Fam portrait/ washed out?

[Nori]

Hello everyone!

Here's my first family shoot, are they too washed out or its just me? I like the colors but there's something bothering me about it... Any other critiques are welcome

Thanks!



90mm f/8.0 ISO 200 1/250sec

[Fernando]

It's a nice shot. It's not necessarily washed out, it's just that the guy and baby are both wearing a white shirt while standing in front of a very light background, so they tend to blend in a bit too much, while the girl is wearing a BRIGHT hot pink dress by the looks of it. If that dress was actually Red (like her earings) and not pinkish then yeah you have some overexposure problems there... but their faces look fairly correctly exposed, so I dont think that's really the problem. Did you happen to bump up the saturation at all? Sometimes that really affects Reds and turns them this pinkish hue.
The faces look correctly exposed, so I don't think there is too much you can do to fix anything else.. however that being said this shot in my mind is OK and does not need any more post processing fixing anyway.... just next time try to set them up in front of a different background when you see they are wearing something that blends in too much.

[Nori]

Thank you so much for your feedback Fernando, I did bumped up the saturation and vibrance but not much, her dress was pink. I was trying to get a solid background and that was the only one in this position, didn't give it much thought at the moment about the similarity of colors, but thanks I'll keep it in mind next time

cheers,
Nori

[MindyRaeL]

I don't think the photo is washed out, but I do think that the WB is a little too cold. You've captured a warm, loving moment, but the cold WB betrays that tenderness. I'd love to see it with the WB warmed up a bit. The head chop on the dad is bothering me a bit too. I'm a fan of head chops if done right, but I don't think it works here. Do you have one that's pulled back a little further?
I agree with Fernando that the hot pink dress is throwing things off too. I'm not sure what editing program you're working with, but you could try the red saturation slider and see if that helps to turn it down a bit.
Overall, I think you've caught a great moment here, and it just needs some slight tweaking.

[ccting]

Originally Posted by Fernando

It's a nice shot. It's not necessarily washed out, it's just that the guy and baby are both wearing a white shirt while standing in front of a very light background, so they tend to blend in a bit too much, while the girl is wearing a BRIGHT hot pink dress by the looks of it. If that dress was actually Red (like her earings) and not pinkish then yeah you have some overexposure problems there... but their faces look fairly correctly exposed, so I dont think that's really the problem. Did you happen to bump up the saturation at all? Sometimes that really affects Reds and turns them this pinkish hue.
The faces look correctly exposed, so I don't think there is too much you can do to fix anything else.. however that being said this shot in my mind is OK and does not need any more post processing fixing anyway.... just next time try to set them up in front of a different background when you see they are wearing something that blends in too much.

Agree. The pretty lady should have change her clothes to white too. It is great that the sand is not the background. Perhaps post production to darken the white clothes more than the background . Distraction from red. What if we crop the image to exclude the red clothes? Cropped to exclude the baby's leg?? By now, i believe your focus in no more the red clothes.

Or just turn to B&W or single color pic ;D





I am just a noob, correct me if I am wrong..

[Nori]

Originally Posted by MindyRaeL

I don't think the photo is washed out, but I do think that the WB is a little too cold. You've captured a warm, loving moment, but the cold WB betrays that tenderness. I'd love to see it with the WB warmed up a bit. The head chop on the dad is bothering me a bit too. I'm a fan of head chops if done right, but I don't think it works here. Do you have one that's pulled back a little further?
I agree with Fernando that the hot pink dress is throwing things off too. I'm not sure what editing program you're working with, but you could try the red saturation slider and see if that helps to turn it down a bit.
Overall, I think you've caught a great moment here, and it just needs some slight tweaking.

Hi MindyRael, thanks for your comment.... I agree with you, the head chop on the dad is bothering me too a little bit, but It was a diagonal picture and when I straighten it up that was the best I could do. And yes, maybe I went "saturation happy" hehe, I just got LR3 2 days ago and still learning about it, but I only bumped the saturation a +13

I did checked the WB, but it was ok, I can see what you say about warming it up a bit because of the moment... I didn't thought about it like that, but definitely will keep it in mind

thank you!