practicing..

Ok, so I'm practicing natural light portraits on my children, woring with different ideas each week to pop in my portfolio to show prospective clients the ideas I have.Last week I worked with water, and as its winter here, I using the bath and shower for my girls to splash in.
Obviously when it is clients over the toys wont be in there and I will crop a little tighter, this was a practice session only, what do you all think?


I will try to post different photos each week from my themes, this week (starting today) is flowers and bubbles

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/ekir78/58990960​42/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/ekir78/58985276​07/

The aperture setting is good. The first one, the flash was abit harsh and drained out her skin tones abit. Also with the second one... abit over exposed and skin tones looking washed out. I like the splash of water frozen in space and sharpness of the pictures. Adorable little girl you have there

Thankyou!

She thinks she is pretty adorable too, lol

I overexposed in pp, coz her eyes where little dark, but thanks for the feedback, as I was wondering if I pushed it too far..

Try selecting just the eyes and brightening them rather than the whole image. Otherwise, way to capture the action in these shots!

Are your photos OK to edit? I am not sure how that works on this forum....

I wonder why would any mother who owns a camera (probably about 99% do) would be willing to pay you to take snapshots of their children in a bathtub, or playing in the backyard or riding on the bicycles or swimming in a pool when they can do exactly the same on camera flash lit images for free themselves?

Benji

I think you are going to find that it will take a bit to find your signature look. These are novice aside from the obvious subject talent. The compositions are fairly weak though not entirely dull. There is an art to getting the light to work for you and making sure you are getting sharp well composed captures.

^ tend to agree with both above me. Your composition also needs work.

Before you rush into a portfolio, you really need to understand the settings and how the gear works together. Take your time, there is no rush to learning.

I fee l there is a growing population of people who are over the 'pixi photo' look ( no offence to pixi photos!

I hav done reserch and found that most mothers want relaxed natural portraits of thier children where their children are comfortable. These are only examples f the IDEAS I have, not the actual portfolio images, at the moment I am working on a collection of images of my and my friends children to put together a portfolio, and as I have three under four years it is a looong process!

Thank you for your feedback, I realaise theese are a little snapshotty, they are my children, not paying clients, lol

What I ws wondering is, in a relaxed setting with a qualified photographer who understands children as opposed to getting the children all together and trooping off to a studio somewhere, the advantageds/disadvanta​ges going through the prospective clients minds?

Any thoughts?

PS: this is a working thread, I plan to add more ideas if people continue to support and cc me!

Cheers,


Lou.

I think it would be a good idea, but Im not sure if people want someone coming into their house. Some people might prefer that their kids go to a studio. It would be better if you had a studio and did house visits...but Im sure that's a long way down the road...with a lot more money invested.

Thanks chumlee!

yeah I see your point, your house is your home, your space etc..and yup, a studio would be something I could mayyyybbeee do when we get that ten acres with a livable shed on it that we are looking for!

Many photographers have this theme of natural photography. I like the idea. To take photos of kids doing everyday things in a natural setting. What I think the comment above me was saying is that having a photographer taking shots of their child in a bath tub or other 'personal space' is something that most parents would not feel comfortable doing. Many many many photographers do on location photography but it is usually at a local park, or at least that is what I see in my area. You don't need a studio setup to start out. The stiff poses, and the 'say cheese' smiles while sitting on a chair in front of a fake background.... I agree with you, people want something more real. I would suggest offering your location as up to the client, so they can choose an outdoor location or their home. Not everyone wants the location in their home.

I think what some of the other comments above me were saying is that these particular pictures are missing a 'zap'. Do you have an external flash? Even mounted on top with a bounce card will even out your lighting. I found some pics for you that you can compare to yours, to maybe help you see what I am saying... Check out pictures 6 and 7 on this link. This type of photo would look good with an action shot, like yours too:

http://www.advancedpho​tography.net …ate-kid-meets-flying-mom/

If you are going to ask for CC on natural shots that don't look posed, why not show us some finished product, because to be quite honest, I didn't know that anything was obviously intentionally wrong.

The essence of natural photos isn't in snap shots, I think that is getting normal and natural mixed up. Dynamic and premeditated lighting and/or recognizing beautiful ambient light is the key to great images. Truly, people will pay for natural looking images, but no one wants to pay for normal ones. Not to be too harsh, but these are normal, as in 'my sisters iphone photo gallery of her child' normal.

I checked out your flikr... and you have so much more potential than this. IDEAS or not, I know you did not have your 'eyes open' when you took these. Get out of your comfort zone.

Ekir wrote in post #12699129
Obviously when it is clients over the toys wont be in there and I will crop a little tighter