My First Family Portrait Shoot C&C Please...

bobcool

So after much studying, learning, and lurking here I agreed to do an outdoor photo shoot for a co-worker's family. The three brothers and their family wanted a group portrait for a wedding anniv present to their folks. So, we agreed to meet at a public botanical garden here in Fort Worth and take some pics. It was cloudy all day, but right as we were about to begin the sun started to break through the clouds randomly - grrr. :dunno

Three families, all at the same time, taking turns with various poses. Everyone was super-patient, but I don't think I'll do that again - too much stress trying to remember all the agreed-upon poses that they were paying for! Anyway, I'd love any feedback from these shots. I usually stayed on manual mode, metered for the background and used manual fill flash. I only had a Nikon D80 and one SB-600 flash, usually off-camera. I would've like to have a softbox for the smaller shots, so that's on the list.

I still have work to do on my posing technique and where to place hands and stuff, but I'm learning. Any C&C would be appreciated!

#1
1/60th, f/5.6, ISO 100


#2
1/200th, f/4.5, ISO 100


#3
1/50th, f/8, ISO 100


#4
1/0th, f/7.1, ISO 100


#5
1/50th, f/3.5, ISO 100

shniks

Nice job... #3 and #5 are my faves... well done...


Cheers,

leaforte

I think your clients will be happy. There sure is a lot of family in shot #1. Nice poses.

bobcool

Thanks for the feedback so far - good to know that these are pleasing to other photographer eyes - I've been looking at them for so long during PP that I'm always finding little nitpicks to fix.

One thing I wanted to share, though. I was adamant that the family wear dark shirts/blouses that more or less blend well, and everyone complied with black, which sets off the faces nicely against the various backgrounds. I asked everyone to wear long sleeves, and even e-mailed them examples of how arms can distract from the face, but most of the women bailed on that one. You should have seen that e-mail thread - it went on forever as I tried to convince them. I think, when they look back on the photos over the years, they will be glad they wore black.

Nikolai

Very nicely done, great job! Large groups are hard to shoot, and you did it well! The last couple is just gorgeous!

leaforte

Honestly, I don't know how to pose clients, but I did feel there was a bit too much costuming going on. I don't know the answer to what folks should wear at a shoot, I am still reading and testing the waters myself, and am bottom of the 'posing' learning curve, but I did 'feel' a 'staged-ness' about all the dark colors in your shots. Do we just suggest dark or light for clients? So many cool things to try!

Swartzy

Beautifully executed.....great poses, great processing!

Elaine

I think you did an excellent job! Large groups intimidate me...well, for that matter, so do small ones. I think you grouped them very well and they look nicely lit and sharp. Well done!

Scott_Quier

Just some random comments:
#2 - The lady on the left dominates the photo. For next time, almost no one looks good square on to the camera.

#3 - It appears you have some pretty strong light fall-off between the first and second row of people. For next time, move the flash back a bit more - this will cause much less light fall-off.

#4 - This is looking very goood; maybe a little more fill, but this is very good.

#5 - The lady on the left is being shaded by the other. Next time, if there's space for it, turn them a little more toward your main light (the sun?) to get a bit more even lighting across the two faces.

I have to say that #4 and #5 are my favorites in this series. I think you did quite well.

Honestly, I don't know how to pose clients, but I did feel there was a bit too much costuming going on. I don't know the answer to what folks should wear at a shoot, I am still reading and testing the waters myself, and am bottom of the 'posing' learning curve, but I did 'feel' a 'staged-ness' about all the dark colors in your shots. Do we just suggest dark or light for clients? So many cool things to try!

I generally suggest clients wear clothes in which they are comfortable. I suggest they avoid short sleeves and pattern/prints as that tends to distract from the faces. To date, I've been pretty successful in that area. I'm still learning the posing thing as well, but now I have more of a clue than in the past. See, I am trainable!

bobcool

leaforte wrote:

Honestly, I don't know how to pose clients, but I did feel there was a bit too much costuming going on. I don't know the answer to what folks should wear at a shoot, I am still reading and testing the waters myself, and am bottom of the 'posing' learning curve, but I did 'feel' a 'staged-ness' about all the dark colors in your shots. Do we just suggest dark or light for clients? So many cool things to try!

I was a bit worried when they said they would all be wearing black, but it works to draw focus to their faces, which is the main part of any portrait. One family could have worn dark brown, or dark blue, and it still would have served the purpose of the shirts not overpowering the photo. With this many people, the shirts actually do take up more space in the photo than their heads, so having dark, muted colors is crucial.

I went back and forth with the family about this being Springtime and here they are wearing long-sleeve black shirts - not very Spring-like! But, after showing them the location and other samples of group pictures with bright, patterned shirts and the same pose with dark, muted colors they agreed to wear dark shirts/blouses and eventually agreed to all wear black.

For other portraits, such as a beach shoot, many people love to go with the white button-down shirts, bluejeans, and no shoes. Even though the white shirts overpower the shot (and metering!), it works well with the sand/surf background.

Do a search on the web for "group posing" or just "posing" and you'll find many different styles, but with similarities within all of them. Also, Amazon has many books on posing - read the reviews and choose one that you think would be worth the money. Thanks for the comments - have a great day!

bobcool

Scott_Quier wrote:

Just some random comments:
#2 - The lady on the left dominates the photo. For next time, almost no one looks good square on to the camera.

#3 - It appears you have some pretty strong light fall-off between the first and second row of people. For next time, move the flash back a bit more - this will cause much less light fall-off.

#4 - This is looking very goood; maybe a little more fill, but this is very good.

#5 - The lady on the left is being shaded by the other. Next time, if there's space for it, turn them a little more toward your main light (the sun?) to get a bit more even lighting across the two faces.

I have to say that #4 and #5 are my favorites in this series. I think you did quite well.

Hi Scott,

Always good to hear your comments - thanks for taking the time! Some responses to your feedback:

#2: Guilty! I can't believe I didn't see this through my viewfinder! The younger man with the glasses was also heavy, and I think I was focusing on where to put him and forgot to go through my mental checklist with her.

#3: Great suggestion! My wife was my assistant (who did great!) and she was holding the flash up above her head at a 45 degree angle from the subjects. Next time I'll be sure and move her back some to eliminate the falloff.

#4: Thanks for the compliment - the sun poked out of the clouds right before I snapped the shutter, and I had to stop and increase the flash power so they wouldn't be too backlit. I corrected some in PP, but didn't want to push it too far.

#5: You should have seen the original - she was even more in the shadows! The pose was strong, so I created another layer and pushed the shadows in that area as much as I could without it being noticeable. Here's another pose with her in more light, but I'm still working on the final PP:



Thanks for commenting - I really respect and appreciate your feedback.

Scott_Quier

bobcool wrote:

#4: Thanks for the compliment - the sun poked out of the clouds right before I snapped the shutter, and I had to stop and increase the flash power so they wouldn't be too backlit. I corrected some in PP, but didn't want to push it too far.

If you haven't already bumped against your max synch speed, the best way to handle this is to increase your shutter speed. This drops the contribution of the ambient light (the sun) while not changing the the effect of the flash. When you bump the flash, that light is now more than originally anticipated unless you also stop down your aperture a bit. Read the strobist's On Assignment blog or his Lighting 101 for more detail on this. He does an excellent job of describing the entire process and, more importantly, the reason why one does each of these.

saurora

Excellent job! I like #1 and #3 the best, but they are all super. That is a really large group and you nailed it! I hate posing and find it the most difficult task in portrait shooting. I think the dark mono-tone colors worked well for the large group. You should feel really good about these!

bobcool

Thanks for the comments and constructive feedback, everyone! Pretty cool that you can do a large group with only one Speedlight and a little help from an assistant, huh?

Have a great week!

joshhuntnm

I think you did a fine job. Here are my nit pics.

1 I like this one best. I like the backlit hair liights

I like the WB in 3 better than 4, but then I alway like warm better than cool.

For reasons Scott mentioned, 3 is the weakest shot for me

I really like the WB and the background in 3. It is textured without but not distracting at all. I normally don't like shots from below the subjects, but this one works.

5 is a little shadowy/ contrasty. I think that might look better with men than women.

Overall I think you did great.

BriShay

I think these are great! I have found family shots to be a lot more difficult than single portraits. I need to work on my posing and what works also.

I don't usually tell them how to dress, but i do make suggestions, no stripes etc....sometimes they listen sometimes they don't.

I think they will love them!

Vycor

Photos are fine... but the family needs to losen up and have some fun. They all look so tense don't they?

bobcool

Vycor wrote:

Photos are fine... but the family needs to losen up and have some fun. They all look so tense don't they?

Hi Adam,

I picked the more serious ones to show you - this family was actually pretty laid back, and has a good sense of humor - check out this one:

ShepsMom

Hah!! Love that last one!!!!! I was gonna say they look pretty posed and stiff, but #1 is my favorite shot, very well composed.

#2 and 4, i would have prefered to see all of them in frame, no cut legs, butts, etc...

Well done shots otherwise, nice light!