First Two Paid Photo Shoots

[santifrog]

Recently I had my first two official photo shoots for some friends. The first one was portraits of four little boys and the other one was a family portrait.

Comments and suggestions appreciated :]
Especially about lighting, posing and composition, etc
Thanks!

[smc1377]

Seems a little on the red/magenta side. Did you do a white balance or shoot raw where that's easily changeable?

the second one doesnt work for me, i think the background (the wall paper) is distracting and the family looks so stiff and straight, wanna try and get them to relax and have fun, comfortable. i also noticed that they are all at the same level, maybe have some sitting on the floor, and some kneeing or in the chair? this is how i would have done it... have the parents in the chairs in the center, and have the daughter (that is laying in the laps), on the floor in front, the two other daughters kneeling on either side but alittle in front of the parents and the son sitting higher or standing behind parents.... good effort for a first paid shoot

[t blanchard]

The first one is cute.

In the second one, the guy in the last row looks like he doesn't belong there, and his head seems very small in comparison to the others. His head might be smaller, but in that case I would move him closer to the camera. I would maybe try another way of posing them where there is more balance between all of the people. I think even online you can find some guidelines about how to group multiple people for portraits.

In the second one I would also just look out for the little details that you can have your clients fix - for instance the girl laying down - her necklace fell down to her armpit and it is distracting.

Good luck!! And congrats on having a paid shoot

[ryandaleySD]

The first one is great. Especially growing up with all boys and having a son myself, the picture catches the feeling of a group of rambunctious boys.

The second, I will have to agree with the other post in that something doesnt feel right in the photo. I think for me, its the wallpaper in the background, its a little distracting.

Overall I think they are good though, especially for your first paid shoot!

Did you use natural lighting in the photograph or did you use lights? Just wondering with the lighting because it looks good, especially in the first photo.

[santifrog]

smc1377 - Yeah I shot in RAW so i can fix that :] Thanks!

ntinlizi & tblanchard - Thanks for the suggestions. We (my dad was assisting,) tried to get them to relax and loosen up and get close to each other but they weren't really cooperative, lol. And the guy in the back didn't really want to be there :P So I did the best I could and there wasn't a whole lot more I could do about that

We tried moving them around in different positions similar to what ntinlizi suggested but it didn't really work out. It looks even more awkward than this one.

ryandaleySD - Yeah the wallpaper started bothering me too, I wasnt quite sure what to do about it and they didn't have room anywhere else where they all fit so I'll have to try and mess with it a little maybe.
I got some strobe lights and soft boxes and stuff online from B&H and thats what I used for both photos

Thanks everyone for your comments

[Wooglah]

Well, main thing is that they like it... If they don't, you can try again, if you want happy customers who will recommend you further...

[Jim Bryant]

Good effort on your first try. In the second pix, the studio lights were reflected in their glasses. You can solve that problem two ways. Have them pull their glasses down over their nose or tilt their heads down a tad. I guess you don't have modeling lights on your strobes. I keep the modeling lights on, so I can see imperfections before I shoot the photos.