A Mother's Day Session

saurora

I haven't been shooting much for a while, but wanted to do some portraits of my nieces for my sister's Mother's Day gift. My family lived in a house in the middle of a huge park and it has lots of memories for all of us. It now has been turned into a half-way house for runaway teens. So we headed off to the park on a very hot Sunday morning. It was 95 degrees that day, so we decided on early morning instead of late afternoon. I felt totally out of practice and made numerous mistakes. It's really hard to concentrate on paying attention to background, stray patches of light, shadowed faces due to hair falling over the eyes, etc. I never see a lot of those things until I'm home on the computer and it's too late! Since it was so warm, and we walked quite a distance to get to the spots we wanted to shoot, the energy level just wasn't quite there for creative posing. However, our main goal was to take some shots that would be immediately recognizable to my sister and we achieved that. I used the 85 F1.8 on my Canon 40D for the majority of the shots. I haven't used that lens much, but it performed very well. The last couple were shot with the 24-105 F/4L. I used flash on a bracket with a diffuser. I'm still way uncomfortable with flash, but getting much sharper shots since I started using it. C&C always encouraged!

1.
Warm-up shot with sun-patches! :wink

2.

3. crop from #1

4. The house we grew up in is in the background. I just wanted a suggestion of the house, I didn't want it in focus as there is an ugly iron fence around which created some weird bokeh in some shots. I was so busy framing the front porch of the house, I entirely missed the huge branch appearing to grow from my niece's head. Not something my sister will notice, but I sure did later! :rofl

5. Another shot that was one of the girls' favorites. I had hoped they would do a canvas of this one, but they have decided not to.

6. Another tree shot with the 85.

7. A crop from a shot of the 2 of them. Shot w/ the 24-105F/4L.

8. And lastly, a close-up with the 24-105F/4L. I think the quality of these 2 lenses is very close as far as sharpness and color. The iron fence in the background made for a strange bokeh, but in spite of that and the simplicity of the pose, I still love the shot.


Thanks for looking!!!

Scott_Quier

Well, I have to say that these are all wonderful. I don't see how you could have done anything other than great - given the "material" you had to work with - a couple of very lovely young ladies.

And, I agree on the favorite, I love this one:


As for the flash work - you did a very good job there. Aside from the fact that there are catchlights in the eyes and that there aren't any raccoon eyes, can't even tall you used flash. That's the way it's supposed to be

saurora

Thanks Scott! Yes, having such attractive nieces makes a big part of my job a whole lot easier!

Cuong

Beautiful work. I notice that #1 and #8 are a bit soft around their faces.

Cuong

Rhinotherunt

Great images! 24-105 has a tendency of producing bad bokeh in my experience as well.

ShepsMom

These are really nice! I especially love #5, it appears more sharper then the rest of them. Mom should be happy!

urbanaries

Yay for spring colors!!!
Hi, Susan!!! You chose a beautiful setting for these, and I think you worked it quite well! The color scheme of the orange and green together makes for a very pleasing combination. I agree #5 would be fabulous in a canvas. These are all very well done in regards to background exposure and flash. Those darn trees look pretty in real life but translating that through the lens is quite a challenge, and you did a great job!

I'm not sure if its the web compression or a ratio issue, but I agree with previous post that some of these are soft and/or rasterized in the faces. It almost looks like a gaussian blur mask over their faces but didn't "erase" back detail in lips and eyes.

saurora

Cuong wrote:

Beautiful work. I notice that #1 and #8 are a bit soft around their faces.

Cuong

Thanks Cuong! You're right about the softness. In a couple of the shots I didn't allow for enough DOF and missed getting both in focus. I need to watch that.

saurora

ShepsMom wrote:

These are really nice! I especially love #5, it appears more sharper then the rest of them. Mom should be happy!

Thanks Marina! #5 was sharper out of the camera, but I did intentionally sharpen it thinking it would help maintain the detail (especially in a wide shot) for printing on canvas. Not sure that is correct thinking, but it made sense to me! I'm never quite sure how sharp portraits should be, but I'm leaning more towards sharper shots than previously.

joshhuntnm

Really well done. These are an inspiration.

JimmyZ

Nice colors. Love the tree there sitting on.

saurora

Rhinotherunt wrote:

Great images! 24-105 has a tendency of producing bad bokeh in my experience as well.

Thanks Ryan! I've not really noticed problems with boken before, I just figured shooting that close to a black iron fence was not my smartest decision of the day! The 85 definitely wins hands down for bokeh, though.

saurora

urbanaries wrote:

Hi, Susan!!! You chose a beautiful setting for these, and I think you worked it quite well! The color scheme of the orange and green together makes for a very pleasing combination. I agree #5 would be fabulous in a canvas. These are all very well done in regards to background exposure and flash. Those darn trees look pretty in real life but translating that through the lens is quite a challenge, and you did a great job!

I'm not sure if its the web compression or a ratio issue, but I agree with previous post that some of these are soft and/or rasterized in the faces. It almost looks like a gaussian blur mask over their faces but didn't "erase" back detail in lips and eyes.

Hi Lynne! Thank you! The girls didn't even consult on clothing, it was just a coincidence that they both chose orange. I thought it looked really pretty with all the green, too. My sister and I often wear the same colors when we get together every weekend. I guess it's a sign you're related! I used the portrait setting for the first time on the 40D. It really warmed the shots up to exactly where I like them. I was surpised how these came out of the camera with no green cast. Relieved, too, as it's a pain to work with and I still haven't bought any flash gels yet. The tree is very beautiful and the fun part was watching them try to climb up in it without messing up their clothes. I'll have to re-check the originals for the gaussine blur look as I certainly didn't add that. I did some touchup under the eyes, but not the cheeks or foreheads. I did, however sharpen the eyes...I will have to try to re-work a couple just for the practice.