Portrait practice session--C&C wanted

lizzard_nyc

Hi all,
I have my first paid portrait session with a 2 year old next week.
I don't know if portrait is the right word. I plan on taking him to the park and letting him do his thing and hope I capture something. His mom will be in some of the shots too. I told his mom, I won't try and pose him, and she has seen my photos and likes the style.

I went to the park with my sister, her daughter and my daughter yesterday for some practice. Though the PP is out there, she happened to like them. I am new to LR3 (up to now it has just been picnik) so though I like the processing I realize it's kind of weird.
I went with my gut and what I like with the processing. I don't want to guess as to what she might want, so I went with what I like--doesn't mean it works though.

Also--I am trading in my kit lenses and some cash for one really good Oly lens this week, so I think that will help as well. Here goes:

1.



2.



3. I know it's tilted--I fixed the tilt and didn't like it--so I went back to the original--maybe I'm wrong. I'm just going with my gut on these shots.



4.



5.



6.



7.

divamum

2, 4, 5, 7 for the win! In your trademark style, Liz, and I love them.

Only nit on 2 would be to try and lose the aqua on the dress - it's only in some spots so looks a little odd. Maybe use the localised brush in LR to desat those places?

lizzard_nyc

divamum wrote: »

2, 4, 5, 7 for the win! In your trademark style, Liz, and I love them.

Only nit on 2 would be to try and lose the aqua on the dress - it's only in some spots so looks a little odd. Maybe use the localised brush in LR to desat those places?

Thank you divamum!
Yeah! glad they work. I am so looking forward to my first official shoot.

#2 is my favorite, just such a sweet kiss--and I did not even notice the color spots, but glad you pointed them out. I will start to fix them shortly, once I google "localised brush in LR3 to desaturate" lol--I told you it was new .

Thank you for commenting.

divamum

The brush command lets you do things just where you paint it on - if you select it so it desaturates/devibrances (is that a word?!) the place where the blue is left on the dress, you can make it match the rest of that area. Give it a try

Llywellyn

These are very cute. I notice none of them seem to be sharp, though—looks like a hint of motion blur. Not enough to look intentional but just enough to look blurry. Since two-year-olds don't tend to sit still, I'd recommend keeping your shutter speed high and try shooting on burst mode (if you weren't already). They move so quickly and their expressions can be so fleeting, I've found burst mode to be helpful in capturing those split-instant moments. Switching your focus mode could also help (I tend to use spot focus, but I've found that doesn't work so well with wriggly kids ).

I'm just guessing at the source of the blur, so if it's an intentional part of your processing, ignore the above.

lizzard_nyc

Llywellyn wrote: »

These are very cute. I notice none of them seem to be sharp, though—looks like a hint of motion blur. Not enough to look intentional but just enough to look blurry. Since two-year-olds don't tend to sit still, I'd recommend keeping your shutter speed high and try shooting on burst mode (if you weren't already). They move so quickly and their expressions can be so fleeting, I've found burst mode to be helpful in capturing those split-instant moments. Switching your focus mode could also help (I tend to use spot focus, but I've found that doesn't work so well with wriggly kids ).

I'm just guessing at the source of the blur, so if it's an intentional part of your processing, ignore the above.

Llywellyn!
thanks for commenting.
I have only shot in burst mode for little league, but it makes perfect sense. Also yes I have it on one spot focus and face detection at that--so by the time it detects the face and focuses my niece moved. I will switch that up and I will increase my shutter speed.

Thank you.


Also Divamum--I worked on that one shot and I don't know what I did but i ruined it--luckily I can reset to original which is what I did. Now to rework it again .