A few from Sundays Shoot

Jeff_Milo

Had booked a shoot for a family of 4 on Sunday. When I showed up to my suprise there were 14 people. Fortunatly this little lady, Hanna, was one of the extra people, and she just stole the show. C&C always welcome & appreciated.

1.


2.


3.


Best of the rest:

4.


5.


6.


7. Do you like this group shot, I can't decide if I do or not. I was trying not to do something with them all in a row.


Thanks for looking.

Paulcao

1 and 2 are definitly my favorites. Kids can definitly 'steal the show'

#3- I like the idea, but i'm always unsure about these types of angled shots.

As for the last one, I think a larger version would be easir to critique, However, my first impressions are that half the group is in a shadow and the other half isn't.

Looks like you shot during a very harshly lit time of day and the photos look pretty nice imo.

Out of curiousity, mind sharing the location? I'm also in socal.

Jeff_Milo

Paulcao, Thanks for the comments. I replaced #7 with a larger version. Yes the shadows became tough for any group shot I tried. Thinking I was only going to shoot 4 people I did not bring my off camera flashes and soft boxes as I figured my 580ex would be sufficient fill flash for them. Lesson learned ALWAYS BRING EVERYTHING!! I am more interested in the pose, do you like the groupings or do you think they are to spread out. The harsh light i can fix to an extent, I am just wondering if its worth the time.

The location is Soka University in Aliso Viejo. It is a wonderful place to shoot there are countless locations with just wonderful backdrops. You do need to contact the school for permission and may even need a permit to shoot any kind of models there. Expecially weddings, seems it is a very popular place for wedding formals. We had an inside contact as my client built the campus.

Cuong

FlashPhotoBoy wrote:

Had booked a shoot for a family of 4 on Sunday. When I showed up to my suprise there were 14 people....

It's interesting how the 1 was left out. Maybe it meant 4 families.

I like the group composition of #7, but the uneven lighting kinda ruins it. The others are nicely done.

Cuong

Swartzy

Nice shots all. I agree, light in last one is unbalanced. Nice creative posing on that one though. Good job.

joshhuntnm

Love the first one

2 is great too!

3 is a little dark. I would try to expose for the girl. It looks like the light in the background is fooling the sensor--essentially a backlit situation. I like th tilt.

4 -- love the pose!

5 is pretty good for the bright sunlight situation

6 seems a little contrasty. I hate trying to take pictures in bright sunlight!

7 seems like an impossible situation to get a really good photo. theoritically you could select each person on the left and tone down the highlights and bring up the shadows. the people on the right are, of course, dark in the shadow.

Paulcao

Thanks for posting the larger sized group shot. I'd say that I'm also torn I guess. It's not bad or anything--it's just not spectacular(sorry I can't be of more help). It is the sort of pose I would do if I had an assisstant to set up the pose for me, but I wouldn't do it if I was on a shoot by myself. I think it's a little weird that you booked a family of 4 and they showed up with more people. That hasn't happened to me before--I think I would be in shock if that happened.

Jeff_Milo

Cuong wrote:

It's interesting how the 1 was left out. Maybe it meant 4 families.

I myself was wondering if I had mistakingly left the 1 off and forgotten something when I showed up and saw all the people, what happened was they were having a birthday party earlier in the day and when the primary family mentioned that I was comming the second family (the one with the newborn) asked if they thought I would mind if they had shots taken also, before you know it the grandparents were added and I had a big group. In the end it looks like it will work out to my benifit. I have gotten very positive response from all photographed and they all have ordered lots of pictures

Jeff_Milo

Swartzy wrote:

Nice shots all. I agree, light in last one is unbalanced. Nice creative posing on that one though. Good job.

joshhuntnm wrote:

7 seems like an impossible situation to get a really good photo. theoritically you could select each person on the left and tone down the highlights and bring up the shadows. the people on the right are, of course, dark in the shadow.

Thank you both for the kind words! I really struggled in my mind with the group shots. i had tried a couple of them bunched together in front of the fountain and across a reflection pond, but just didn't like what I saw through the lens. When we came across the stairs I saw an opportunity to try something a little different by placing them at different elevations. I had done something similar with a wedding party and had had a favorable response from the B&G. In hindsight I should have made that location the last stop as it would have spread the shadows across the entire stairs and at least balanced out the shot.

Paulcao

FlashPhotoBoy wrote:

I myself was wondering if I had mistakingly left the 1 off and forgotten something when I showed up and saw all the people, what happened was they were having a birthday party earlier in the day and when the primary family mentioned that I was comming the second family (the one with the newborn) asked if they thought I would mind if they had shots taken also, before you know it the grandparents were added and I had a big group. In the end it looks like it will work out to my benifit. I have gotten very positive response from all photographed and they all have ordered lots of pictures

Well I'm glad to hear it worked out.