A few family shots...

bike21

My family was out this week for a ski vacation and my bro and his wife wanted some pics with their son. I was of course happy to oblige and snap a few. Timing was off since their flight got in during the morning and we had to get up to the snow that day. So I had to shoot around 2pm which of course was harsh light. I pulled out the SB600 for some fill flash with the shadows. Not bad though I think...

#1 - tried a little retro look during PP because of the harsh light



#2 - b/w conversion looked decent I thought



#3 - you can see how harsh the light really was in this one, but not bad I guess




C&C welcome, I am still learning about taking portraits and appreciate any input!

Qarik

well besides the obvious over exposure..I think the last 2 could use a crop. Also the dad's head in the last 2 shots is ruining it for me...if you notice in the 1st shot his head/neck is stretched towards the mom and kid. In the last 2 shots the head neck is stretched away from the mom/kid as if he is trying to create distance. Looks awkward and does not promote "family" heh

Hackbone

On the third on a really nice job of keeping the sky exposure and fill on the subjects. That is a tough on in direct sunlight. Next time look for shaded areas and the squatting is bad posing. Gotta get those rears on the ground.

bike21

Thanks much for the comments and suggestions!


Qarik - great catch on my bro's head being away from the rest of the family. I will give him a hard time for that one I will watch for such things with future clients for sure!

Hackbone - good tips as well! I should have taken the time to seek out shade, but I wanted the background as well.


It was kind of a rush job to be honest, so I wasn't thinking well on my feet very well. Time with the family can be hectic

Scott_Quier

with the above. One other thing ... did you Photoshop in the blue sky in the last one? If so, you may want to re-work it around the edge of the trees - it don't look right

For next time, a bit (more?) of fill flash and a faster shutter speed to control ambient might be something to consider. Remeber, expose for the sky and add fill to taste.

bike21

Scott_Quier wrote:

with the above. One other thing ... did you Photoshop in the blue sky in the last one? If so, you may want to re-work it around the edge of the trees - it don't look right

For next time, a bit (more?) of fill flash and a faster shutter speed to control ambient might be something to consider. Remeber, expose for the sky and add fill to taste.

And this is why I love dgrin - more good tips & help!

I burned the edges a bit, so that is probably what is looking funky - I will go back and see what I can do.

Thanks for the tips on the sky and fill light! I will certainly work on that in the future. I was shooting aperture priority, so manual probably would have been better heh?

Thanks again for the feedback everyone!

bike21

How about this one? Tighter crop, more even on the sky. My bro has a bit of the 'stink eye' going on due to the sun though.

For some reason the color looks better on my mac than here on dgrin. So excuse how even more overexposed it looks. Any ideas how I can remedy this issue? I have yet to get into much calibration stuff.

Scott_Quier

bike21 wrote:

And this is why I love dgrin - more good tips & help!

I burned the edges a bit, so that is probably what is looking funky - I will go back and see what I can do.

Thanks for the tips on the sky and fill light! I will certainly work on that in the future. I was shooting aperture priority, so manual probably would have been better heh?

Thanks again for the feedback everyone!

Manual mode - yes. It's my preference when using flash. Easy technique is to point your camera at the sky, zoom to the longest FL of the lens and get a good exposure dialed in. Then shoot a couple of test shots of your subject to get the flash dialed in for them. Sometimes, it works well to under-expose the sky by 1/2 to 2/3 stop (do this with shutter speed).

Another tip - you may need to us something similar to the Canon High-Speed Shutter Synchronization - I don't know what Nikon calls it but it allows you to shoot dedicated flash at something greater than the normal x-sync speed.

bike21 wrote:

How about this one? Tighter crop, more even on the sky. My bro has a bit of the 'stink eye' going on due to the sun though.

For some reason the color looks better on my mac than here on dgrin. So excuse how even more overexposed it looks. Any ideas how I can remedy this issue? I have yet to get into much calibration stuff.

This looks quite a bit better.

Your color issue may related to color space. The Mac is color managed and the net isn't. Is the photo you've posted in sRGB?

jeffreaux2

Since you were using fill flash anyway....you could have done yourself a HUGE favor by facing them away from the sun.....rather than having their faces partially sunlit in those harsh conditions.....or find some open shade around those trees back there.