There is probably a lot of things to 'fix' in these - but these were the two photos they chose that were they're most favourite and they were happy with them. I had to laugh at one of the photos they took (not shown here) because in the background there's some kind of 'pole' like building thing behind her head.

I'm not much into portraits, but here are two!

1 - this one is my absolute favourite of all the photos I took.



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This post was edited by Chantal7 on May 23 2011 12:20pm

1. I like that the sunlights highlights their hair but usually it's not too appealing if you light up the back side of a person's face if that makes sense... on the plus side I like her smile and it looks like they're having fun which is important!

2. I think having half his face in sunlight creates harsh shadows which I don't find very appealing..

also, the white balance looks a little too blue in the photos so perhaps adding a bit more yellow would help add a little life to them. hope this helps!

Weird - I didn't think there was a WB issue - haha. But there's so many issues. Thanks though, hopefully you pointing them out makes it better next time!

There is no WB issue. Since you helped me with pet photo questions and coz you wear glasses:

1) Lighting location is good. The face looks underexposed, so it is up to you to increase exposure on the facial areas. I enjoy the framing, it is simple, yet unusually creative (because hardly anyone frames anymore). You may want to whiten the girl's teeth. Also, reducing red saturation on the guy's face will help make his skin tones a bit more pleasing to the eye. If you're having trouble understanding what I'm talking about, PM me and i'll edit the photo for you.

2) What I like: they look very relaxed and their smiles are awesome.
What I don't like:
Sunlight spots on face = yuck. The photo is underexposed. Posing on the girl is also a little bad because it shows that she is slightly overweight. Finally, look, the girl has a light post hat! In addition, something is coming out of her butt...
You can somewhat fix the guy's face by reducing brightness on the sunspot and raising brightness on the rest of the face. You can get it to something that's hardly noticeable.
Raise exposure on everything!
About the stuff that looks like it's sticking out: it's your fault and your responsibility to avoid mistakes such as these. The light post sticking out of the girl's head is distracting. Moving yourself to the right could've avoided it. Same thing with the handles on the right. By kneeling on the floor and shooting upwards (while having them place their chins down), you could've avoided the horizontal coming out of her butt and it would've been on her back. You could've also left some more footroom and less headroom.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks for the advice here, Omar! I have learned a lot, especially about background objects. I lol'd when you mentioned them. I just don't seem to pay any attention to those for some reason! I might have questions later about all of this - I think I need to spend more time editing especially when it comes to portraits. Another thing to add - I was unprepared for these shots as my family literally woke me up one morning, told me they wanted pictures, and I got ready for the day and headed out the door so I didn't have time to get things in mind before snapping shots. Is it bad to take shots on a windy day? Probably adds more limitations to the photos ...

This post was edited by Chantal7 on May 23 2011 08:02pm

Windy days = opportunity for epic hair. It sucks

only works with certain hair's! As in my sig, lol.

This post was edited by Chantal7 on May 23 2011 09:55pm

I approve

Hey you. Welcome back!