Had a lovely family shoot in Riverside Park, Jacksonville. This family is soooo lovely. I'll be doing more maternity photos for them, labor & delivery, newborn, and dedication photos for them as well!
I'd love to hear critiques! More than anything I'd like to continue photographing families and kids.
These are very pleasant. My criticism is that we never see the father's eyes. That, in my mind, prevents the sort of connection I'd like to make with the family in this kind of work.
ESC in KC wrote:
I like #10 and 14. But many of these have poor white balance and are out of focus.
What would you say is off about the white balance? Too warm, too green? Which ones don't fit and which ones look spot on? I know I missed focus on #13 (blaahh), but which others look out of focus to you?
Ha, sorry for all the questions, would just be nice to know more than that.
John Caldwell wrote:
These are very pleasant. My criticism is that we never see the father's eyes. That, in my mind, prevents the sort of connection I'd like to make with the family in this kind of work.
John Caldwell
Thank you! I agree - I'll keep that in mind for next time.
For the OOF shots, 2, 4, 8, 13, and 14 are either soft, or the focus point is not in the eyes. Maybe stopping down a step or two when they are all together can help be sure everyone's eyes are sharp (e.g., #4).
For WB, I saw a greenish tint in a few of them but I am not at my calibrated monitor at the moment so I shouldn't try and pick them out again.
I would go the other route and shoot wide open. There's just no separation between the subjects and the background. Since the shoot was done with just ambient light, your DOF needs to be shallow to make them really pop out. Some photogs manipulate off camera light extremely well and can make the subjects contrast strongly from the background, allowing them to get away with a deeper DOF. Colors also seems muted, and not in a "desaturated-effect" kind of look.
