My first portrait session with a family

[capturedbybrooke]

I need some honest opinions. This is a session I did free of charge to help build up my portfolio. I read a ton about posing, etc before the session, but then when it came down to it, the mom took charge and was doing most of the posing. I didn't want to be rude and wanted to give her the poses she wanted, so I did that and I did some of my own poses. The older couple was more difficult, since they didn't know how to speak English, it was harder to communicate.

My husband thinks the pics turned out too blurry and when I look at them after I saved in psd, then saved as jpeg, the psd's are WAY clearer than the jpegs. Is this normal? Is there a way to keep the quality of the jpegs? I save it to the highest quality (12).

Also does anyone use Imagekind? I don't know if they will order since I am giving them a disc (the last time I am doing that for free). But would like to know the quality and if I should continue with them...

Pics are in the album below:
Gallery Profile | Sell Art Online
password: xene

Thanks!

FYI: I was shooting with a Canon XSi, and alternated between my 50mm 1.8, 10-20mm wide angle, and the kit lens (18-55mm).

[rick020200]

I'll give you my thoughts some individual images. Disclaimer: I'm not a pro.

This one "is nice but" a) its cropped too close on the left, b) is a little over exposed on the mother (which makes me assume that the flash was just off camera right), and c) would be helped with a wider aperture, if possible.

This shot feels odd with the kids looking camera right, but the mom looking at the camera.

This one has an interesting wide angle, but I would like to have seen it from a lower perspective. Trees can be interesting. Carpet not so much.

Fabulous!

Very nice.

Cropped uncomfortably close.

If the client likes the selective color, awesome. Otherwise, I think selective color is done best to highlight the subject (the people) not a posing prop (the fan, in this case).

Beautiful. It would be stellar if the Mommy stocking were behind the mothers head, and the daughters stocking were behind hers.

Stylistically, I think your crops are a little too close. And I think many of your shots would have been helped with a hair light, e.g. separation light coming opposite your main flash. For example, this shot would pop if the kids hair was glowing just a bit on the edges.
I think you should be pleased with the result. It is a fine set of pictures, and I'm sure having to compete with a dominant personality can be very challenging. The real question is, were your clients pleased with the result?

[capturedbybrooke]

Originally Posted by rick020200

I'll give you my thoughts some individual images. Disclaimer: I'm not a pro.

This one "is nice but" a) its cropped too close on the left, b) is a little over exposed on the mother (which makes me assume that the flash was just off camera right), and c) would be helped with a wider aperture, if possible.

This shot feels odd with the kids looking camera right, but the mom looking at the camera.

This one has an interesting wide angle, but I would like to have seen it from a lower perspective. Trees can be interesting. Carpet not so much.

Fabulous!

Very nice.

Cropped uncomfortably close.

If the client likes the selective color, awesome. Otherwise, I think selective color is done best to highlight the subject (the people) not a posing prop (the fan, in this case).

Beautiful. It would be stellar if the Mommy stocking were behind the mothers head, and the daughters stocking were behind hers.

Stylistically, I think your crops are a little too close. And I think many of your shots would have been helped with a hair light, e.g. separation light coming opposite your main flash. For example, this shot would pop if the kids hair was glowing just a bit on the edges.
I think you should be pleased with the result. It is a fine set of pictures, and I'm sure having to compete with a dominant personality can be very challenging. The real question is, were your clients pleased with the result?

Thanks Rick! I agree some of the crops were too close- those were the ones taken with the 50mm I think. I'm still getting used to that lens and I guess I need to pay more attention to the composition. There were some potentially great ones that were cut off way too much on the sides to be usable- I was really disappointed...lesson learned.

As far as hair lights, I will need to try that next time. Is there a way to add 'light' in PS to make it look like hair lights? That would be awesome. Thanks for your opinions!

I don't know yet what the customer thinks- I gave them the link to the album last night, so haven't heard anything back yet.

Anyone else have feedback, critiques?

Thanks!