever its worth- If it were my family portrait, I would be very pleased!

Thank you!!

 

[ronlane]

...Oddly, the oldest girl appears to be squinting in all three shots. This might be her natural expression, or she may be anticipating the flash, or maybe your modeling light is too bright. Mom is squinting in two of the shots as well. Watch for that, and figure out why, and make adjustments.

With the daughter, it looks like it might a natural expression. A trick I use is to ask people to physically force their eyes open as wide as they can, and ask them to hold it... and hold it... and then tell them to relax and as SOON as you tell them to let go, take the shot. You may need to this several times, but you will usually get at least one "normal" eye expression out of this.

Something similar to this that I use to avoid blinking and closed eyes is to have them shut their eyes and when I count to 3 have them open their eyes. I go 1,2,3,click and get good results with eyes that are open.

 

[photo1x1.com]

Very nice images in my opinion. In the last few years, there is a trend to more natural looking people rather than posed shots, and you nailed it. It seems your communication with the people was great, they look as if they feel comfortable, which is the most important thing in my opinion. The light can be slightly off, so can be the clothing. But what I do care for is the expression.

Light and clothing can be fixed rather easily, communication is something you need to have some talent for .

If I were to critic something, it is the posing. The boy and the younger girl in the second image look a little strange posingwise. What I do if I see things like that (especially with kids) is not to tell them exactly how they should sit, but tell them to do something weird, like shout out loud at me, using their hands as a megaphone (well, I take a snap of these too of course ). Once they are finished, they usually sit rather naturally compared to the shy posture before.

In general you seem to know what you are doing, I just looked at your website - I like your style. One tip in this regard: try to get a tool that will allow your visitors to enlarge the thumbnails in the gallery.

 

[lindseydy]

Very nice images in my opinion. In the last few years, there is a trend to more natural looking people rather than posed shots, and you nailed it. It seems your communication with the people was great, they look as if they feel comfortable, which is the most important thing in my opinion. The light can be slightly off, so can be the clothing. But what I do care for is the expression.

Light and clothing can be fixed rather easily, communication is something you need to have some talent for .

If I were to critic something, it is the posing. The boy and the younger girl in the second image look a little strange posingwise. What I do if I see things like that (especially with kids) is not to tell them exactly how they should sit, but tell them to do something weird, like shout out loud at me, using their hands as a megaphone (well, I take a snap of these too of course ). Once they are finished, they usually sit rather naturally compared to the shy posture before.

In general you seem to know what you are doing, I just looked at your website - I like your style. One tip in this regard: try to get a tool that will allow your visitors to enlarge the thumbnails in the gallery.

Thank you so much!! I am actually in the process of redoing my website and will be sure to make my gallery images larger.

 

[DanOstergren]

Love the first shot. Everyone looks good and the body language and expressions look natural. To me, there seems to be a green tint. I'm not sure if it was added in post or was the result of the white balance settings, but I'm not a fan of the look. I would personally go with warmer tones. I'm also seeing a bit of a faded look to the tonal range, which I think the shot would be better without (I like images with a less edited look, especially family photos). All in all though I would be really happy if I hired you and got these shots (if I had kids and a family of course).