First Family Shoot

[Weird Girl]

I did a family shoot for a friend and had a blast. I would like to know how I did on the lighting, composition, and editing. I adjusted the skin tones a bit because there were some hot spots- can you tell/how does it look? Any other comments are appreciated!

Nikon D5000
18-55mm lens
1/80
f5
28mm
ISO 200
Strobes (2) fired
Edited in Lightroom

[Hill Country Hack]

I won't comment on the lighting as I am not an expert. I will say everyone is adeqately lit for my taste and untrained eye.

Personally all the eyes are a bit over done for me. Going from left to right, the focus is a bit soft on the first two. The skin PP kid on the far left if a bit much for me. He is looking a bit plastic.

A good job and not a bad photo. I would say just dial back the eyes a bit and you will have a very nice one. Good job for a first time.

[Weird Girl]

Thanks for the comment! I will do some adjusting!

[Doug Sundseth]

The post on the left two subjects looks very odd to me. (At a guess, you reduced exposure on them fairly heavily.) There are significant gray areas that don't look right to me.

The right two subjects look much better.

If you're trying for shadowless lighting, you've largely achieved it.

I'd consider using some other color for the background in the future. Caucasians are largely beige, so using a beige background can make your life more difficult than it needs to be.

[EmyB]

Personally I find it quite an awkward, and unflattering pose for all of them. Especially unflattering for the women in my opinion. I'd hate to have a shot taken of me from side on and low down. Shooting from low down seems to have contributed to this.

Did you edit the guy on the far left's face? He's got some weird shadowing or something going on on his face.

[Weird Girl]

Yeah I can see the akwardness way more on this larger monitor... The background color didn't appear so bad while shooting but in this photo it blends with their faces too much- ugh. I'm going to start fresh, maybe even with a different shot of them and try editing again. What it was is the guy on the far left had some bad hot spots on his forehead along with a lot of acne on his cheek. I see the grey now along with some orange? I will post another later tonight with a differnt pose. As far as the shadowless lighting- is that what makes an image look too flat? Some of the other ones have shadows but looked too harsh to me. I would love for you to revisted this post later tonight to view the new image! I am dying to get good at this. Thanks for the comments!

[Weird Girl]

Oh, and feel free (anyone) to use my photo and edit it to show me what you would do- I like when people do that here because then I can see what steps you would take!

[Doug Sundseth]

I think it is Rick Sammon who says, "Light reveals; shadows define". To avoid harsh shadows, use a large, directional light source (softbox or window light for instance) as your key. Then add fill light a stop or two below the intensity of the key light from close to the camera axis to hold detail in the shadows.

[Weird Girl]

I am using 2 soft boxes but I think one of my issues is editing- I just don't know when it's too much anyway, here's a new photo from the same shoot- is this one better??

[Doug Sundseth]

Definitely better. But I'm still seeing odd color effects on the skin of the left two subjects.

So, whatever you did less of, do more less than before.