Photoshoot for a friend. What do you think?

[jagphoto]

I am nervous about what everyone thinks. This is my first time posting for critiques, but I am looking forward to what everyone will say. I love how much ya'll are so helpful to each other.

Lisa

[shutterflypro]

It looks as if you are blowing out his skin tones. If you were using flash you need to use your flash compensation quite a bit. Also you might want to switch your camera to spot metering. That way it will meter off just their face. That really helped me a lot especially in bright conditions.

[84NETgal]

i like the composition and candid pose of #2 a lot, you've really captured his kid-like nature! well done! I do agree about the blown out skin tones--might want to try some levels in PS on that?

[sraulers]

Cute kid! You've taken some good shots here and I like the composition and poses.

My $.02 worth (from which you're probably due some change):

1) The direct light looks a little harsh, to the extent that his skin *almost* looks blown out on my screen. You might try warming the skin tones a little bit.

2) The images look a bit soft on my monitor (which may be what you wanted). I'm having a hard time figuring out where the focus was in some cases.

3) Did you shoot these in Raw or JPG?

Now I'll get out of the way and let the pros give you their opinions...

[Roy]

What kind of camera and lens? If you could give some exif information it might help to figure out what's going on. I see lots of potential.

[CypressPhotog]

Composition and DOF are great. Eyes seem a little soft and ofcourse skin is blown out. You can probably help these both in PS. Yes...it's time to spend MORE money!

[jagphoto]

Thank you everyone!! Yes, I guess I get to spend more money today. I want to really work with these. Next I'll probably have questions about PS, but I know I've got great people to help. Like.....what is a good starter program. I don't need CS2 right away....do I??

Thanks,
Lisa

[shutterflypro]

Unfortunately CS2 is pretty much a necessity. You might be able to get away with lesser programs for a while but why waste the money when you are going to need CS2 at some point in time.

I highly reccomend that you go ahead and bite that bullet.

[AjP]

To have CS2 is great, but you can do without it for a while, you can use Adobe Elements ( usually comes with camera)

agree with other, looks a little overexposed/too much highlights and definately needs some post processing

otherwise great posing and capture!!!!!!

[Jake]

I think agree with Ashot, Adobe Elements will do for now if you are short on cash.

[Holly]

Elements is fine for now. Most of us started off with that as well. If you did use flash on these, make sure you are set on high speed sync, otherwise your shutter speeds will not go above 1/250...and you will get blown shots. (been there/done that)

Overall:
Watch cropping. Try to avoid compositions that would crop at joints (#1) or that would chop off parts of hands. (#2).
Would really like to see eye contact...but with small children that is sometimes hard to achieve.
Nice DOF...and I would really love the second pose if I could see more of his face.

Nice job overall! :)

[adam7731]

that is some great catalog work right there. little over on the face but the poses look great.

[jagphoto]

Thank you everyone!!! I think I might just have my husband convinced he needs to get me CS2 for Valentine's Day!! Forget the box of chocolates or flowers.

Lisa

[Holly]

Thank you everyone!!! I think I might just have my husband convinced he needs to get me CS2 for Valentine's Day!! Forget the box of chocolates or flowers.

And so it begins.... monopods for Mother's Day ('05), Macro lenses for Christmas ('04)....camera bodies for birthdays.... ('04).... lol...your holidays and anniversaries are about to ROCK!! :)

You can always wait until the day after Valentines to get chocolate...you can get twice as many because they are 50% off! :) lol

[lscottpht]

Originally Posted by jagphoto

Thank you everyone!! Yes, I guess I get to spend more money today. I want to really work with these. Next I'll probably have questions about PS, but I know I've got great people to help. Like.....what is a good starter program. I don't need CS2 right away....do I??

Thanks,
Lisa

I've been working as a photojournalist with PS Elements 3.0 for quite awhile. Yes, CS2 is better, and it's what I have now, but Elements is fine for what you need at this point.