group/family shot help

nicnelly

(disclaimer...still a newbie) I have been able to really advance with portraits of individuals but I am still struggling with group shots. What tricks do I need to learn to make a family shot look more artistic and also just to improve the quality of the shot itself. I am shooting with a Canon 20D and prime 50mm lens.

codiac2600

I wouldn't feel so down on this image just yet.

First of the expressions and the feeling in this photo are amazing. Everyone looks good, they are smiling, they are happy and you captured it.

Now the rough part....

First off your colors are either completely off. Did you shoot Jpeg or RAW? It's and easy fix in either with the right program but will look its best if shot in RAW.

Looks to be fairly sharp, but slightly too bright...

What look are you going for? What do you mean by artistic?

PhotoLasVegas

First thing I noticed is that it appears extremely overexposed - may be the monitor at least to the degree of over-exposed-ness, but it's overexposed. The next thing I notice is dad's head is almost lined up with the kid, and also his chin is too high (because of having to go over the kids' head).

I agree with the previous comment, the expressions are great, could just use some work on the actual pose/arranging of the family.

Surfdog

Way bright. Way blue.

Generally groups look better if arranged in a triangle. Meaning, tallest in the middle and the rest tapering downward on each side. This is a general rule, and like most rules is made to be broken, but would have really helped the balance of your image. Scooting the dad over about a foot to the left would have made the difference. I am attaching a shot from a recent shoot to show what I mean. The expressions on the faces of your family are really nice. Hard not to smile when you look at them!

nicnelly

thanks for the feedback. I will attach the original so that you can see the unedited shot. I want to be more creative with positioning and not so boring. I know I need to play with it more but I wonder if there is a good resource for starting points. What f-stop is recommended for this shot. I love my 1.4 for the individuals but again with a group I feel lost. Luckily this was cute family so they look good no matter what but how would you make this better? the dad should definitely be more towards the middle at the least but i really think the whole set up is boring.

nicnelly

thanks surfdog...that's what I am talking about. i will check out your website for more posing ideas. i love the image you posted.

codiac2600

Had to borrow the image for a second, hope you don't mind.

With great expression you can photoshop it to that artistic level.

Katie Beth

Like the other's I love the expressions on the family's faces. Agree that the Dad's head should have been to camera left more if possible so he could bring his chin down and avoid the totem pole look. I think the photo's a bit over-exposed and colors a bit off.

Hope you don't mind me taking a quick swipe at it. I'll tell you what I did so if you have photoshop you can duplicate it on your original file.

dgrin-5.jpg

I'm working w/ an uncalibrated monitor so I don't know what this looks like to others but I think it's pretty close.

1) I duplicated the background layer and changed the new layer mode to multiply. You can then decrease the opacity as you need to.

2) I used a method I just learned in a video tutorial to balance the color. You can find it here: http://www.photoworkshop.com/adobe/index
Look under Eddie Tapp for "Pro Techniques I: 90% Method." I tried to find the least blown out white area from one of the kids' shirts for the white point and I used the electrical? box in the background for the black point. There's a more in-depth tutorial there by Julieanne Kost called "Advanced Color Correction" that takes that method further.

3) I used the first method for correcting skin tones found on this SmugMug help page: http://www.smugmug.com/help/skin-tone I made an action out of this. I only made a quick swipe over mom's and dad's face and the older boy's face.

It's just a starting point...

Ed911

The photo in general is in big trouble...too cool, too over exposed, and somewhat soft in spots, and the color is...we'll just leave it at that.

The upper lip on the mother has some strange blue color cast in your original...the little boy in her left arm has some odd orange color on is upper lip. All things that are difficult to fix on a snatched low res image.

I borrowed your image and made some corrections...here's my take. My artsy take...after some corrections.

Your original



corrected in CS3...still needs work on the skin tones...but as far as it was off...and 20 minutes of my time...this is it.

Ed911

Surfdog wrote: »

Way bright. Way blue.

Generally groups look better if arranged in a triangle. Meaning, tallest in the middle and the rest tapering downward on each side. This is a general rule, and like most rules is made to be broken, but would have really helped the balance of your image. Scooting the dad over about a foot to the left would have made the difference. I am attaching a shot from a recent shoot to show what I mean. The expressions on the faces of your family are really nice. Hard not to smile when you look at them!

Nice image Danny...very pleasing to the eye.

VayCayMom

I have always wanted to try my hand at putting some spin on another's photo.

I basically darkened the image, color corrected, clarified and boosted the color, then did some glow type actions, some just around the edges plus darkening around the edges.

I also struggle to make my group shots look as good as I think my portraits look. Lately what seems to work for me is to make sure the edges are blurry and darker. And add a softener to the entire image.

Ed911

VayCayMom wrote: »

I have always wanted to try my hand at putting some spin on another's photo.

I basically darkened the image, color corrected, clarified and boosted the color, then did some glow type actions, some just around the edges plus darkening around the edges.

I also struggle to make my group shots look as good as I think my portraits look. Lately what seems to work for me is to make sure the edges are blurry and darker. And add a softener to the entire image.

Trudy, Good work.