Friends kids

A friend wanted some photos of her kids to give to her husband for valentines day. Since I recently purchased a set of alien bees, I figured what better way to practice. All C&C would be muchly appreciated
Thanks, Dave

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a couple more

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I just noticed the bad PP in getting rid of the creases in the background.

I like the shot with the cowboy hat very cute!

Those kids are adorable. the baby's eyes are HUGE, love 'em. Ill fitting leotards on babies is one of my pet peeves, and this is where the photographer sometimes needs to guide the parents on this one. Those white leotards are tragic in that second shot, as they are so baggy. Would much rather have seen her perfect little piggy toes, like in the last one, than the baggy white leotards. Still, you got a cute little smile out of her and nice lights in her eyes.

The first shot has nice light in his eyes, but the posing needs work. Sitting on his hands gives an awkward arm crop and being straight on to the camera is a bit passport photo-ish. Maybe you could crop in PP to make a head and shoulders shot? There is nothing that says that you can't pose a kid straight on to the camera, but angling his shoulders slightly to one side and tend bringing his face towards the camera has a bit more style to it. Love his smile in that shot. It is big enough to be pleasant, but not so large that his eyes wrinkle up and you lose the beautiful shape of them. Nice.

Not a huge fan of the black background in that second shot, where the baby is on a white blanket. Very old school and too much contrast for my taste, but that's my personal bias.

In the shot where the little boy is holding the baby, her clothes don't fit well, the bloomers are huge, and the collar is up all over the place. The little boy should have been old enough to hold her securely so you would have plenty of time to prop up the baby, fix her clothes, arrange his hands on her etc. If he is sitting on a stool where he could potentially drop a squirmy baby, you probably had to shoot pretty fast. Better to have him sitting on the floor with a "criss cross apple sauce" leg placement, so you could prop the baby on his thigh. Mom should always be right beside babies in shoots anyway, to help out with the clothing issues, drool, etc. but it appears that she is to one side of you helping to make them smile?

As for the cowboy hat shot, not a fan. hat is too big for her, and the color dominates the photo. She has such pretty eyes, I would rather see that shot without the hat, but that's just me. I love that she wasn't wearing a shirt in that shot though. baby skin is like velvet and I love to see it in photos. the pretty blanket would have given us the clue to her gender, didn't need the hat. Very cute kids.

Thanks for the comments. He was not into getting his photo taken, and I totally agree about the leotards, but she wanted them on her.
Thanks again for the comments.
Dave