Homecoming pictures of my daughter...

[BTBeilke]

I wasn't sure if I should post these here or in the lighting forum. But, I decided I might get better feedback (C&C) in this forum.

My daughter had her first high school homecoming dance this past weekend. (It's hard for me to totally wrap my mind around how quickly she is growing up.) I only had about 15 minutes between the time she was all ready to go and when we had to take her to meet up with her friends for supper. This is the first time I've really used my relatively new Elinchrom strobes for anything but goofing around. I didn't have time to mess around with any background lighting or colored gels, but I though the gray background would go pretty well with her dress.

BTW, I just let her pose however she wanted to for this as I just wanted her to have fun. In the last picture, she is making a heart with her hands. Apparently that is something that she and her friends do and she wanted the picture for her Facebook page.

Please let me know what you think.

[PhotoTails]

Nice poses. Cute kid. The only thing I think you should have done in the first couple of shots is get yourself a little higher than your model. This will make her legs not look so long with a short body. I also think their a little under exposed.

[BTBeilke]

Originally Posted by PhotoTails

Nice poses. Cute kid. The only thing I think you should have done in the first couple of shots is get yourself a little higher than your model. This will make her legs not look so long with a short body. I also think their a little under exposed.

When I processed these yesterday, they looked a bit "brighter" on my laptop monitor but when I looked at them at work today, they look a bit underexposed to me also. My new laptop has an awesome RGB LCD, but it is so much brighter than a "regular" flat panel that I've struggled a bit tweaking exposures. I've turned the monitor brightness down, but it still isn't quite right. I guess I may need to break down and buy something to calibrate it with.

How much higher are you suggesting I should be? I'm about 13" taller than she is, but I wasn't standing on anything. I do think perhaps that the high "waist band" of her dress tends to shorten the length of her body in relation to her legs. But that is a good suggestion. I hadn't thought about how I might compensate a bit for that look.

Thanks,

[fox]

In regards to her body/leg proportions, I think you did fine in this one. Dresses with a high waistband do tend to create the illusion that the legs are longer. I always feel they made subject look pregnant.

[F/M Bill]

Congrats on making it through such a big event (dad and the first high school dance). My choices would be for the last 3 shots. Didn't care for the first pose or the darker look of the first shot. My first thought of the 3rd shot was that I didn't like the pose but I have since reconsidered. Letting your daughter choose the poses brought a casualness to the shoot. I'm sure you two will have fun on future photo ops and related events in her school career. She is a very cute girl. Good luck.

[Digital Aurora Photography]

I like the second last photo. It is fun and looks relaxed. Very cute photo.
Well Done!

[Michael Bottoms]

Nice shots and cute daughter... They do grow up quickly... I like the last two shots best, with the third being my favourite. I'm not a fan of high waisted dresses, and these last two minimize the effect of this dress. In the third shot, she also just seems a little more relaxed and comfortable. Thanks for sharing

[Slaterza]

These look good she looks very relaxed and like she was having fun. I too am struggling with the laptop and trying to figure a way to get my images right as they always seem to be off depending on the time of day position of the laptop and so forth but it is all I have to work with. So if you come up with a solution to the problem I would love to hear it.

[korrektor]

very natural and very old school/classic. sometimes the absence of edginess (is that even a word?) and simplisity is a breath of fresh air.

[BTBeilke]

Thank you for the kind comments everyone. I've looked at some of your sites and was quite impressed by your work. I truly respect your opinions.

PhotoTails commented that the original pics I posted looked a bit underexposed and they did look "less bright" to me when I saw them on my monitor at work than they did on my laptop. So, I took one of them and tweaked it a bit. To those of you with calibrated systems, does the updated photo (the second one) look better exposure wise?

[Digital Aurora Photography]

Originally Posted by BTBeilke

Thank you for the kind comments everyone. I've looked at some of your sites and was quite impressed by your work. I truly respect your opinions.

PhotoTails commented that the original pics I posted looked a bit underexposed and they did look "less bright" to me when I saw them on my monitor at work than they did on my laptop. So, I took one of them and tweaked it a bit. To those of you with calibrated systems, does the updated photo (the second one) look better exposure wise?

Hello,
I am at work and using a high-end Mac monitor (which is used for graphics and 3D work, so I think the colours have been calibrated), and I believe that the second image is now a bit overexposed. Her face and left arm/shoulder are very un-naturally bright.
I would be happy to hear from other people about which image looks better, as it could just be my monitor.

[Mossman6]

I like #3 the most. As for the lighting subject, I think you pointed your light straight to her face, which made that area a little hot. The falloff of the light down in the legs area would be the reason why they look darker. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

[BTBeilke]

Mossman,

Like I said in my original post, I had very little time to set this up and take some pics. I had one strobe on my left with a Rotolux Octa softbox and one strobe on my right with a shoot-through umbrella. IIRC, the lighting ratio was about 2:1 with the strobe on my right being "2".

Your comments about the falloff are right on though IMO. I noticed the difference between her face/shoulders and her legs when processing the photos. For the full-body shots, the lights really should have been lower. As I had them set up, they were both at about the same height as her head. In fact, I think the umbrella was actually a bit higher than that but pointed downward slightly.

[Slaterza]

I agree that these are a bit bright on the right side. An easy fix in photoshop if you want or if they were shot in camera raw a very easy fix in adobe camera raw. Still feel it is a great shoot none the less.

[jackies35]

Originally Posted by korrektor

very natural and very old school/classic. sometimes the absence of edginess (is that even a word?) and simplisity is a breath of fresh air.

I agree! I love this... I love the fact that the color, exposure, the lighting, etc is right on! (Especially on my laptop)!!