Family Portraits

Dragonlady · November 26, 2008

Hi!
I have been lurking (learning) for quite a while on dgrin. I have only recently felt brave enough to come out of hiding!! My family thinks I am fairly good at photography. They don't see the great pictures posted here at dgrin. Anyway, I am working at getting better. My daughter, her husband and stepsons came over Sat. evening for a session. I had wanted to do this eariler in the day and outside but that did not happen. I used a 580II with umbella for main lighting camera left and 430 speedlight camera right for fill. Please let me know what I could do to improve.
1.

2.

3.

4.

ISO 200 f/8

Thanks for any advice offered.

jeffreaux2 · November 26, 2008

I am absolutely NOT a studio lighting expert....but....

A couple things I see:

In the first photo, the fill looks like it could have used a bit more power....just a bit...

In the full length shots, there is a shadow on the lower right of each one. Whatever caused that should be relocated.

As a matter of tastes, I would prefer they were farther from the background and that it were outside of the plane of focus.

As a matter of opinion, I think you are off to a very good start.

I am hoping to put together the stands and umbrellas needed to put a similar set up together. Would you be interested in being specific in your lighting tools, stands, umbrellas, sizes, brandnames? Are you also using an umbrella on the fill flash....it appears not, but that might help soften even more.

Thanks for sharing!

PixNW · November 27, 2008

Very nice first go at it.

#1 More fill light needed camera right. Subjects should be further from background.

#2 Hands in pockets are generally not good. Dressed more casually thumbs hooked in pockets is okay. The way they are dressed I don't think either is appropriate, though the thumbs hooked in pockets would look more natural. Again, further from backround.

#3 This is my favorite, composition wise. Further from background.

#4 Great crop. Dad's face has too much of a shadow. Further from backdrop.

I think all of these would have been improved quite a bit with the subject being further from the background. A little tweaking and you'll be there.

roentarre · November 27, 2008

The lighting is very good. Superb job. I really enjoy this series of images.

crockett · November 27, 2008

Very nice job for a first try.

Things to think about:

For a traditional family portrait (looks as if this was your intention) your lighting ratio should be tighter. Your key side (camera left) is much stronger than your fill light.

You really shouldn't "fill" from camera right. Your fill should be on the same axis as the lens and above it. There are no hard rules in photography but this will definately get you off to a better start in my opinion. For example, in photo #1, if you bring your fill from the same axis as the camera then you do a much better job of filling in that shadow between the mans head and the women's neck. Also, tightening up your lighting ratio will help this as well.

1. I would like to see the wives hands reveresed if that is her wedding ring. This way the ring shows in the photo better. The image seems underexposed on my monitor but I'm on my uncalibrated crap monitor right now. I would like to see more even lighting bringing the highlight to shadow ratio close to 1:1. See above.

2. I would consider flopping the boys position and trying mom touching the youngest in some way. Tallest boy is a bit to close to 45 degrees in both body angle and face angle. I slight turn would help.

3.

. You made the exact same corrections I mentioned above and I hadn't even looked at it! I like this one much better. This is definately standard family portrait stuff and it looks good. A couple small nits. I would prefer to see the young boys' knees and feet positioned the same as the older boys. I realize it is tight on room but you could create that space by shifting the older boy's chair just a tad camera right. Finally, I would consider moving the younger boys chair just a tad closer to the camera and if you have the room the older boy's chair a tad further back. This will create the optical illusion of making the younger boy just a tad larger and create more balance in the composition. When you have a pose like this that really works, I hope you shot a head and bust version as well.

4. I don't like the posing because I feel both the boys looking out of photo is really grabbing my attention and causing me to bounce between both of them and creating tension in the photograph. Of course, tension is the last thing we want in a tradition family portrait. But it is "different" type of posing I'll give you that.

Dragonlady · November 30, 2008

Thank you all so much for the feedback. This will help me the very much next time.

Family Portraits

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