Critique for potential client

So I went to a "Princess Ball" with my toddler and of course I brought my camera. I'm quickly realizing that taking my camera out in public pretty much always attracts attention, and as I was taking pictures of my daughter one of the other mothers notices my camera and strikes up a conversation.. "Are you a professional.. can I have your business card?.." I'm actually working on my business cards at the moment but we exchanged numbers and she wants to hire me for some family event. In any case I took a couple of pictures of her daughter and plan to send them to her as a favor. Plus it was good practice since I haven't had much opportunity to shoot people in bright sun with the gear I got recently.

Feedback appreciated on these. I feel like they are "ok" but I'm not sure how to improve, either with editing or adjusting the camera. The bottom of her dress was not pure white, it was more slightly blueish so the coloring is close.

I think her face needs more fill, 'specially the bags under her eyes.

Here's an edit.

Here's an edit for the other one.

Better but IMO the eyes are still too dark and have no catch-light.

Your ISO is set too high for the conditions. ISO 100 would have been a better choice for the sunny conditions (Sunny f/16 rule), especially since you used f/2 for these shots (ISO320 and f/2 are not normally used together when shooting outdoors in sunny conditions).

When shooting backlit subjects, flash is often needed to fill in the deep shadows around the eyes (and to add a catch light) . There are a lot of inexpensive 3rd party flashes that still allow you to use TTL for fill. If you're going to be shooting professionally, you'll want to have the option of adding flash when needed and at some point, you'll want to get it off camera.

These are still nice images, but they could be improved. You captured nice expressions, used good composition, didn't cut off any body parts and you shot at the subject's level.
Adding a flash to your arsenal and understanding exposure settings a little better, would help you on your journey.

bob_r nicely summarized the potential for improvements. I always think that for such dynamic situations it is more important to have a good eye and intuition for composition then technique - as the latter can be learned much easier.

The eye-bag depth might be improved by finding a shadier spot. People squint in bright light.

Generally, these are nice shots. The parents would be thrilled. However, I prefer a little more space above the head and below the feet.

Did a quick and dirty edit in Lightroom. Increased temp slightly, reduced luminance of green/grass and boosted the saturation slightly.

Used an adjustment brush on her skin to boost saturation slightly and lift shadows, used another to boost exposure on face/under eyes. used spot removal tool set at 30% opacity to reduce but not remove the bags under her eyes.

Quick edit

Dodged some shadow areas (midtones) w/ a 50% brush. Also the eyes on a lower level. Removed bags under the eyes.
Added a touch of contrast and a vignette.
3 minutes.

I actually like her versions better. No offense, but your edit is starting to get into creepy dol looking territory for me. her originals look pretty good with the exception of the eyes. I might have cropped the original to not include the feet, but rather more of an upper body shot. but that is just my taste and nobody is paying me to take pictures.

mikeinctown wrote in post #18063923
No offense, but your edit is starting to get into creepy dol looking territory for me.

They indeed look creepy - but both edits get an important point across: Highlight the face and the eyes. There's where in reality a fill flash comes in and makes your subject pops.

atsilverstein wrote in post #18063406
So I went to a "Princess Ball" with my toddler and of course I brought my camera. . . I feel like they are "ok" but I'm not sure how to improve, either with editing or adjusting the camera.

You have already mastered the two essentials of shooting. Be there and be ready.

No matter how skilled we become at getting camera settings dead on and coming up with excellence in post processing nothing can substitue for getting the right amount and quality of light on our subjects.

In a quickly emerging snap shot situation like yours a bit of fill light from even one flash can make a huge difference. Things get even better when we can choose the source of natural light and provide whatever combination of lights and reflectors we need to get the shot we want.

realize we're working w/ low res jpgs...give me a raw and it would be much different. it was to illustrate a point which it did.

Thanks for the pointers. These were while we were waiting in line to get in but I only spent a couple of minutes taking a few snapshots, and I was limited with space. In any case I'll have to practice with the flash.

I've been erring on the side of safety with letting the camera decide some of the settings. With my old camera I mostly shot in manual mode because I'd pretty much already know what settings I needed from shooting with it for several years. I'm still learning how the camera and lens behaves so clearly I need more practice.