Archive 2013 · Family of Five

eloneill
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Family of Five

This is a series of shots taken of some family friends. I'm not a pro, nor do I aspire to be one, but my wife and I are expecting our first child soon and I'd like to be able to take some amazing photos. I'm shooting a D600 and a 70-200 VR2 (except a few are shot with my sig50-1.4), so I have all the gear I could hope for, now I just need to try to get my skills close to what my gear is capable of (daunting challenge). All editing done in lightroom 4 - mainly just basic sliders and a few spot removals.

I'd love some C&C (nitpicking welcome!) on this set. I know there are flaws, and I see them (I'll list what I see to be problems below) but I still only notice them in hindsight, but I'm getting better. I'd still love to hear or see things I should pay attention to, both in camera and in post

1.
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3718/10068071404_491602b892_c.jpg
2.
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5530/10068207703_6f58cba3e8_c.jpg
3.
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7341/10068071554_4b2a2ddeef_c.jpg
4.
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3805/10068209723_4076328437_c.jpg
5.
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5534/10068158936_b35382854d_c.jpg
6.
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2873/10068159196_492c4afc5f_c.jpg
7.
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2875/10068208453_44b979a8f2_c.jpg
8.
http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5474/10068208713_1c11c80f0b_c.jpg
9.
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2814/10068159876_527eeed01e_c.jpg
10.
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3829/10068160536_49650d84fc_c.jpg

Couple of questions:

In 4&10, does the hotspot on the side of their faces detract from the image?

Is the direct sun in 1 too harsh? I somewhat like it.

Couple of self nitpicks (to get you guys started!):
-Getting too soft in a few areas, like in 1 and 7.
-Elbow (!) in 2
-Tree growing out of babies head in 9
-Need to clean up the background a little more in 8
-Hotspots on left in 9
-Too much sky in a lot of them - causes hotspots
-Just noticed 6 needs to be warmed up a bit

Some of this is stuff I just don't see yet while shooting, and others is just because a moment is too fleeting and I don't have time to react to get the best possible shot.

Would love some post processing tips too! I love love love what Lisa Holloway does in her photos, and have been trying to figure out what she does (would love to do one of her training's, but I promised the wife no more major photography purchases for a year, justifiably so).

Thanks for looking!

Oct 03, 2013 at 08:06 AM

eSchwab
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Family of Five

I don't think that the hotspot is excessively hot on 4 & 10. I wish the color balance was more consistent through the set.
1 is pretty good but I think a little height difference in the heads would have made this much better.
2, like you said, the elbow looks a little weird. But maybe I only noticed it because you said it.
3 & 4 are adorable.
5 & 6 are good but need to be warmed up to match the rest of the set
7 is good but the daughter is looking at someone else.
9 A tree that out of focus never bothers me
Mostly really good with just a few things to fix. Overall it is nicely lit and well done.

Oct 03, 2013 at 08:25 AM

bbourizk
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Family of Five

You got some nice one sin there mate.
A couple of suggestions.

Your WB is all over the place, some are too cool. 5 and 6. try to keep the set consistent.

Try not to have the sky in the shots so it doesn't blow out, I think a higher shooting angle might have helped you more. 3 would have been perfect without that bright sky behind them.

The young man is very photogenic and he looks great in the photos. 4 is lovely of him and the one with his sister is very well done too (bar the WB)

8 is very sweet of the young lady.

Regards
Bud

Oct 03, 2013 at 08:38 AM

Jim Rickards
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Family of Five

Some very nice shots. Enjoyed this set.

When I scrolled down to #1, I saw and admired the 4 faces all pressed together. Then the last face appeared - off to the bottom. All I'm saying is that putting the faces together looks good and maybe get them all together. Just a thought for another time.

Oct 03, 2013 at 09:01 AM

jeremy_clay
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Family of Five

4 is awesome as much as 5 scared the hell out of me. There's some really strange inconsistencies with your processign that I can't really define..like #3 is textbook good light, color, etc. but #10 which is very similar on the surface, almost looks completely different. Not sure what to say about that except work on consistency and selection of your images.

Oct 03, 2013 at 10:27 AM

eloneill
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Family of Five

Thanks everyone! These are some great comments. I didn't even really think about matching WB's across the series. The shoot went from about 1/2 hour before to 1/2 after sunset, so my WB was changing pretty rapidly, going from very warm to pretty cool.

The comments about face placements on the family shot make a ton of sense. That was the best in terms of smiling and eye contact, but head placements is another good thing I need to pay more attention to!

As far as sky goes, do you guys go out of your way to shoot in locations that are hillier or have better tree cover? I've noticed most of the photos I really like have very little sky in the background, and I tried to balance posing them against letting them be natural, but the location was just super open (which I thought would let in some of the beautiful light).

Anyways, thanks everyone so far for the comments again.

Oct 03, 2013 at 12:36 PM

SGallant
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Family of Five

Personally this is an approach thing for me. But I hate cheese smiles.

I am sure mom and dad sat over your shoulder and told them to now go cheese, but I try and prevent that personally. Take a look at the little dudes expression in number 6, I personally like that over a cheese smile.

They are kids, play with them, make faces at them, move back and forth, make sounds. And if you are ultimately stuck and need to do a "cheese" smile try having them say pizza pie. The word forms their mouth differently and the imagery usually produces smiles on it's own. Their eyes usually light up too.

Only other thing is it's pretty clear someone was distracting the little girl in some of the shots. Honestly parents can kill a photo faster than they can make it most times...Kids tend to listen to strangers that mom and dad tell them to trust better than mom and dad or friends in instances like this.

Oct 04, 2013 at 12:33 PM


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