CC Please - 2nd Ever Family Shoot

I think any critiques you give me on this photo will apply to all of the others in my shoot. If you want to see more, I have them on my flickr site. If you happen to go there, you will see SOOC and Version 2s. I did this so the family can pick out which they like and then I will PP them later. Probably more info than you were looking for there. I tend to ramble.

Anywhoo - please cc this one.

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I think you should crop or clone the top of the pic with the other side of the lake in it. lighting looks good to me.Looks nice and sharp on my monitor, colors and skin tones look fine. The older boy is blocking the mom a little, a couple of forced smiles,

Went to look at flickr, I think they look fine, Really like the group pic of the kids in front of the lake, the edited one.

I like the idea of getting rid of the shoreline. Would not have thought of that. Thanks!

Here's the edit

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shoreline. that's the word i was looking for. was kinda sleepy this morning

I think this edit looks much better..

I like the lighting on this...nice and soft. What was your lighting setup here?

Only suggestion might be to move the girl on the left (orange flower in her hair) back a bit so she's not casting a shadow on her sister, or possibly move the light slightly in closer to camera to reduce the shadow.

Like Ian said, a couple of forced smiles...only trick I know for this is to shoot a bunch of different frames locked down on a tripod and try to get enough shots to where you can swap heads if need be. Or do it the easy way and figure out how to get everyone to laugh at something. If you figure that one out, let me know.

I took a look at your flickr stream to see the rest of the images from the shoot...you did a good job on the shoot, especially considering this is your second family shoot and such a large family at that.

Thanks! I used a 580exII into a reflective umbrella just to the left of the frame.