My first atemp at a few portraits !

[BADGER.BRAD]

My wife asked me to do a number of shots of my eight grand kids to put on canvas as a Christmas gift for my children/their parents, I thought a photo of each family group and then a shot of all of them, I also made the mistake of thinking this would be easy ! I have a new camera Sony A6000 which I had brought that day so I also used a back up camera in case I really screwed up but in all fairness this was O.k. The photo of the eight grand kids proved impossible ,when I looked back at the images there was always at least one kid with their eyes closed, looking the other way or trying to kill each other, the fact that the sun was really bright did not help with their eyes closed and looking away bits ! I managed a number of photos of two of the family groups which are below and the other group turned up from two different directions and hadn't paid any attention to my breathe of bright colours (not sure where I based this idea from !) one turning up in black and the other in white ! this ends up being the black and white photo. The main thing I learnt from this was I have a lots to learn ! The images are pretty much unedited as at this point I have very limited editing experience. The wall as a back ground didn't work to well , I think this could have been improved a little by putting a little bit of distance between the the kids and it. Please feel free to coment on how I may have improved them.

 

[BADGER.BRAD]

And this one was taken by my 5 year old grandson of my oldest grandsons girl friend , I think I'll ask him for some advise ! he really does love using the camera.

 

[scott199]

I’m no expert but my first impressions are.

Sun seems very high in the sky, I’m guessing midday/early afternoon ?
If so you’ve set yourself a very difficult task to start with.

 

[BADGER.BRAD]

You are right Scott it was about 12 noon although in fairness I had no control over the time that they could all be together. What sort of times do you think would have been better as I do intend to take plenty more photos of the family groups before I choose the final shots ? The shots with the wall behind were an attempt to avoid the bright sun as the house was causing a shadow, this was mainly to stop the kids having to squint.

 

[rick448]

I'd say a bit of fill in flash would help with them, especially the first and last.

 

[scott199]

You are right Scott it was about 12 noon although in fairness I had no control over the time that they could all be together. What sort of times do you think would have been better as I do intend to take plenty more photos of the family groups before I choose the final shots ? The shots with the wall behind were an attempt to avoid the bright sun as the house was causing a shadow, this was mainly to stop the kids having to squint.

Morning or afternoon are best, you have the option to use fill flash as above and other things, but assuming you don’t have and don’t want to spend loads.

Go for early morning or late afternoon/evening as the sun will be softer, midday the sun is at its hardest, creates harsh shadows and eats colour, also difficult for subjects.

Going for shade is fine but I don’t think the red bricks are doing you any favours, you could try pulling them away, so you have more distance between your subject and background, this will blur it a little/or lot depending on lens (research bokeh ) or maybe I see trees in the background, using these for shade or cast an artistic sun flare through them could work?

Or maybe under a garden umbrella or something, if you do want or have to shoot in midday the sun a simple bounce screen to lighten the shadows under their eyes, chin, cheek bones could work.

But please bear in mind it’s your pictures and your “style” so it’s your opinion that counts.

most of what you see around will have a fair amount of post processing to lift the shadows and reduce the highlights and adjust colours (all this can be done at basic level on the standard iOS edit part on iPhones/iPads a quick 5 second adjust on my phone attached)

 

[Deleted member 34016]

Use a flash - put the sun behind the subjects - personally I'd use an off camera flash on TTL to lift the shadows-

for BG choose a bland featureless wall, door what ever you have to hand a place your subject well in front at least a metre or more if the location allows.

sometimes a nice out of focus landscape as a BG can make a pleasing image

Like this one of my Mrs in Wales

Keep the ISO as low as you can without compromising shutter speed ( which needs to be at least that of the focal length of the lens used, preferably faster if possible) for example a 50mm lens I would use a minimum of 1/50th sec or as fast as you can given your chosen aperture / ISO-.

Or if using flash then the sync speed of your Flash/Camera and use a nice fast lens if you have one ( usually a prime gives better results). say a cheap 50mm f1.8 - they do give usable results in my experience.

The 2nd image could do with a faster shutter speed and a smaller aperture to keep all the subjects in focus

I have lifted the exposure and a sharpen of your second image in Photoshop - just as an example of what I mean- obviously getting it right in camera
is preferable to using PP.


The Grandson's girlfriend image is way out of focus by the way

Les

 

[BADGER.BRAD]

Thanks everyone for your input, much appreciated. This photography larks is far more complicated than I first thought !

 

[West Camera]

If you are going to use fill flash or any flash for that matter I would use a hand held/off camera strobe. Much better control that way for angle of the light and reduce shadowing when shooting on a close background.

 

[Ben johns]

What lens did you use out of interest? Was it the kit lens?
I’ve been asked to do similar photos before and I’m terrible at it! The best photos of family I’ve taken have all been in the moment.
Actually I did take a nice one of my little sister once...probably more luck than judgement

 

[Deleted member 34016]

If you are going to use fill flash or any flash for that matter I would use a hand held/off camera strobe. Much better control that way for angle of the light and reduce shadowing when shooting on a close background.

Just what I said

Les

 

[md101]

They’re great, keep at it.