Mother and daughter

[peterb533]

From same occasion as last one, Abigail's birthday party.

[Donald]

Peter

I'm no portraitist, so am not the person to give any technical criticism, beyond suggesting that it is maybe a little flat and could use some post-processing to give it more 'pop'.

But I can comment that I think the composition is wonderful. Conveys a lovely sense of happiness and affection.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Peter,

Lovely shot, but I agree with Donald, a quick look at the histogram shows the black point could be raised to approx. 20 without clipping anything noticeable. That said, I had a quick look and didn't do that, instead I lowered the output whitepoint so I could apply some local contrast enhancement without losing more detail in the highlights.



Unfortunately, this has not helped some things; like the mixed lighting and enhancing the saturation on Mum's face. I did some dodging there - I should stick to non portraits for that kinda thing I think.

Hope it helps anyway, even if only because you now know what not to do

Cheers,

[Colin Southern]

Any better?

[jiro]

A very nice and very emotional portrait shot, Peter. Black and white conversion works very well with people photography and I think this image will work nicely with b&w, too. One possible edit if you may:



You have a very good eye for timing and composition. If you have enough time to interact with your client (or was this your family?) you can use a white reflector camera left to open up the shadow on the mother's eyes. Congratulations on a very nice image, Sir.

[peterb533]

Thanks Colin, Donald and Jiro, all good treatments. I had intended to do some more to it before I uploaded but ran out of time (very busy at work). They are family, dauther-in-law Georgina and her daughter Abigail and shot at her 7th birthday party. I usually wander round at these affairs looking for opportunities to get some shots. See also Cat girl from same session.

[Colin Southern]

Hi Peter,

Almost forgot to mention ...

When you've got significantly different focal planes like this, F3.2 just ain't gunna cut it - I'd have been using at least F5.6 if not F8 to ensure both were sharp.

[speedneeder]

I Agree with Donald, Willie, and Colin (though I would stick with color personally).
While there is an exposure/contrast issue, Colin does a great job of showing what the image is capable of.
This is a great capture of a great moment that you and your family can treasure for a long time.