Family Session

sweet caroline

It's been a while since I last posted any of my work. Here's a sweet family I had this morning. C&C appreciated. I already know some whites are blown.

1.

2.

3.

4.

I have more of just the girls, and just the mom and dad that I'll post later.

Caroline

lilmomma

I think they look great! The whites don't look blown to me, maybe a spot here or there but I am looking at it from my iPhone, don't know how big of a difference that it makes...can't wait to see the ones of the girls, they are adorable!

Ed911

D300 blown hi-lites...try turing on Active-D lighting in your camera. It helps. I usually leave mine on Normal and never turn it off.

Hope this helps.

Trevlan

The exposure is really nice, like I said in another thread, whites are tough to shoot.

They are all lovely, but I think #4 is your strongest effort because the family looks connected with your camera.

sweet caroline

I have the active-d on, but I often end up using the raw files. My ISO was set to 400 because it was overcast and I didn't want my background too dark, then I used my sb800 in an umbrella. Any other tips for this situation? I figured that the clothing details weren't very important for this shoot, and thought I may be sacrificing whites to get the rest of it right.

Thanks for the feedback.

Caroline

divamum

Caroline, overall I like these. I do, however, get a sense of "formal shots in casual clothes/setting" which is ever so slightly at odds with itself. It's not a bad thing (especially if that's what the client wanted!!), but I get slight feeling of conflict between those styles which is possibly why the 4th one where they're less "posed" seems the most comfortable.

Colours are lovely, the settings are pretty and they're a good-looking family. Also, the small moments of blown whites don't bother me - his shirt in particular shows some bright spots, but not big areas, just little spikes rather than whole areas, at least on my monitor.

Look forward to seeing the others!

adbsgicom

I like the 4th one best as well. Your crop might be a bit too tight as the one girls head will be right at the edge of a picture frame. I like the Dad's expression in the 3rd best. The first one, the youngest seems very sad to be there, but then she seems to warm up. The first two, the light isn't hitting Dad's face in a good way. He has a really dark shadow on to the image's left. I'm still figuring out the off-camera lighting stuff as well, so I'm sorry that I don't have something more helpful on that front.

My mental jury is out on the rock wall, and how it hides a little of the family. It definately seems like too much in the 3rd, but feels okay on the fourth.

Just my impression. I'm not doing this as a living, though.

jeffreaux2

I like the second one best.

Its possible that some part of your whats are blown(if you say so), but to me they appear detailed and under control.

sweet caroline

The shots get more casual as we move further into the shoot:) They wanted both formal and informal, so we got the formal ones before the kids' patience was used up. The younger girl is a slow to warm up personality (she reminds me of my younger daughter), and she definitely gets ideas about how she wants things to be. I have many serious shots because she wanted serious shots, which cracks me up because that's so like my child.

I'll go back and re-crop #4 with a bit more room for the frame. Thanks for the suggestion. I'm glad it appears that I got the whites under control. I selectively reduced exposure on the shirts in post.

Caroline