New at this whole sisters thing!

urbanaries

My first shoot with two girls...it was an incredibly challenging day, but I think I pulled a few keepers out. Helps that they are so adorable! I never had a sister and am very much a "boy mom". Girls need a lot more, uh, i don't know what.:scratch

C&C welcome. My colors are still works in progress. I shot RAW and WB in LR off the girls' white shirts in most cases, but then after doing contrast curves and exposure adjustments, find that affects skin tones too? Basically now I wait until proof delay, then pull ordered images into CS2 and do CMYK curves and hone the skin tones that way. Any suggestions as to why I'm getting such inconsisent results welcome.

Monochromes
1.


2. Using a LR preset called Raw Sepia


3. PJ pick of the day


4. Playing Patty Cake


Colors

5. This is the only one fully edited in CS2 for CMYK skin tone, the readings are ok but it looks yellow on my pseudo-calibrated (huey'd) monitor


6.


7. desaturated b/c i couldn't get the skin and grass to look right...


8. this is an example of a lot of shots that were screwy. shot in cloudy sun conditions, but cloudy WB was much too warm? so i tried to tweak K temp by eye but never settled on an answer.

System

hi lynne-

some cute pics-

like 4 because of contrast and toning? used-

2 is neat; would be interested in seeing it in the manner of 4-

nice variety of shots-

the skin tone thing can be a very difficult thing (at least for me)-

christulk

Well done, 3, 6 and 7 are absolute crackers! Beautiful work.

Scott_Quier

• I like #2 - a very natural look pose, looks just like a child at play.:D
• And, #4 is very well done. For the most part, I like the composition, but I can't help wondering what it would look like if you had taken this from a perspective closer to their level rather than looking down on them.
• #6 - I love this girl's expression.

Also, have you considered using flash to fill some of the shadows. An example of where it might have improved things are the eyes in #2, #4, and #5.

~Jan~

I adore 2 and 7. I bet the parents love them. VERY nice color on the color ones, IMO.

saurora

Lynne, these are adorable. I haven't switched over to Lightroom yet so I can't comment there. I find skin colors tricky with babies. You're right, the numbers look ok, but maybe a little yellowish. I find that adjusting the Cyan levels a touch can make all the difference and it's a vague number to dial in, so I just eyeball it. I agree with George that a flash would have greatly improved these. Kids are a challenge! I shot a 2-year old boy yesterday who was "shy" and refused to acknowledge I was even there. He wouldn't look anywhere near the camera the entire time. And he had such gorgeous eyes! However, he would run over while I was sitting on the grass chimping and sit in my lap to see "pictues of the train" which I didn't have!!! I was a little frustrated. Not a good shoot. Dial back the cyan a little in #7 (her hair is green) and the spread between magenta and yellow is pretty wide on #6 but a hefty dose of more cyan will counter it. Consistency? Is there such a thing? If they can package it where I can buy it, it would be well worth the price!

urbanaries

saurora wrote:

Lynne, these are adorable. I haven't switched over to Lightroom yet so I can't comment there. I find skin colors tricky with babies. You're right, the numbers look ok, but maybe a little yellowish. I find that adjusting the Cyan levels a touch can make all the difference and it's a vague number to dial in, so I just eyeball it. I agree with George that a flash would have greatly improved these. Kids are a challenge! I shot a 2-year old boy yesterday who was "shy" and refused to acknowledge I was even there. He wouldn't look anywhere near the camera the entire time. And he had such gorgeous eyes! However, he would run over while I was sitting on the grass chimping and sit in my lap to see "pictues of the train" which I didn't have!!! I was a little frustrated. Not a good shoot. Dial back the cyan a little in #7 (her hair is green) and the spread between magenta and yellow is pretty wide on #6 but a hefty dose of more cyan will counter it. Consistency? Is there such a thing? If they can package it where I can buy it, it would be well worth the price!

The one year old was crying, clinging to mom 90% of the full two hours of this shoot. And the mom wasn't dressed at all to be in pictures, BIG mistake on my part not warning her!!! The shoot was actually intended to be the one year old alone but while the baby cried I got some amazing shots of the three year old. He (she!) who feels the least amount of pressure performs best, in my experience!!!

As far as the skintones, consistency seems so easy to those who have it, but I can't get it to save my life. In my twisted brain I thought keeping the light source to one, I could get more consistent color? I definitely saw once I imported them that I traded one problem for another as they really, REALLY could have used some fill. I was running on about 5 hours sleep in two days, and that baby screaming was NOT the escape I planned! (what was I thinking, scheduling a session 4 days Harry post-op?)

Anyway, thanks George, Chris, Scott, Jan and Susan for your kind words. I was shocked to pull anything good out of the infant, so I think the mom will be even more pleased. (hope so).

I will add some cyan and see if that helps. Basically it helps to know that I'm not far off, since my monitor calibration is unreliable lately.

urbanaries

Scott_Quier wrote:

• And, #4 is very well done. For the most part, I like the composition, but I can't help wondering what it would look like if you had taken this from a perspective closer to their level rather than looking down on them.

Totally agree with you, that's typically my mantra as well, these two were just impossible to get good angles/shots/no crying at the same time, so I was running around them in circles literally. The grandma was actually laughing at me in sympathy at one point. So I definitely agree with you but considering what I went thru to get this shot I am really happy!

Scott_Quier wrote:

Also, have you considered using flash to fill some of the shadows. An example of where it might have improved things are the eyes in #2, #4, and #5.

Yes, I have considered it and yes I have bruises from kicking myself. At one point I tried dialing down on camera flash for some light in the eyes but I was limited by the 1/250th SS. Your highly detailed and informative fill flash test thread comes to mind. I guess when I saw the light was so good and even, and the girls were really really fussy from the start, I didn't want to mess with the 580?

Seriously, thanks for reiterating these lessons to me, one of these days they'll come in handy, having sunk in from reinforcement!

jeffreaux2

I am not crazy about 1, but the rest are incredible. I think your colors look fine......you have a good eye.

photogmomma

I don't have anything to add that you haven't heard.... I am terrible with color, as you know, and while these are slightly yellow, they don't really bother me a ton. The photos turned out gorgeous - especially considering the circumstances! I am so sorry it was such a rough shoot. No fun!

Great job!