Majestictone Offline Upload & Sell: On
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EverLearning wrote:
Majesticone, I don't normally take portraits either (unless it is a bird or (non-human) mammal), so take this with a grain of salt.
With the exception of the last photo, you captured the family with pleasing, happy expressions. I would say the biggest issue is the selection of setting for the photo session. You have poles out of shoulders, tree trunks out of heads and branches out of ears. Despite having a very fast lens that should produce soft backgrounds, for the most part there isn't enough separation from the subjects and the b/g. The first and last photos would benefit from fill flash to address the high contrast areas and all photos would probably benefit from fill flash in order to produce catch lights in the eyes. Fill flash would also make the subjects a little brighter without brightening the b/g, which is another way of creating separation from the b/g.
The first three photos have hot spots in the b/g that pull the eye away from the family. Looking at the second photo in particular, I wonder if changing your position by 90 degrees or so to the left wouldn't have cured two problems (the chairs around the table would also need to be changed by 90 degrees or so). First, it would have eliminated the tree coming out of the girl's head and second, it would have done away with the very bright spot in the b/g. Perhaps you considered this though, and there were even bigger challenges with changing the position like this.
A good ROT (Rule of Thumb) somebody once told me is that the more people in a group, the more photos you need to take in each arrangement/position; and not just linearly more. The chances of somebody having their eyes closed, their mouth open, scratching their nose, turning to say something to somebody, etc goes up exponentially. I don't see any of these issues in your photos, so all good there!
Taking posed, formal photos of people is more difficult than it might seem at first glance. As somebody into nature/wildlife, it is something I never found great joy in. I remember years ago in a camera club, a fellow who did a lot of wildlife and landscape was asked (in the context of wedding photography and portrait photography) if he ever shot people. His response was "only if they really annoy me."!
Don
BTW, I really like the pose in the fourth photo; especially that of the young girl. She is joyfully, lovingly hugging her mother (?). Very touching....Show more →
Thank You Don,
Normally when these types of sessions, I rather take candid and non assuming captures and I did manage to get those as well, I am in the process of still editing this session,,
Thanks
Albert
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