Impact of Portraits

[jacsul]

Hey everyone,
I've been practicing portraits over the weekend and would like some input on which of these has more impact. IMO, I feel #2 has the most impact, I don't know why.

[heather4279]

I like number 1. There's less distraction.

[crisscross]

Hi

when I do such for my grand-children portraitists usually say 'OK for a candid'. Suspect they mean it derogatively.

However, I love no 3 of the group as it catches her 'in action' and not self-conscious as when looking directly at the camera. Ideally with kids this age it is even better to catch them not knowing you are at it at all, actually my grand-daughter, this sort of age, tries to avoid it by running towards me - gets great shots if I can adjust fast enough as they are full of animation.

Maybe no 2 is the nearest to a 'portrait' as usually understood. Both 2 and 3 are good at the eyes, which is indeed important.

[kevinbythebeach]

For me the pics are too bright especial the one with her behind the railing...looks like u were using flash...id try darker sourrondings.....

[Wirefox]

No1 for me although I agree with Kevin that the flash is a little harsh. Have you tried reflectors and/or off camera flash you may be pleasantly surprised at the creativity it provides. Having said that it may be difficult to avoid shadows from the bars. Perhaps stopping down the flash a little would diminish the harshness in this case. Although 2 and 3 are lovely captures of the little girl the swing seat is shouting 'BLUE' amidst the soft whispers of the other tones in the image. Nicely exposed though.

[Geoff F]

If you are attempting totally natural action shots of children you will have to accept a little bit of technical imperfection. That photo competition winning shot may come along once in a while but for most of the time you will have to settle for these 90% perfect images; which in reality, are pretty darned good.

So of the 3. No. 1, 'Behind Bars', is a lively action shot but any bars will always look distracting. Unless it is a shot of someone in prison!

No. 2, 'Please Help Me' is in my opinion, the best technically speaking but she looks ever so sad.

No. 3, 'Forget It, I'll Do It Myself', looks the most natural to me and although there is a tiny bit of motion blur I think that this image says more about her personality; so that would be my choice.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Jack,

Steve (wirefox) has a valid point about BLUE!

I wonder if it would be possible to 'select' the blue and bring just it down in saturation, and possibly luminance too. My PP skills aren't up to it.
Another idea would be to monochrome everything but the girl (isn't that a song title? )

My vote goes for 2 or 3.

Cheers,

[Colin Southern]

Hi Jac (Is it Jac or Jack?),

To be honest, all 3 have something that's very distracting, although #1 less so. Would you be able to shoot them again with just the greenery behind her (preferably at least slightly out of focus) (so reasonably wide aperture (F4 - F5.6 max)?

The other thing is you've got a colour-management issue with the shots - the skin tones in #1 are (along with a few other minor issues) a bit problematic and shots 2 & 3 are showing too much magenta; can you tell us about your workflow so we can try to work out where the problem is?

[taken]

well.........u must not stop practising what you started with such lovely kids,catching them in unusual or funny expression,or smiling,or even crying,or sulking etc would be fantastic my favorite would be the first pic

[Antonio Correia]

What can I say after all these super comments ?
The one i like best is number 2
May be you could correct the colors a bit as the face looks too magenta ...