family shoot

John Desjarlais

Hi all, I'm finally getting a moment to post something again.

The first two of these came from a "shoot" of the kids, orchestrated together with my wife. As usual, it was extremely stressful, almost resulting in divorce proceedings, but getting them to goof around made them a bit more cooperative.


As is typical, the best shot of the day was taken after the "formal" shoot when they were just romping around on a trampoline:


Here's a couple more candid shots:
Sleeping angel:


And pulling socks:


Thanks for any comments.

System

nice shots and cute kids-

not sure what you're doing with the color in the first two but like it-

just a little desaturation or what?-

John Desjarlais

George - you're right on the colors - some partial desaturation. I find I like the look quite a bit, and it allows me to keep the colors (which the wife likes) while still abstracting things a bit.

Kelowna Picman

Nice work! I really like the "desaturation effect", as well? Can you tell us what the post capture process is that you use?

On a side note, my wife is my business partner and assistant on all my shoots, and I swear she'd almost like to kill me after each and every shoot...I can relate!

John Desjarlais

KP - it's actually rather straightforward. I usually do a levels adjustment, then, in PSE, desaturate with a value between -30 and -80, depending on the look I'm after. After that, sometimes a bit more contrast is needed with a curves adjustment, then I sharpen.

And thanks for appreciating the difficulties of working with the spouse!

Nick Morgan

The first and second are great caputres, but the first thing I notice about them is the pale, ghostly skin tone, which really yanked my attention away from the subject. So I think I differ with the previous commenters. Once you explained about the tone, I could warm up to it a little, but standing alone, the lacking skin tone seems to work against the warmth that the composition otherwise tends toward (since the children are doing pleasant, playful, warm things, and it doesn't look like you intended a disturbing affect). But of course that's only my reaction, and I'm often in the minority. :

DavidS

Nice shots. I really like the second one.

John Desjarlais

Nick - thanks very much for the input. The skin tone issue is one that I'm still on the fence about. I'm going to have to think about strategies to deal with that, as I do like the desaturation effect on the tone of the photos.

AntoineD

Thoses are nice shots, especially the color ones, though it may a little too much desaturated.

Jeff Fillmore

Very nice- I like the desaturation. I was experimenting with something similar with my kid portraits for a while but adding a sepia tone to them as well.

stephiewilliams

I really like the last one the best. The others are great candids. I think I may be the odd one out but I think the desaturation look doesn't do them justice. Rich vibrant color adds so much to a photo...if you are going to drown it down just go ahead and make it a black and white altogether.