Isaac's Family

The challenge of any photographer - trying to take enough photos so

that both children will look somewhat natural in one of them. This

is taken in the couple's home, so I had to use what background and

lighting I could find. Natuaral light coming from the left, and I

bounced some off the ceiling. Let me know what you think, or give me

your ideas, please.

Excuse me - NATURAL light. One of these days, I'm going to learn how to spell.

 

Best Regards

Lighting is great, expressions are fabulous, comp is good... it's the added in DOF that looks sloppy to me, especially near the mother's waist and hips and through the stool.

Very perceptive, Erin. There were some reflections back there that would have been even more distracting. Surprisingly, in an 8 X 10 print at 300dpi, it's really not that noticeable, but displayed on the web in a lot fewer pixels, I agree it looks a little sloppy. Thanks for stopping by.

 

Best Regards,

 

Barry

Hey... if it looks good printed... I say run with it!

Barry, that is a very nice family portrait, light is very good, the girls are adorable. The bg. is a tiny bit a distraction, and would have been better to be neutral, but they are so nice that you keep looking at them ! beautiful family you have!

Thanks, Pnina. I agree about the background, but they wanted the picture taken in their house, and this is the only place I could get them far enough away from a wall to provide some DOF separation. My only other choice (which I didn't really consider a choice) was to put them in front of the window through which the light was coming, and use fill flash. It would have worked, but it would have been much more boring, with probably too many shadows, and even more reflections.

 

Always glad to have you drop by.

 

Best Regards,

 

Barry

Given that this image was taken in their home, the background doesn't distract me at all. This is a gorgeous image! And with the little girls' white dresses, you are to be congratulated on the exposure. I'm sure that the family will be thrilled!!

A question: would you mind checking your camera data and looking at your exposure settings, aperture and shutter speed ... and did you bracket at all ... and so on. Also - would you describe where the light was in regard to where the family is situated? And did you use any sort of camera lighting? I've been doing some family portraits with my own family, and want to start doing some for friends in their own homes. Maybe eventually start to sell some of the stuff. We'll see. Thanks!!

This was taken at f8, shutter speed 1/60, ISO400 Fuji film set at 320. I had to get the family away from the wall, so the wall is about ten feet behind them. Those are stairs in the upper left leading to the second story.

 

The natural light is full sun coming from the left through a very large picture window. Mini blinds about half open, or maybe a little less. If I remember correctly, the camera meter read f5.6 for the ambient light, but shooting it with ambient light would have resulted in underexposed faces and shadows. So I bounced the flash (Sunpak 444D, set to ISO400 and f8) directly off the ceiling in front of the subjects, with a reflector card to send a little of the light toward the group. This is the result. I didn't bracket, because I'm pretty familiar with my gear (it's old and so am I), and because the Fuji 400 has such a range that if you get enough light, it will handle the exposure. I would have bracketed if doing slides, but film is so much better and more flexible for portraits (IMO). I took a few of just the kids at f4, with flash at f4, and they came out pretty good, too.

 

This is full frame, with just enough crop to turn the 35mm neg into an 8 X 10. They gave them to everyone in their family, and they have one on their wall. I took about 20 pics just to get one with everyone's expression somewhat reasonable, and even then I have to admit I touched it up a little (but I'm not much of a software master, so I can't do much). That's the challenge of shooting groups, especially with kids.

 

I'm glad you like it - and thanks for the kind words.

 

Best Regards,

 

Barry

Thank you SOOOOooo much ... this is VERY helpful!! (I thought you were in Maine.)

I'm not much on technical detail, just know what I like and I like this one. After reading all the technical stuff you wrote to Lou Ann, maybe I should touch some of those dials on my camera and see what follows. :o)

Oh, my dear Barry ,what a sweet darling Family :):)

 

wonderful oh, full of emotions and joy. You captured their Love :)

 

wonderful dear Friend.

 

Thank you so much for your comment on my Sad Mima :):)

 

Biliana

Joan - your part of the country is WAY too beautiful to be shooting it on automatic "P". :-) Start playing with the manual settings!!