First off, these children are very very cute. As for the photographs, 1, 2, & 3, the lighting and white balance is way off. I think the first one you could convert to B&W and lighten it up a bit. The second shot, the left side of her face 9our right) is not only cut off, but too dark. Actually the whole photo is too dark. The 3rd photo had the white balance been corrected and lighten the photo, this wold be a very nice shot. The 4th shot is tech. very nice. He's a beautiful little boy. You did cut off his foot and the road going through the head takes away from the photo. Maybe get down lower to take this shot. You seem to have the eye, you just need to work on the lighting. I hope I was helpful and not hurtful. I just want to help.
If you want to charge for them they need improvement.
1: Too harsh of flash and shadows from flash. WB is off, background is distracting and really bad angle for the photo. Use a softbox or something to soften the light and move it away from the camera. A reflector will also help with the shadow as will distance from background.
2: Too underexposed and removing the side of the head does not help the photo.
3:Under exposed and you cut off her fingers. Keep all the hand or crop tighter above the elbow. Avoid crops below elbow.
4: Better light. This is about the exposure you need to look for both inside and outside. Again you cut off half a foot. Crop tighter just between fingers and knee or leave the whole foot. Background is distracting. My eye goes to the street/grass line before the child and child should be the main if not the only focus.
If you crop tighter, remove the extra head space, fill street area with grass you would have a much better photo. Also remove tree as it does not add the the image.
Hi there! Are these your kids? They are very cute! I agree with everything jefferies1 and fstop212 have said. The first three have a very "flashed" look, and they are very unexposed and need WB adjustments. I think kids look best in a natural environment with "natural-looking" light. Flash can be used (which I use a lot), but try to blend it with ambient if you do use flash. I would practice with some window light and foam board or bounced flash off a wall.
I appreciate everything you guys said and I can learn from it. This will help me a lot if I want to start doing this. By the way the boy is my son and the other is my god daughter. Thanks a lot guys!
What will you recommend for inexpensive studio light kit? Would you prefer continous or flash? Thanks again!
I would learn using outdoor light and window / doorway light. Both continous so you can learn to read the light and see how it will look in the photo. After you learn exposure. White balance and angles that look good add in a reflector. That will be a whole new lighting look to learn from. After you can grab the camera and read the light without thinking about it buy the best stobes you can find and copy the look. I would say buying them now will add to the confusion and not get the results wanted.You will end up with expensive snap shots, not portraits. One step at a time is best and a lot cheaper.Cheap equipment does not work well and just makes learning a lot harder. Even your on camera flash can be made to look amazing...its all about knowing how to use the light.
Continous light that works is very costly. I use it a lot and love it. High quality strobes will be less or the same cost. I use them also and sometimes at the same time depending on the project. You stilll need to learn how light looks before continous or strobes will work to your advantage.
