Family of 4

I recently had the opportunity to shoot these family friends. I don't usually do family pictures (more landscape and such).

Constructive critique is welcome.

Thanks for looking.

Randy

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Heya,

I like #2 better.

First one has as weird composition for me, kind of random looking.

Both look a little overexposed.

Very best,

Thanks for the comments!

That's a good looking family.

The exposure on the faces is all over the place. Looks like it got pulled up in post, overall exposure on the face and bodies doesn't look consistent enough for flash (faces are lit but shirts still completely black with no detail), hard to tell.
The sun looks low in #1 but it is off to the side of the group. I try to put the sun directly behind people when it is that low and use flash to fill in the shadows. The less light that hits the sides of faces, the less chance of completely blowing out that side of the face when either pulling up shadows (hard to match/look natural) or using flash. I would have probably tried to group them a little tighter. The gap between mom and dad could have a son in it, and the son on the left could be pulled in a little tighter. Try to avoid big open spaces between them when in a grouped shot like that; and usually center around mom, but obviously no "rule" is in stone.
#2 face exposures are all over the place again. Dad is in the shadow and half obstructed. Could have stood on the outside of the barn like mom. Being IN that opening doesn't actually help in any way to me because it just cuts people off with rails and walls in front of them. All the weeds sticking up in the bottom of the frame is distracting. Shooting from higher up will remove that stuff. If the family is the focus of the photo then they should be front and center, not hidden.

BrickR,

Thanks so much for the pointers! I really do appreciate constructive comments as I try to learn to shoot better people pictures!


Randy

I agree with BrickR in regards to post processing. Did you shoot and process in JPG because that is what it looks like because of blown out areas and loss of color/detail from pushing exposures

Taking pictures in direct sunlight at this time of day is always hard. Remember that you eyes can see so much more than your camera.

In the second picture it would have been better to put them in all light or shade. Below is my attempt to retrieve a little, but recovering in post is hard.

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CanonVsNikon wrote:

Yes I did - but I intentionally de-saturated the shot to give a somewhat old picture look to it.


As to proper exposure - as I mentioned, I don't usually shoot people so I'm learning - what is the best way to get proper/even facial exposure?

Thanks