CC: Family Portraits

house1999

Took some quick family pictures the other day and was wondering if I can get some suggestions on how to improve in the future. Thanks!

1.

2011-04-04 @ 20-26-31 - IMG_5371.jpg by h-huang, on Flickr

2.

2011-04-04 @ 20-30-38 - IMG_5380.jpg by h-huang, on Flickr

3.

2011-04-04 @ 20-32-56 - IMG_5384.jpg by h-huang, on Flickr

4.

2011-04-04 @ 20-36-46 - IMG_5386.jpg by h-huang, on Flickr

5.

2011-04-04 @ 20-40-05 - IMG_5389.jpg by h-huang, on Flickr

6.

2011-04-04 @ 20-41-17 - IMG_5390.jpg by h-huang, on Flickr

Icebear

You have a very nice portrait in #4. I'd crop it much tighter though. The lighting is quite pleasant in that one.

Somehow you need to get the lady in the pink shirt to not look so directly at the camera.

The BG is pretty distracting in several. That's a hard thing to deal with in family shots. Where do you find someplace where you can pose the group that does NOT have a distracting BG in the typical home?? One way to deal with it is to have the group step as far forward from the BG as possible (given your lens restrictions, etc) and shoot at as large aperture as you have. The resultant bokeh will help deemphasize the BG.

Qarik

The light is very nice. The biggest issues here are framing and posing.

In the 1st shot..the dude on the righ needs different shirt and needs to move in so he is very tight. Remember in group shots you can't get tight enough. Bodies need to be touching.

In all the portrait orientation shots..except the last..you have too much head room. crop it off.

also there are a lot of cutoff shoulders, fingers, clothing, leave them in and give extra room so that you have room for cropping and for mounting if you print.

house1999

Thanks for the comments. When you crop, do you typically try to keep the aspect ratio?

Icebear

house1999 wrote: »

Thanks for the comments. When you crop, do you typically try to keep the aspect ratio?

Only if I intend to print 4x6.