Father/Daughter Dance Critique Please: These are only two pictures that I took a little over a week ago out of about 125. They are the formal portraits and the first I have ever done.

maxamillion Loc: Hampden Maine

These are only two pictures that I took a little over a week ago out of about 125. They are the formal portraits and the first I have ever done. There were a lot of people on this forum that gave me hints and advice in order to help me succeed. So now I am asking, did I succeed?

I do have permission to post these pictures and I know that the butterflies in the background look like they are growing out of heads. It was the committees choice of background so I had to go with it.

Please let me know what you think of the exposure and lighting. I learn from the feedback.

Father and Daughter

Princess

photo guy Loc: Chippewa Falls, WI

Look nice to me.

MWAC Loc: Somewhere East Of Crazy

Ya for your first time! These look pretty good, I think they are a little cool but that is easily fixed.

#1 - you're going to hate me for saying this cause it's going to be in the back of your head every time you shot a person from here on out, but you have to make sure a person's legs are closed, you have a total crotch shot here. (now everytime you look at this picture you are eyes are going to go right to this gentleman's groin region, if it was Johnny Depp it wouldn't be so bad but alas he is not Johnny, David Beckham or Brad Pitt and you are going to forever hate me for drawing your eyes to his "area", sorry).

#2 - you did great here, you didn't blow the white of the dress (I would have) and she looks so pretty. I think it needs warmed up a little but other than that two thumbs up. You did great for your first time out!

maxamillion Loc: Hampden Maine

Thanks for the feedback MWAC. I didn't spit anything on the computer but I did chock on my cracker. What makes it worse is in #1--he is my brother-in-law!. But you are right--I will look. Do you have any suggestions for the seating/standing pose?

I have problems with that whole warm/cool thing. I'm never sure which way to take it and when anything (exposure etc) is too much. Is there a rule of thumb I could follow?

MWAC Loc: Somewhere East Of Crazy

oh man it's your BIL, just don't look at his "area" when he comes over for sunday lunch. ;) Next time have him sit so both legs are together and have his daughter sit on his lap. Or you could her sit and him standing slightly behind her with his hands resting more on her sholders in a fatherly/protective way.

I tend to lean more toward warm tones, so I try to keep my Yellow tones 10 points highter than my Magenta and my Cyan lower than 1/3 to 1/4 of my Magenta (ya there is math involved) . What editing software are you using? When you do your post work are you checking CYMK numbers for correct skin tones?

maxamillion Loc: Hampden Maine

MWAC wrote:

oh man it's your BIL, just don't look at his "... (show quote)

Brunch will never be the same!

I use Lightroom and PSE 10 and I don't check for skin tones. Are there some numbers I should be paying attention to? Thanks for the hint on the warmer tones because I really like what you do in your photos.

MWAC Loc: Somewhere East Of Crazy

I know PS 9 didn't let you read CYMK numbers, I'm not sure about PS10.

LR is a whole different monster and reads it colours differently than other editing programs. I did a cheat sheet for myself on how to better skin tones in LR, I'll try to find it for you. It's been a while since I used it.

maxamillion Loc: Hampden Maine

Appreciate any help you can give me--thanks.

MWAC Loc: Somewhere East Of Crazy

Anytime, I'm always open to giving a lending hand. I'll search for my notes tomorrow afternoon for you.

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

Not bad for first time out!
I assume the light was high as it could go. Umbrella on the right side?
One thing that might have helped, and I'm not sure if it was possible, would have been to open up the aperture and or move them away from the background more to throw it out of focus. Hard to shoot dark suit on a black background w/o using some sort of rim light on the person or light on the background. All in all, good job. Bet the families were tickeled!

maxamillion Loc: Hampden Maine

GoofyNewfie wrote:

Not bad for first time out!
I assume the light was high as it could go. Umbrella on the right side?
One thing that might have helped, and I'm not sure if it was possible, would have been to open up the aperture and or move them away from the background more to throw it out of focus. Hard to shoot dark suit on a black background w/o using some sort of rim light on the person or light on the background. All in all, good job. Bet the families were tickeled!

I had the one soft box next to the camera tipped down. On picture right I had another soft box up as high as I could pointed at the background. On the right was a homemade reflector. I had them pulled out about 4 feet from the background. That was about all the room I had. And you were right, the families liked them a lot.

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

maxamillion wrote:

quote=GoofyNewfie Not bad for first time out! br ... (show quote)

This might have been a good place to use an umbrella as it wraps and spills light more. They are kind of like a shotgun with light and helps fill a bit easier than a softbox. They both have their places. How big and how close was the softbox?

maxamillion Loc: Hampden Maine

The soft box was a 2'x3' and tipped vertical and about 6 feet away? i am going to look into getting at least one umbrella.

GoofyNewfie Loc: Kansas City

maxamillion wrote:

The soft box was a 2'x3' and tipped vertical and about 6 feet away? i am going to look into getting at least one umbrella.

Probably a little small for what you were trying to do.
I would use a white "shoot through" umbrella most of the time for stuff like this.

maxamillion Loc: Hampden Maine

You had suggested using an umbrella in the earlier thread. I should have tried it out before the event because now I am going to get one anyway!