[dane.dawg]

My Boss asked me to take some photos at his house before his sons Grad..
Ive known this family for ten years and was super nervous because I am a wildlife photographer and out of 30k worth of photos over the last three years probably only 100 of them are of people..
Shot manual with flash..
Heres a few and CC would be great because I need help..
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[jnguyen]

The images are sharp and well exposed. On the other hand, the poses appear static. B&H has videos about taking portraits and posing your subjects.

[lesmore49]

I think the photographs are not bad at all. Very good, actually.

I'm not a fan of the 'latest' celebratory group photography where the photographer has the subjects leaping in the air, etc.

These are nice, well exposed, well done traditional portraits....which I'm sure the boss and those photographed will like very much.

[dane.dawg]

Thanx for the comments..

[OrangeKx]

They look great to me.

[Gregory_51]

Hi
Hard to do if you aren't doing much of that kind of photography. Overall good effort. Sharp, you've used fill flash on the first one maybe others but it isn't overpowering the ambient light. I think most people aren't that photogenic, some are, natural smiles etc. He is fairly stiff in his posture, not much you can do about it. Group shots are a pain because there are always people who can't pay attention for 5 seconds while you take the photo. I might suggest some pp work on a couple. I did a quick edit to see what I could come up with. The first some blurring of the background, cloned out the branch above his head and cloned out the bright flowers as they compete for the viewers attention. Also a bit of work with the contrast and a bit of a vignette. The second a bit of work on tones and blurring of the background to isolate the couple. I guess with photos I advise people to look past the subject or imagine they aren't there for a moment and look at the background what jumps out at you, will it detract from the subject. Anyway I posted the results on flkr, just my 2 cents. Suggested edit of photo by dane.dawg | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Suggested edit of photo by dane.dawg | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[MADDSNIPER]

Overall pretty nice snaps, I do tend to agree with Gregory_51 and his comments.

The backgrounds used in all the photos I would describe as 'quite good' certainly not bad, but not amazing either.


I do have a bit of an issue with the fancy car shot, I really cant tell what the subject of this shot is, is it the guy, or is it the car. I personally feel for things such as weddings, grads etc it should always be about the people in the shots with everything else complimenting the people but the car really takes away from that. Thats not to say you couldnt have a shot with the car in it, but I feel it needs to play a lesser role, eg. the guy could have been sat on the bonnet of the car with only part of the car in shot.


edit: you use photoshop dont you gregory? ive seen your edits in other peoples threads and have always loved what you have done with the originals, how did you learn the ins and outs of the program?

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Last edited by MADDSNIPER; 06-27-2013 at 10:46 AM.

[dane.dawg]

Great edits Gregory_51, thank you very much..

[Gregory_51]

Glad you liked them dane.dawg.
Madsnipper, thanks. Yes photoshop or photoshop elements. Great programs. Some people don't like to alter their photos much, I'm the opposite I love to play around with my images. As for learning, many hours goofing around, reading magazines and books or watching the vast array of tutorials on the web. You get better with practice, not that I consider myself any great wiz at it. Some people can create amazing things like Ben Goossens Ben Goossens - Photo Gallery.

[carrrlangas]

tehy look great!
The poses perhaps look a little unnatural but the quality is there.

[K-9]

Watch the backgrounds. In shot 3, the horizontal line of the foliage cuts across the back of his head. You never want any types of lines intersecting your subjects, especially their heads. It's too distracting.