[Wired]

Ok, forgive me as I shot these on my D800. but I would like some advice on how to complete this to make it the best possible.

I feel I may have to reshoot myself and the wife. But any other tips would be fantastic. Thanks

[link81]

i think it would be neat to grey card the wall they will be hanging on, and take the pictures in front of it (the wall, not the card :-)) then it will look like you're between the glass and the wall, subtle, but neat effect.

also try and even out the sizes, your wife looks really tiny, and you look like a giant, just based on perspective

really cool project, i like the idea alot.

[LFLee]

Ok, forgive me as I shot these on my D800. but I would like some advice on how to complete this to make it the best possible.

I feel I may have to reshoot myself and the wife. But any other tips would be fantastic. Thanks

I think the only thing needed to "correct" is re-shoot the adults with better flash, removing harsh shadow...
nice family!

[Wired]

thanks for the suggestions. I totally agree, wifey is too small. I can still fix that in post.

yea, I see the issue with the shadows. I did only use a beauty light on my 400w strobe set to 2.8 and thought I should probably do a backdrop flash to get rid of the shadows, but I think we were too close to the wall for it to take effect. I did take the images on the wall where I want to hang them, and the working area is next to none (big bed in the way. lol)

[tuco]

I like the idea there. Nice. Are you using softboxes or umbrellas? The light looks hard. And having your subject inches from the background will cast shadows softbox or not. Also with multiple strobes, experiment shooting them at different strengths to get a contrast ratio which can add more depth to the face.

[Wired]

I like the idea there. Nice. Are you using softboxes or umbrellas? The light looks hard. And having your subject inches from the background will cast shadows softbox or not. Also with multiple strobes, experiment shooting them at different strengths to get a contrast ratio which can add more depth to the face.

Yea, I wish I still had my studio setup for this but it was turned into a nursery. I may redo them all under a backlight background to get rid of those shadows. I had two strobes setup, one just off the side of the camera, 400w unit set at 2.8 power. Then I had a SB700 flash gun on the ground set to full power to try and illuminate the backdrop, but we were just too close. I wanted to do this project on the wall we were going to hang them on, but i'm having issues with shadows. I forgot my softboxes at a friends studio so all I had with me was one of my Elinchrom lights and a beauty dish and my Nikon, Pentax flashguns.

[Schraubstock]

Hi

As stated above, the two adult faces should be identical in size. The child's face should be scaled proportionally, and personally I don't like that dad has his head shopped off at the top which is in contrast to mum's. Also if you decide on frames I would prefer less contrasting black frames but would chose a softer colour.

Better still think of removing the frames altogether and do a frame-less display behind acrylic (with a wider Passe-Partout !) which would overcome the black frame separation affect you have now. A frame-less mounting would create a better flow for a viewer's eyes. You also have one picture with a narrower frame which is not good.

Should you wish to stick with the black frames, or any other, please consider to make the Passe-Partout wider. The narrow ones as they are now make the pictures look crammed. Narrow Passe-Partouts are the most common mistake people make when mounting pictures. A well proportioned Passe-Partout will make a picture, a badly proportioned one will ruin it. (A good framer will know this)

Just my take of it as I see it.

Greetings

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Last edited by Schraubstock; 12-09-2013 at 10:12 PM. Reason: correcting mistake

[Serx]

Hi
dominated by a portrait of the child, and the position of your wife does not enviable. it does not bother her? I would make a triptych proportionate and of course without mourning black frames ..

[dcBear78]

Eyes looking down and dejected at your child and wife? That's just the impression I get from it. Doesn't come across as a happy family series of photos that I am sure (hoping) was the intention. Plus there is a subconscious dominance/sub dominance thing with the positions of people. I think a horizontal layout would be much better.

[Wired]

Hi
dominated by a portrait of the child, and the position of your wife does not enviable. it does not bother her? I would make a triptych proportionate and of course without mourning black frames ..

Eyes looking down and dejected at your child and wife? That's just the impression I get from it. Doesn't come across as a happy family series of photos that I am sure (hoping) was the intention. Plus there is a subconscious dominance/sub dominance thing with the positions of people. I think a horizontal layout would be much better.

I mentioned that to the wife actually before I even posted... the me looking down and her looking up. And she didn't care, her opinion was "whatever, I'm not that caddy, you know that" so whatever. I'd rather look up.

The idea is for both of us looking at the kid with amazement. We discussed horizontal but she likes the angled version better. I'm gonna reshoot the two of us anyways because I never liked my expression anyways, even before it was brought up it looks dejected, even though its supposed to be the complete opposite.

[imaspy]

the poses need to be friendlier, as others have mentioned. and the flash is waaaay too harsh. once the flash is under control the concept will start to gel a lot better

[Wired]

this is a new version we did today... I feel I need to teach my wife how to use autofocus...

[Serx]

perfect! different feel to create a real family atmosphere, which is not affected even compositional placement of your wife

[Schraubstock]

Hi

Better, but you are not quite there yet.
In my opinion the baby's head size is still a bit big and thus out of scale with dad's and mum's. It looks like as if the baby's photo was not taken as part of the project. I don't like the baby's skin tones and the overall colouring, thus being out of tune or out of sync so to say. Re-shoot the baby with these considerations in mind.

Greetings
and happy festive season.

[imaspy]

youve taken the skin softening a bit too far on your wife's shot. she looks all plastic-y!