Family Portrait

My first portraits I feel are really worth showing. My sister wanted portraits done with her daughters.

I agree... worth showing for sure. Nice looking family!
From a technical standpoint I think the 1st one may be slightly underexposed. They appear a little hazy (perhaps needs more contrast?). The back of the chair is a little distracting (seems broken, though it could just be the design of the chair). But I like your choice of background and they are posed nicely. I'd say great job for the first go-around!

A couple more



my mom, sister and 2 nieces

I like these better than the first set... and I love the color in the last one, very vibrant! Were these shot RAW or jpg?

I shoot in both but these are jpeg version

The last one is my favorite as well.. I might try shooting it at a different time of day when the sun is not directly in their eyes. They seem to be squinting.

Great job!

Good idea. Try and put them in the shade just out of the direct sunlight and use a reflector if you have one for some fill light if you need to.

You have good composition and I like the idea of trying for the trees in the background the problem is that the light needs to be on them not behind them because it makes there faces in the second shot more darker. This is ok if you have a edititing program light adobe light room but the average Joe doesn't and really you should never shoot to edit some people get so dependent on editing it hurts there skill. the last pic i loved the vibrant color on it that was a great shot the lighting was just right.For the one int he frame it looked very grainy that happens when your ISO is to high or to low. Some new photographers thing "o wow my camera can shoot 1600+" ISO and they set it to the highest and then take pictures outside. When shooting outside usually don't shoot a ISO higher then 400-600 maybe 800 if your doing action shots but usually 400 is fine when you shoot in doors then up the iso to compensate for a lack of light otherwise you end up with heavy grainy pics

Thank you all for CC it helps me ally. Actually i had ISO set to auto but i will remember next time to set at 400 or 800. The shots with the trees behind them they were in the shade. I will try the reflector next time also. Thank you again i will use what i have learned.

OK, here is my input on these... They are all decent photos but each has room for improvement.

#1 - The crop on it is off a bit, you have some negative space on the left side of the photo, but cut the person off on the right side. I would like to see either negative space on the right side or crop the neg. space on the left to even out the shot. Also would have had the person on the right sitting along with the others or moved the entire group forward a bit to get her head out of the trees. Think about the backgrounds as well as the subjects.

#2 – Cropping is the issue on the framed photo again. Why did you cut off the subjects face on the right side? Even it out with some negative space on the right side (hair). Also, the photo seems flat. No defining shadows. Could use some off camera flash or a refelector.

#3 – Agree with what others said about the lighting in the trees. Light needs to be coming from the front to define the faces here. They are once again, very flat to me. Either an off-camera flash or reflector would work here. I might even just crop the over exposed section at the top just to get rid of it. That section is kinda pulling me out of the photo.

#4 – Love the colors, but like others have said, they appear to be squinting. Try a different time of day. Also, get the hair out of the eyes on the person on the right. I wanna see her eyes.

#3 & 4 are my favorites of the set. Look forward to seeing more.

#1 cropped out the neg. space. Mom in the middle was the only one sitting. daughters were both kneeling one happens to be really tall and other is really short. next time I will raise up the shorter daughter a bit.
framed photo. I think this is the framed photo with out the frame. to use that frame I had to do alot of cropping that didn't help the photo.



Thank you for all of the CC I have learned alot from you all.

There you go on #1. Now it looks balanced. Not too much or little weight on either side of the photo.

On #2, the framed shot... In seeing the original, what I would have done is move the crop to the right a bit to include the full face on both subjects. I may also have zoomed out a bit to give myself some negative space at the top and bottom. I could use that latter to simplify the crop latter.

Better yet, shoot the original in Portrait orientation. That way, I see right in camera what it looks like and I can better position my subjects. The other thing I do is take multiple shots in both orientations, so I have many to choose from.

Joiemagic wrote: There you go on #1. Now it looks balanced. Not too much or little weight on either side of the photo.

On #2, the framed shot... In seeing the original, what I would have done is move the crop to the right a bit to include the full face on both subjects. I may also have zoomed out a bit to give myself some negative space at the top and bottom. I could use that latter to simplify the crop latter.

Better yet, shoot the original in Portrait orientation. That way, I see right in camera what it looks like and I can better position my subjects. The other thing I do is take multiple shots in both orientations, so I have many to choose from.

I agree If you think you got the shot the first time take it 3-4 more times and don't be afraid to move back, forward, ,up ,down ,left and ,right etc. to try different angels of the same shot it helps you to not develop photographers version of tunnel vision. You might even find a shot that looks better then the one you originally planned.

Thank you guys that is really helpful. I appreciate it so much.