School Photos

kris10jo

Okay, I'm a little apprehensive about posting these, but this was my first attempt at school photos and I really want to learn something from everything I try!

The school my girls go to asked me to take photos for this year's class. It's a small school, and I thought it was another great opportunity to learn something new (and of course help out the school).

1. The class photo (it was really hard to get these little ones to all look in the same direction at the same time)


2. Individual Portraits


3.


I'm taking the rest of the individual photos tomorrow. If you're interested, the rest of the set from today is at: http://www.kristenjohnsonimages.com/Other/Student-Portraits/11685096_tCxTa#824518947_9sjze

Thanks for looking.

VayCayMom

kris10jo wrote:

Okay, I'm a little apprehensive about posting these, but this was my first attempt at school photos and I really want to learn something from everything I try!

The school my girls go to asked me to take photos for this year's class. It's a small school, and I thought it was another great opportunity to learn something new (and of course help out the school).

1. The class photo (it was really hard to get these little ones to all look in the same direction at the same time)


2. Individual Portraits


3.


I'm taking the rest of the individual photos tomorrow. If you're interested, the rest of the set from today is at: http://www.kristenjohnsonimages.com/Other/Student-Portraits/11685096_tCxTa#824518947_9sjze

Thanks for looking.

I was able to see just a few, either my computer or your smugmug was being stubborn! What cute little kids. I think they must have liked you from their expressions. On my monitor they looked a little dark and either a bit over saturated or just a bit red in the skin tones. other than that they looked great!
I must now add that the group shot is now showing ( for me ) and that looks fine, colors seem fine. VERY good job there, all faces forward, group shots are tough for me.

kris10jo

Thank you, Trudy! It's been so helpful to have another set of eyes look at them for me lately, especially for color and saturation. I appreciate the feedback!

And smugmug was really slow for me yesterday, too...

kidzmom

The group shot is wonderful! It looks as good as they come..not much you can do about grimaces and heads turned at that age. What was your F stop on that? Everyone is nice and crisp! Lovely! As for the indivds...I see the same as Trudy-quite red and oversaturated. Skin seems harsh and lips aren't true to color. I think for school photos stick to the "borning" almost SOOC versions Should be easy to drag down temps/sat on those 2 though. Overall looks wonderful!

kris10jo

Thanks, Kelly! I will definitely rework the coloring today.

Here are the settings I used for the group shot:
f/8, 1/160 sec, ISO-800, shot manually

I was worried about the high ISO, but I really wanted a fast shutter speed with the kids.

kris10jo

I've desaturated a bit and toned down the reds as needed.

1.


2.


Definitely see the improvement! Hope I'm getting close!

Macushla

They look great. Can you move the kids a bit away from the background in the individual shots and try to blur it out a bit. Might make the kid pop a bit more.

kris10jo

Good idea! I probably should have tried that out first before I began, though, since I've finished taking all of the pictures today. You're right; I think it would have been nice to have that background a little more out of focus. Normally, I shoot pretty wide open to focus on the face and eyes, but I was trying to give myself a little insurance by shooting at f/4. And they were sitting pretty close to that bamboo background.

kidzmom

Oh Kris...and one other thing I'm a bit worried about is the crop. If you print these at 4x6 or 5x7 you'll be fine but at 8x10 you might lose a lot on the sides (the teachers on the side I'd imagine). This is something that Jeff pointed out in one of my family shots. I NEVER really stopped to think about why it was so important to compose loosely. You can check how this will print at 8x10 by uploading it to EZPRINTS they have a crop tool where you can play with crops. I'm not sure if it will take it off the tops or sides but it will definately shrink a lot!!!

kris10jo

Thanks, Kelly! I think I was actually following that post, so I made a point to shoot pretty wide to give myself room for cropping. I was shooting the group shot as far back as I could go, so the top and bottom of the photo is maxed out at the 8x10 crop. See how much I learn from this forum? I figured the group shot would only be printed at that size, but I have a back-up just in case.

The portraits are cropped at 5x7 (although it sure looks like 4x6 here), so a vertical 8x10 crop would lose a little at the bottom and a tiny bit at the top, I think. And the wallets will be 2.5x3.5, which works with the 5x7 ratio. And I shot really loose for these, too, so I made sure there was plenty of room for cropping these as well.