With Dad

[Geoff]

Having been quite busy with more family portrait shoots I haven't been around as much as I'd like to on the forum.

Here's one from a shoot last week. Taken with the non woven (portable) canvas backdrop on the stands, and the Oz Plaza 110 light with brolly, triggered from the SB800. This was PP'd on my (calibrated) CRT monitor, when I displayed it on the other LG LCD, the whites looked (not blown) but too bright. Taken with the 17-55dx.

Comments welcomed:



Taken against a painted wall in their house, small amount of PP sharpening applied and curves adjustment.



In Mum's hands:

[MHD]

Wow! those first two are topclass!

[Reschsmooth]

Geoff, you are really getting some great results with the lights (and your skills, of course )

The second is great - Mischievously innocent.

My only criticism with the first is the dad's pose - leaning forward without a shirt is not always flattering, if you know what I mean. Also, his shoulders seem brighter than his face - it looks like you have one of the lights above you pointing down? If so, if you had dad leaning back a bit more, you would get a bit more light on his face and also solve the issue I mentioned above (leadning forward). This is just my opinion, of course, based on a lot of inexperience

[Glen]

Nice work Geoff! I like them all. I wonder if it would have been possible to light Dad's face more than his body? Dad obviously walks around in the sun but with his shirt on, his face is quite a bit darker than his body, so a difficult subject. To me, due to the lightness, I find his right arm very prominent. Maybe roll him in the dirt first?

[sirhc55]

Geoff:

#1 - I agree with Patrick in that the pose is awkward - a crop up to just above the foot may help the balance. The shoulder is blown - it is showing 255 through the RGB spectrum.

#2 - A lovely shot but the whiteness of the dress detracts from the little girls face. A reflector in the little girls hands might have improved the lighting to her face.

#3 - I may be wrong here but this pic appears OOF. The blue edging to the babies top appears in focus but the face is not.

[fishafotos]

Those first two are absolute rippers! The only thing that annoys me is the 'glazed' look of her eyes in the last one. I'm not sure if it's DOF or light reflections.

[Geoff]

Thanks for the comments guys, much appreciated.

If I had more time with this shoot I would have experimented a little more with the lights, but the little girl was well, a typical 20month old, happy and sad within moments of each other. I didn't have an assistant on this shoot, so I was attempting to make her smile, get the lighting right and ensuring Dad was also looking at the camera...hard to juggle! However, that said there's been some great constructive criticism here and I may try some PP to enhance the shots a little more.

I'm really enjoying the photography side of things in my life and I feel soo lucky to be doing two things I adore Life's good!

[chrisk]

#1: very nice shot. i think dad's runners look a little out of place though. with no shirt i think bare foot would work better and suit the mood. perhaps even just a singlet to be...ahhh...more flattering...so to speak.

#2: stunning. i wouldn't change a thing. she is sooooooo gorgeous !!

#3: not sure why i don;t like this. maybe the crop ?? the angle ? i dunno. then again, i'm not a fan of newborns....not even mine. lol

[Bindii]

I lurve that first shot... but am betting that Dad will be a bit too aware of extra kilo's creeping up and stuff.. yeah we humans are a vain lot aren't we... *sigh*

The second is also great..but lacks a little detail around her eyes... and I kinda likes the baby one too.. they are sooo hard to get a good angle on for photography at that age aren't they!..