Taking portraits of my kids - Suggestions and C+C

[jfrabat]

Here is my first shot at taking a portrait (setting up lighting and background), and I would like some suggestions on how to improve it. First of all, here is how I set up for this picture (I feel I need to tell you what I did so that you can correct me and I can improve my technique, right?): I went out to the terrace (roofed area with metal fence all around), and hung up and old bed sheet on the area facing east so that light would not creep up behind. Because the bed sheet was backlit, it looked a bit transparent, so I placed a flash unit in front of it (behind the kids) to light it from the front. To the right of the camera is the natural light, and I used another flash unit to the left to get some fill light in the darker areas (I used a Sto-Fen diffuser to take a bit of the harshness out). I set up the seats about 6 or 7 feet in front of the background to blur the background (it was all wrinkled up, and I did not want to show that).



By the way, it is pretty hard to have the kids sit down for long periods, so I had to make a deal with them; the let me take 3 pics, then I sit down and THEY take 3 pics. We did this 3 times, and they then got bored, so I only got about 10 pics to work with...

As for the camera setup, this is what I used:

Camera: Sony SLT-A77
Flash 1 (behind the kids): HVL-F58AM
Flash 2 (left of pic): HVL-F43
Lens: SAL1680Z (Zeiss)
Focal Length: 80mm
Aperture: f/4.5
Shutter Speed: 1/60 Sec
Focus: Auto focus used

I feel maybe a bit higher ISO and a bit less aperture (maybe f/8.0 or so) would have been better, but what do you guys think? (I do not had the time to review it in detail while shooting, so I just kept on shooting, but I noticed this in the monitor when processing the pic.) How do I make it better?

Felipe

 

[cgipson1]

Flash? Looks like there was a lot of incandescent influence, as they are very yellow. The blue background could have done that too.. if they camera tried to compensate for it. Definitely appears to have some mixed lighting issues. You need umbrellas or softboxes... a large light source would help immensely, that stofen doesn't cut it!

I added 41 points of blue, and 1 point of cyan (calibrated monitor)

 

[jfrabat]

Defenetly better... There were no incandescent bulbs, but it could be a bad white balance, as I adjusted it manually (in a non-calibrated monitor; ie. my TV, which is what my PC is hooked up to!).

I have yet to get a bigger source (umbrella or softbox). I am looking for something that I can use with my stock flash units, though, as I dont want to spend a ton of money on lighting (I do not use it often, so I do not think it would be a good investment for me, specially now that the budget is kind of stretched out as it is). In this sense, is there any specific ones you would recommend? Or would that be just throwing my money away?

Also, as far as composition, any other comments? I know the focus is a tad soft around the mouth of my daughter, but aside from that, any other advice? I am trying to learn, so any advice is appreciated!

 

[jfrabat]

Bump. Any other suggestions?

 

[michael9000000]

Bump. Any other suggestions?

When i look at your daughter's hand on your son's shoulder, I see a small bunch of stray hairs, plus something else I can't identify... Perhaps it's your daughter's wristwatch? I think these minor details take away from what is otherwise an admirable effort.

Your children are cute!

 

[Designer]

I don't mind commenting, but please realize that I am not an accomplished photog, so take it for what it's worth.

You might try a bounce flash off a large white reflector such as foamcore. Setting all this up will take some ingenuity, like some kind of jury-rigged stand to hold the foamcore, so here is another free suggestion: next time you want to try this, don't call the children in until you get everything set up. You can practice on some inanimate object, like a couple of stuffed toys, or whatever, until you need the models to come in.

Let the camera set the white balance automatically, or shoot a "grey card", also before the children are in position. On my computer, I cannot say for sure if I see soft focus, but yes, try a smaller aperture next time as well.

As for the pose, I wish the boy's head wasn't tilted the same direction as the girl's. The only suggestion that I might make at this time is to seat the children a little bit more apart, so the boy's head can be either straight up, or even tilted a little toward his sister's head. They can touch their heads together, for instance, or almost touching. That thing on the boy's shoulder is distracting, so if it is the girl's wristwatch, or something, ask her to remove it.

They are definitely cute kids, and it looks as if they really don't mind posing. I think your choice of colors here is very good. Both the background and the choice of clothing. Congratulations!

 

[dxqcanada]

Increasing the shutter speed will lower the exposure of the ambient light. This will not affect the exposure by the flashes (that is controlled by aperture).

You should have kicked the aperture up by one stop ... looks a bit soft.

Lower ISO is better ... less noise.

 

[jfrabat]

Increasing the shutter speed will lower the exposure of the ambient light. This will not affect the exposure by the flashes (that is controlled by aperture).

You should have kicked the aperture up by one stop ... looks a bit soft.

Lower ISO is better ... less noise.

ISO was 100... I did not notice any noise in the pic. But I agree with you regarding shutter speed and aperture...