C&C requested: first time maternity shoot

I only recently started taking photography seriously, and even then it was simply to produce better personal images of my new family. As a result of sharing my images with friends and family on FB, I've had a few friends ask me to take pictures of their kids. For the first time, I had a long-time friend ask me to take some maternity photos. Photos of adults is something new to me and photos of pregnant adults (other than my wife who isn't overly cooperative) is completely uncharted territory. So, I didn't expect much, and thus, wasn't disappointed! lol

Anyway, here are a couple of shots I wanted to solicit some feedback on, if you don't mind.

This is more my style and what I envisioned when asked to do the shoot. I saw the location on the way to their house and told myself we WOULD get a few shots here...

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/q9yU​9u

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/q9yU​by

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/qP81​jP

I think the first 2 are great locations but you had the subjects too close to the center for my liking. Try using the rule of thirds a bit more in your zoomed out shots. The background and foregrounds are incredible. Would love to see the shots inside the dilapidated house as well.

The third one is a great shot! Love the pose and the composition.

Thanks for the specific feedback! I really appreciate it!

CameraMan wrote in post #17421378
I think the first 2 are great locations but you had the subjects too close to the center for my liking. Try using the rule of thirds a bit more in your zoomed out shots. The background and foregrounds are incredible.

You know what's funny... LITERALLY, while I was shooting I was thinking to myself... "these are really centered... but maybe it's okay because they're framed by the trees???" LOL

Apparently not! lol Composition is, for me, definitely a struggle. I've had a digital camera in my possession since 2001 and spent well over a decade learning to center everything because I didn't know any better. It's REALLY been a struggle trying to reverse that "learning". When I said in my initial post that I only recently started taking photography seriously, that's one of the main aspects I was referring to. Thank you for the feedback! A quick question... would you recommend centering the setting, and simply placing the subjects off-center, or composing the shot so that the entire scene is off-center? And if that's the case, would you recommend centering the subjects in the scene, or placing them off-center of the off-centered scene? (sorry for such an awkward sounding question - hopefully it made sense)

CameraMan wrote in post #17421378
Would love to see the shots inside the dilapidated house as well.

They didn't want to risk going inside of the house with her being less than 3 weeks from delivering (and thus, a little unstable on her feet) in case there were rotting floorboards, etc. In the house setting, I literally followed their requests to a "T" so I'm not exactly proud of the shots... but maybe they're better than I think? Here's one...

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/qP4J​RS

CameraMan wrote in post #17421378
The third one is a great shot! Love the pose and the composition.

Thanks! I think I'm not in love with her expression. But I do like the rest. I like that someone else likes it too because there was a group of about 8 or so trees all together, some were straight up and down, and others were at a 45 degree angle. I wanted a shot of her leaning against one of the trees and I really spent some time trying to find the right tree that had a slight lean, and that also afforded a decent background. After spending a couple of minutes in the middle of the trees, this is what I came up with. As I mentioned before, composition isn't my strong suit so it felt like a very small victory to come up with this.

Thanks again for your detailed feedback!

I think you did a great job with the colors and PP - your choice of the 135 @ F2 was also perfect.

I agree with the rule of 1/3rds comment - especially wrt #2.

I try and imagine if I was the client would I like me as the man in #1 - and I'm not sure - but that is just me.

Overall, well done.

jebrady03 wrote in post #17421438
spent well over a decade learning to center everything because I didn't know any better. It's REALLY been a struggle trying to reverse that "learning".

That being said, it's hard for me to look through my early film shots. I had the worst technique. Never learned the rule of thirds until I had a digital camera. I had little knowledge as to how creative a wide aperture really was. I just used it to let more light in when I needed more light. I had perfectly centered photos shot at f/1.8 that were horribly out of focus.

It's definitely a learning experience and you are doing well.

Oh... That's very different from my early shots.... Mine were all centered with infinite depth of field because why would you want anything NOT in focus? LOL

wallstreetoneil wrote in post #17421459
I think you did a great job with the colors and PP - your choice of the 135 @ F2 was also perfect.

I agree with the rule of 1/3rds comment - especially wrt #2.

I try and imagine if I was the client would I like me as the man in #1 - and I'm not sure - but that is just me.

Overall, well done.

Thanks! Especially the PP comment. This is probably the most extensive PP'ing I've done and I was worried it wasn't tasteful.

jebrady03 wrote in post #17421577
Thanks! Especially the PP comment. This is probably the most extensive PP'ing I've done and I was worried it wasn't tasteful.

Your PP is excellent in 1,2&3

In the picture you just posted, #4, I would use a Lightroom technique of a Radial Filter, click the inverted box so that the effect is inside the bubble, and then stretch a shape (oval) over their faces and bigger if desired, and increase the exposure very slightly to make their faces pop a fraction. Because there is also a slight light catching her on her left side of her hair, it will look very natural. Because their dogs are clearly important to them, and the brown dog is also slightly lit, I would use the same technique and add a touch of clarity given the muscular breed.

wallstreetoneil wrote in post #17421630
Your PP is excellent in 1,2&3

In the picture you just posted, #4, I would use a Lightroom technique of a Radial Filter, click the inverted box so that the effect is inside the bubble, and then stretch a shape (oval) over their faces and bigger if desired, and increase the exposure very slightly to make their faces pop a fraction. Because there is also a slight light catching her on her left side of her hair, it will look very natural. Because their dogs are clearly important to them, and the brown dog is also slightly lit, I would use the same technique and add a touch of clarity given the muscular breed.

Thanks for the suggestion. I applied the suggested radial filters and processed a little further as well. I raised the global exposure a tad more and also applied a graduated filter, diagonally, running along the edge of the mom and dogs to lighten up the area to the right. Given how much I've raised the exposure in this one (almost a full stop globally plus local edits), I definitely didn't get it right in camera. Anyway... here's the (further) processed image...

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/q9Xc​gF

I would be greatly appreciative of anyone else who has any constructive criticism and/or insight to offer!
Thanks!

Great pics.

Were they taken using the brenizer method?

hjheathcote wrote in post #17425145
Great pics.

Were they taken using the brenizer method?

Thanks! And no, I'm nowhere near advanced enough (nor do I have the software for it) to pull that off! The majority of the shots I took that day were with the 135L shot wide open.

Beautiful shots in general and I agree with the previous comments
Just a thought on the last image: in the last edit her bump is better separated from the tree and I wish there was even more separation in the mid-tone range.

The dogs are facing to the left while the couple faces to the right which to me creates a conflicting message: the four, soon to be five, are a family and it would be wonderful if all faced the same direction towards the lighter, brighter side of this image. Maybe I am looking for some symbolism that they are looking towards a brighter future with the baby's arrival. But maybe I'm too OCD about things

You've received some great feedback on composition etc and so I'll not reiterate it, but overall these are really, really terrific images. I'm going to mention something that is a pet peeve of mine and you can choose to attend to it or not, but here it is: when shooting women with long hair, especially young women/teens, watch for the hair elastics around the wrist. THEY ALL HAVE THEM and I am forever reminding them to remove them from the wrist during portraits. "But, but, but, you wouldn't be asking them to remove a bracelet, so what's the difference?" I don't know, but there IS a difference because bracelets are jewelry and hair elastics are not. Perhaps I'm a bit OCD in that regard, I really don't like seeing a detail like that left unattended. (and yes, I would ask them to remove a bracelet if it is gawdy and distracting, camera side or interrupting the line of the arm in a negative way...) So there it is: hair elastics, remove them from the wrist.

Short sleeves are another thing that annoy me at times. (yes, I'm a bit nuts). Look at that tree photo and imagine that her shirt had long black sleeves and not short. As it is, the white of her arm is the first thing you see, and it is taking away from the two things we should be looking at first: her baby bump and her face. Our eyes are always drawn to the brightest part of an image, and that white arm against the black shirt jumps out. In a long sleeved black shirt, it would recede and not compete with the bump/face for our attention.

So those are my two little picky pieces of advice. These are amazing images though, you've got consistent lighting, arching tree branches framing her, hands curved around the belly nicely etc. Beautiful. I'm sure they love them, great job!

suecassidy wrote in post #17425552
You've received some great feedback on composition etc and so I'll not reiterate it, but overall these are really, really terrific images. I'm going to mention something that is a pet peeve of mine and you can choose to attend to it or not, but here it is: when shooting women with long hair, especially young women/teens, watch for the hair elastics around the wrist. THEY ALL HAVE THEM and I am forever reminding them to remove them from the wrist during portraits. "But, but, but, you wouldn't be asking them to remove a bracelet, so what's the difference?" I don't know, but there IS a difference because bracelets are jewelry and hair elastics are not. Perhaps I'm a bit OCD in that regard, I really don't like seeing a detail like that left unattended. (and yes, I would ask them to remove a bracelet if it is gawdy and distracting, camera side or interrupting the line of the arm in a negative way...) So there it is: hair elastics, remove them from the wrist.

Short sleeves are another thing that annoy me at times. (yes, I'm a bit nuts). Look at that tree photo and imagine that her shirt had long black sleeves and not short. As it is, the white of her arm is the first thing you see, and it is taking away from the two things we should be looking at first: her baby bump and her face. Our eyes are always drawn to the brightest part of an image, and that white arm against the black shirt jumps out. In a long sleeved black shirt, it would recede and not compete with the bump/face for our attention.

So those are my two little picky pieces of advice. These are amazing images though, you've got consistent lighting, arching tree branches framing her, hands curved around the belly nicely etc. Beautiful. I'm sure they love them, great job!

These are great comments - I was going to mention the hair bracelets - and I almost agree 100%. I have two daughters that play sports and half the time they have 5 on each arm so I learned a long time ago that they come off. The only caveat to this is that if the girl is very young and let's say a stylist 6yr old with skinny arms and it goes with their Madonna esk outfit then and only then do I think they work - and they usually have 7 to 10 on with various colors - in the side profile above I would try and photoshop them out.

With respect to short sleeves I sort of disagree but I handle it with exposure filters to make sure the white arm does not have a brighter exposure than the face - this is easily done in Lightroom. I actually like her bare arm in the side profile picture against the tree - of course with the hair bracelets photoshopped out.