father and son

VayCayMom · July 24, 2009

from a recent session.. c & c welcome I have been struggling with skintones lately, any advice also welcome they are both wearing yellow shirts and Dad had a lot of red tones in face

bdcolen · July 24, 2009

VayCayMom wrote:

from a recent session.. c & c welcome I have been struggling with skintones lately, any advice also welcome they are both wearing yellow shirts and Dad had a lot of red tones in face

This is a really lovely image, though there is a real disconnect between father and son. That disconnect makes it a particularly interesting image, imho, but may or may not appeal to the father.
In terms of the color, does this work better?

michswiss · July 24, 2009

The composition is special as there is an obvious connection and relation, yet they are clearly two separate people. In fact, this is when I want to gush about beautiful men. Is it fair to assume this is work in a controlled space?

The eyes are the strength and weakness of this shot. They drew me in immediately. It might be impractical, but the reflections are bothersome. The one other nit is the space between the son's ear and the father's cheek. It's a bright spot that is close to centre frame and attracts attention.

The issue for me with the skin tone isn't the redness per se, its the change in color between the forehead and cheeks of the father. It starts with an orange cast around the hairline and becomes redder as you move down.

Other than that, this is a great masculine shot.

Hackbone · July 24, 2009

This would be a great shot if Dad had his face turned toward his son with his head touching his son and Dad with his eyes closed and cropped very tight. Then the son looking off would connect.

VayCayMom · July 24, 2009

Ahhh thanks to all that commented. My monitor is not calibrated, I bought a Huey it is not working, arghh.

I was wondering if my color was too saturated? bdcolen, your image on my screen looks very pale. Honestly some days I look at what I did the day before and can't believe I was happy with that color yesterday.

I have more images from this shoot, I'll post later.

The story behind these two.... they were in front of a huge window that looks out to my pool. The 2 yr old wanted to go in the pool!!! Dad kept trying to pacify him, BUT all he could think about was the pool

, and we do live in AZ and it was over 100 degrees that day! And I was very happy to let him do a little swimming and then grab a few more shots!

bdcolen · July 24, 2009

VayCayMom wrote:

Ahhh thanks to all that commented. My monitor is not calibrated, I bought a Huey it is not working, arghh.

I was wondering if my color was too saturated? bdcolen, your image on my screen looks very pale. Honestly some days I look at what I did the day before and can't believe I was happy with that color yesterday.

I have more images from this shoot, I'll post later.

The story behind these two.... they were in front of a huge window that looks out to my pool. The 2 yr old wanted to go in the pool!!! Dad kept trying to pacify him, BUT all he could think about was the pool , and we do live in AZ and it was over 100 degrees that day! And I was very happy to let him do a little swimming and then grab a few more shots!

I, too, am having color problems. It is paler than yours, but yours looks oversaturated to me. But I do not claim to be a PS maven in anything but black and white. ;-)

In any case, it is a really strong, compelling image, precisely because of the distance between father and son. Were the dad looking at the son and smiling, etc., it would be very sweet - and I'm sure would thrill Dad and Mom - but photographically it wouldn't be as interesting. But then I don't have to please Dad and Mom and you do.

Dripfaucet · July 24, 2009

Hackbone wrote:

This would be a great shot if Dad had his face turned toward his son with his head touching his son and Dad with his eyes closed and cropped very tight. Then the son looking off would connect.

I disagree with this suggestion. the suggested may make for a great shot, but i'd be a completely different shot. it's not this shot. what makes this shot intestesting is the unique eyes (and other features) bonding father and son together. You close the dad's eyes, and you've lost what makes THIS SHOT good. well done!

VayCayMom · July 24, 2009

michswiss wrote:

The composition is special as there is an obvious connection and relation, yet they are clearly two separate people. In fact, this is when I want to gush about beautiful men. Is it fair to assume this is work in a controlled space?

The eyes are the strength and weakness of this shot. They drew me in immediately. It might be impractical, but the reflections are bothersome. The one other nit is the space between the son's ear and the father's cheek. It's a bright spot that is close to centre frame and attracts attention.

The issue for me with the skin tone isn't the redness per se, its the change in color between the forehead and cheeks of the father. It starts with an orange cast around the hairline and becomes redder as you move down.

Other than that, this is a great masculine shot.

That spot between the ear and dad bothers me too! I need to fix that. The dad was quite over heated. he was red.. I am not sure how to decide how much help to give someone's complexion and when to
just leave it be. Either his face was just like that or my diffused flash caused the difference in the dad's skin tones from one part to another. I didn't do any skin touchup.
The large reflection is from the large window they sat in front of. Is that ever something that is touched up? Reduce the catchlights?Someone else mentioned this on another shot I did in this same window.

GoofBckt · July 24, 2009

I think it's fabulous. Fix the little white spot then leave it alone! What I loved off the bat is that both father and son have the same color eyes, which are very unique to begin with. Close dad's eyes and you lose that. I don't think the skin tones are even an issue with this. It's beautiful. The reflections in the eyes don't even bother me much. This is true "life" you're looking at. Imperfections are part of life.
Carrie

VayCayMom wrote:

That spot between the ear and dad bothers me too! I need to fix that. The dad was quite over heated. he was red.. I am not sure how to decide how much help to give someone's complexion and when to
just leave it be. Either his face was just like that or my diffused flash caused the difference in the dad's skin tones from one part to another. I didn't do any skin touchup.
The large reflection is from the large window they sat in front of. Is that ever something that is touched up? Reduce the catchlights?Someone else mentioned this on another shot I did in this same window.

Angelo · July 24, 2009

wow, where to go with this?

this image leaves me wanting more. i think there's great potential for these 2 strong faces.

unfortunately the contrast of dad staring into the camera with son staring blankly out of frame creates the feeling of ventriloquist and dummy.

it doesn't appear overly saturated to me but you're teasing the border of blowing highlights on the shirts and parts of the boy's face.

as was said, a bit more connection between dad & son would've made for a terrific portrait.

father and son

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