Capturing their personality

Hi Everyone,

I recently took a couple of portraits of my Aunt and Uncle. I tried my best to capture their personalities by surrounding them in the things they love. Do you think i have pulled it off?

Also I would like to receive any other comments advice etc on the lighting, composition and your overall impression of the photographs.

many Thanks,

NicholasBB

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The picture of your uncle definitely gives me a feel for him. The whole thing works for me.

Uncle Brian is super...the lighting on the face against the dark background works better than your aunt image. I would dodge a bit of light on the hidden side of his face and crop the whole image a bit more esp to eliminate that thing on the floor - bottom left. The dramatic lighting suits him.....would not work for aunty.
You might try a vignette for your aunt's image. The pose just does not look right but technically good.

^ Agree, and also with the crop, although I see where that does come into play, the times over and over he has rolled on that chair. Your Aunt does look pretty, but posed.

Thanks everyone for the feedback and I hope to get more. Your comments make alot of sense. In regard to my uncle, I wanted to keep the worn floor in the image in order to portray to the viewer (as flo also mentioned), the years and years he has spent in his studio. Everyone has a favorite place to be and this is his.

I'll try to give the dodge a go on the darker side of the face, but I have been struggling with the dodge tool in GIMP.

My Uncle was alot more into the whole session more so than my aunt, and we spent a great hour or two really getting into the flow together. I said just be yourself, lets talk and ill snap shots as we go along. overall I am very happy with the result, yet I know I still need to fine tune my post editing. As for my Aunt, she was more shy and hmm... awkward, and I felt I had to hurry a bit more with her. She was very concious of her tummy and was always trying to cover up. Had I more time, I would have recomposed and considered her pose and surroundings more.

I have attached the converted Jpeg image (unable to upload the RAW) and would be very happy if some one would like to attempt re-editing the image for me. I would very much like to see someones expert touch so i can see where I need to improve.

Many thanks and please keep the advice and critique coming.

NicholasBB

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I really like this photo, and as is its fabulous.....but.its nasty raining here and I want to play

Crop 8X10 getting rid of the upper space, then added GND to the upper and lower portions, a little dodge on the side of his face....

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The floor under your uncle's chair caught my eye (already mentioned by Flo) and it superb. The study with him light and the books less so, is wonderful.