Need opinion. My first portraits

[GrimTheRipper]

Hello guys, I need your opinion on how I did with my first portraits on my little 2nd cousins.








Your opinion would be very helpful. Also, I noticed that some of the pictures color are too rich or something. I might need some tweak to do with the colors.

[Colin Southern]

Hi Alan,

Good start, but you've got a few issues going on there; the one that I noticed first is that your white balancing and saturation are significantly "out of whack" - I picked one of your images at random and adjusted both the white balance and saturation ... what do you think?



Unfortunately you've also got quite a lot of colour spill from baby's brightly coloured frock that's bounced up into both her and Mum's face - pretty hard to fix that, unfortunately.

[GrimTheRipper]

It actually look a bit better to chill down the colors a bit. I still got so much practice to do. I never actually do portraits before, but had it tried at my best today. It was so bright otuside and 104* that time.

Also, I noticed that my netbook color is a bit weaker than my desktop. I can see a huge different between both monitor. So, I had it fixed on my desktop. So, I felt like this one look a lot better than the first one I posted. Oh and please, ignore my signature. Just wanted to put my name on it for facebook.



Oh, and I had it changed to B&W and it look better that way. Pretty sure someone won't like it due to the vignette.



EDIT- Oh and Colin, thank you for your help.

[wilgk]

But the vignette in this case helps draw our attention to their eyes - so I like it.

[carregwen]

Alan

Did you shoot these in RAW or JPEG? As Colin said, the colours are quite a bit out, and if you can't quite get it right in-camera then RAW may save the day. As for general comment, I'll just comment on the second one. It's a nice situation, but the light is wrong. There are bright areas on the lawn which draw the eye, when what the viewer should be looking at is the subjects. The girl at the rear is in quite a bit of shadow.

I know it's tricky working with kids and animals as they are difficult to direct into certain places and poses (and you don't want it looking false), but try to avoid intrusive objects such as the truck at the side of the girl's head. Best to have a good look at the general scene first, especially the backdrop - if it's not suitable choose somewhere else. I think at least one of the girls should be looking directly at the camera.

Two people of equal status in a shot is always tricky - either one or three works better. With two you are never sure which one is dominant in the scene, and if they are similar the viewer's eye flits between the two.The exception is something like mother and daughter where you get a dialogue between them, and in such cases two works well. It doesn't really work here because the two girls are not interacting with each other, and are looking off-frame.

Good try though. Keep practising, trying different scenarios and positions. Do you have a flash-gun?

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Alan,

I agree with Colin's and Rob's excellent advice, but I'll try not to go over that again.

The 104 degrees obviously didn't help as it produced flushed cheeks adding to the 'bounce' off the pink clothes.

Also, even if the models are in the shade as here, if they are looking out into a bright sunny area, there will still be a tendency for them to squint a little.

However, it is a good start; you've obviously made some effort with the backgrounds by keeping them simple and de-focused and you don't have the subjects in bright sunshine.

Cheers,

[PopsPhotos]

The comments you have already received are spot on, so I'll throw a little monkey into the mix.

Background, background, background.

Shooting people, kids, pets and passing birds doesn't always give you the option of choosing a nice, neutral background. However, one can use bokeh to neutralize many of the distractions. However, let's take a look at # 1 and # 2.

In #1, the break line of the seat runs right through the baby's head. A towell thrown over the seat would have masked that.

In #2, the taller girl has a stick penetrating her skull. That looks very painful. A little clone work or a step left or right at shutter time can fix that.

That said, your capture of the facial expressions and the feeling of the moment is spot on. Don't stop now!

Pops

[Rafael]

I'm going to post my very first picture on my D5000 (yeaaah it finally got here!)
I'd love to have some advise on it
PS: I don't have a photoshop or any similar softwares, though I intend to acquire one soon or later


http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/994/dsc0014y.jpg