Mother's Day Lighting

[ericw]

Took this after I made some Mother's Day pictures and convinced him he looked especially good. After seeing the picture he agreed he was looking good so I think I did pretty well Please critique the lighting setup and balance, posing, and composition.



Focal Length: 50mm
Aperture: f/11
Shutter: 1/100
ISO 100
Flash: Vivitar 285 high camera right, Vivitar 2800 low camera left, shot in the shade at midday.

[ttosifa]

Something about the lighting bugs me. I think maybe that it just doesn't look natural or pleasing. I'm not sure what it is.

It's like your blasting him with hard light and he's very bright where he's lit and very dark where he's not. The lights don't seem to blend well with the background -- I think the shadows on the leaves are going a different direction than those on him (it's hard to tell with this size of picture). I personally like underexposing the ambient, but I think you did a little too much here. And I would have preferred a larger aperture so the leaves weren't as much in focus. Together this might have given you a blending of more pastel colors.

Sorry to be so vague. Technically it looks fine.

[ericw]

Ok, thanks for the response.

[tjphoto]

He looks great for an older man,You probably cant get them much happier.However do you notice the shadow on the chair? and do you notice the shadow down his right arm. Just tweak the curves,and next time you can try a shade but you need more hands for this.Also his fingers on his left hand look too spread out you can see he was nervous.

[swtcherry81]

I like the picture it turned out really good and I think the lighting worked well. The only thing I might change is the way the subject is sitting. He looks a little too tense/stiff. Maybe if you had him tilt his head to his right a little and relax his shoulders it would soften the picture a little more. Other than that great job.