My boys

AirThom

Showing off some of my pictures I'm proud of, would appreciate any constructive feedback...


Sam, I love catching his teeth showing...


I'm not sure what they were talking about, but I wanted to grab this Big Brother/Little Brother moment.


The focus being on the shoe bothers me about this one, but the expressions are still great.


I loved what the static did to his hair, luckily the sunlight helped me capture it.


I think I overdid the levels adjustment on his teeth... also, should I brush the edges down on the whites of his eyes?

Thanks for looking at my photos and I look forward to any input to improve these and future shots.

AirThom

Anyone?

AirThom

AirThom wrote:

Anyone?

Sorry, new here... did I put too many diverse photos together in this thread to get input? Should I retry with a specific question as my subject and then post photos that are along that question? :help

WingsOfLovePhoto

AirThom wrote:

Sorry, new here... did I put too many diverse photos together in this thread to get input? Should I retry with a specific question as my subject and then post photos that are along that question? :help

Sorry you aren't getting any feedback...it comes and goes around here! I really hate when I don't get it so I'll give it a go...and try to be gentle but take it for what it's worth...just another persons opinion....

First off...ADORABLE children! The look like a lot of fun :ivar

#1 picture I like a lot.. the best out of all of them... maybe a little too tightly cropped but cute none the less...

#2 the pattern on the youngest guys shirt seems to be the most focused part of the picture. Looks like maybe you were trying to grab the shot and got a little camera shake? could use a bit more contrast on the conversion.. try www.atncentral.com if you have photoshop and download (free) Robin's light tone action...works great and customizable.

#3 Again a focus issue? seems the shoe is the focus point and the baby's face is blurred. Love the action of it and facial expressions. conversion is a little muddy and dull.

#4 cute face! too much going on in the background and the light casting weird colors onto the face.

#5 Cropped a little too low on the forehead for my taste. Aperature might have been a little too small with the blur on far eye and...Yes...teeth a little too bright (the best way i know how to brighten teeth is to magnetic lasso them, use the hue/saturation slider. click on yellows then desaturate and lighten a little. works a much more subtly than the levels slider) b/w conversion is much better on this one but I'm not liking the selective coloring on the eyes... this is much more of a dramatic usage on people with blue eyes for some reason... I think it is because the brown/gray/black stuff just doesn't meld too well..

Sorry if any of this offended you...I mean it only to be constructive.... Keep shooting and posting! Thats the way we all get better!

Scott_Quier

- welcome!!!

- Adorable children - but aren't they all?

I don't want to seem to be harsh, but maybe one reason why you didn't get much in the way of C&C is that these look like family snapshots - which have their place. But, people are hesitant to look too critically at such - family snaps are about memories not so much about photography.

All that being said, I'll take a go at it, looking at these with a more critical eye:

1. Cute shot - nice expression. Needs some light into the eyes - maybe use an external flash for that. A bit more context (what was he doing) would increase the general interest.
2. Focus - you have the focus on little brother's shirt. It needs to at least be on the near eye. Once you have that, a little smaller aperture and you would have both eyes. Big brother's head being OOF is not a problem - one would expect that.
3. Focus on shoe ruins this one. Aside from the memory potential, this is a cull.
4. Centered - Crop a bit from the top and the one of the sides. Doing so will eliminate much of the bright background and help to focus attention on his face/hair.
5. Yup - you went nuclear on his eyes and teeth. On the color version, I would use the magic lasso, feathered to selec the teeth and the whites of the eyes and then, using a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer reduce the saturation of the yellows and reds. On the same layer with the same selection, maybe lighting those same yellows and reds. Run both of these "too far". Then adjust the opacity of the adjustment to make it look right. Once you have that, and any other edits (like the tip of his nose ), complete - then do the conversion to B&W.

AirThom

Great input!

Thank you both, I posted these because while I like them all very much because of their content I felt there was something in each of them I could improve. I just didn't know exactly what and whether other people saw it the same. It's hard getting good feedback from family and friends on these kinds of shots.. heh.

I would love to get more into doing portraiture as a business, but a career change without having a solid skill base to move on is a hard sell at my house. Luckily I've found some places now where I can learn and get some real feedback.

FWIW, I didn't think either of you were harsh at all. Thanks again!

Scott_Quier

AirThom wrote:

FWIW, I didn't think either of you were harsh at all. Thanks again!

We're just breaking you in easy. The next time though - watch out. We'll really lay into you. :lol

WingsOfLovePhoto

Scott_Quier wrote:

- welcome!!!

- Adorable children - but aren't they all?

I don't want to seem to be harsh, but maybe one reason why you didn't get much in the way of C&C is that these look like family snapshots - which have their place. But, people are hesitant to look too critically at such - family snaps are about memories not so much about photography.

All that being said, I'll take a go at it, looking at these with a more critical eye:

1. Cute shot - nice expression. Needs some light into the eyes - maybe use an external flash for that. A bit more context (what was he doing) would increase the general interest.
2. Focus - you have the focus on little brother's shirt. It needs to at least be on the near eye. Once you have that, a little smaller aperture and you would have both eyes. Big brother's head being OOF is not a problem - one would expect that.
3. Focus on shoe ruins this one. Aside from the memory potential, this is a cull.
4. Centered - Crop a bit from the top and the one of the sides. Doing so will eliminate much of the bright background and help to focus attention on his face/hair.
5. Yup - you went nuclear on his eyes and teeth. On the color version, I would use the magic lasso, feathered to selec the teeth and the whites of the eyes and then, using a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer reduce the saturation of the yellows and reds. On the same layer with the same selection, maybe lighting those same yellows and reds. Run both of these "too far". Then adjust the opacity of the adjustment to make it look right. Once you have that, and any other edits (like the tip of his nose ), complete - then do the conversion to B&W.

WOW Scott and I are starting to agree on stuff and seeing the same things! I must be learning things from this forum! Maybe I actually am starting to sound like I know what I am talking about ? I guess it's all about hanging with the right crowd....

Scott_Quier

WingsOfLovePhoto wrote:

WOW Scott and I are starting to agree on stuff and seeing the same things! I must be learning things from this forum! Maybe I actually am starting to sound like I know what I am talking about ? I guess it's all about hanging with the right crowd....

Or ..... all my "garbage" is starting to wear off on you and you can't tell the difference between good critique and noise :lol :lol4

AirThom

I cropped #4, it is much nicer.. the color reflection of the tube onto his face is a bit troublesome still, would a fill flash negate that in the future? Or would it only bounce more light around inside that tube? heh

BTW, I just replaced #4 with the better cropped version.. no reason to keep the first one.