critique please.

hi, got my second studio flash today, made use of it to make the wall of my bedroom bright,second flash fitted with a large softbox located on the right hand side of my little daughter courtney who was the model for the day, let me know your views and how my shots can be improved.

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I really like this one. The light looks good and the dimples are wonderful. And what big eyes she has. Cute girl, nice portrait. You've even managed to maintain some separation with that white t-shirt.

thanx titus123 you comments are much appreciated.

I will comment on the upper picture, only.

I'm looking for better lighting of the face to bring out the great facial contours and give them greater depth or 3-dimensionality.

Imagine placing the lamp at the right considerably higher, so that the light comes more diagonally across the face. Also imagine a slightly darker blouse so that the facial tones are predominantly, but just barely, brighter than the blouse (to keep the blouse from blowing out completely and to keep it from competing). We still want this to be high-key, so don't get a dark material - just something that is more of a mid-range tone. The lamp at the right could be brought back just a little further away from the subject - even with the great diffusion of the softbox, it is still a little too close.

Last, imagine her head rotated just a tiny bit more toward the camera so that her right cheek receives a little more light.

And then, if possible, try to get her to repeat that absolutely wonderful smile.

How about the exact same pose as the top one, but reverse the lighting. Have the softbox at camera-left. It would be a great way to see the differenced between short-lighting and broad-lighting.

hi robert, your indepth views/critique are very much apreciated, i will try again on saturday, the hardest part i find is actually getting any child to sit still for long enough, its getting to a point where i have to bribe here to pose for me, but with the help from people like yourself and others i'm sure i'll get there.

one more question, i've been wanting to make a start at child portrait photography for a little extra cash with the ambition to make a full time occupation of it, but i'm not sure if my pics are good enough, for instance the top pic, if you were the customer would you pay your hard earned cash for a A3 print of that particular pic of there child? (buy the way i dont mean big money just enough to make a small profit).

when/how will i know when my pictures are good enough to make an attempt to have the guts to start the ball rolling.

i do want this and i will keep going untill i am good enough, any more critique from anyone is always welcome, listerned to and acted upon.

Wow, I think both those shots are great. While I may not be as experienced as others here at critiquing the finer points I can say confidently that I would certainly be prepared to purchase shots of that quality.

As a secondary note might I enquire as to which flash/lights/softboxes you own??

Danny

thanx danny, the flashes and soft box are you bog standard cheepo portaflash units

deedspender wrote:
the flashes and soft box are you bog standard cheepo portaflash units

Okay, well they are certainly doing a nice job here!

Thanks for the info!

one more question, i've been wanting to make a start at child portrait photography for a little extra cash with the ambition to make a full time occupation of it, but i'm not sure if my pics are good enough, for instance the top pic, if you were the customer would you pay your hard earned cash for a A3 print of that particular pic of there child? (buy the way i dont mean big money just enough to make a small profit).

when/how will i know when my pictures are good enough to make an attempt to have the guts to start the ball rolling.

i do want this and i will keep going untill i am good enough, any more critique from anyone is always welcome, listerned to and acted upon.

Seriously, you have to consider what it does to a hobby when you start accepting work for pay. I found that it ruined my photography hobby when I started accepting work for pay, so I stopped it immediately. Just give that some thought.

1) If you are going to do child photography for profit, then make sure your studio setup is dedicated, because you don't want to set up once in a while - it must be there, ready, whenever.

2) Don't be bashful about charging good money - you can always be generous with someone who isn't satisfied with the delivered work, but you can't come back and charge more when you see they are satisfied and want more - very important!

3) Take the view that you are an artist, that you get your fees because you're worth it, and make sure that you work with the individual customer until they are satisfied - even if you have to do it over (and over).

4) Be confident and Do not sell cheap!

thanx again Robert, i'm not sure if you are sparing my blushes but could you give me your honest answer to the above question highlighted in red,for you i've had to change the question slightly.

I know next to nothing about studio portraits so can't really comment from a technical perspective, but with my consumers eyes in, I would CERTAINLY part with my hard earned cash as you say, for images of this quality. Absolutely. I love them. Good luck with it - I'm sure you'll do well.

Sorry, I overlooked that question as I got wrapped up in my response. Your problem really struck a chord with me, because my experience in that area was so totally unexpected and un-nerving.

The honest answer to the question is an unqualified "YES". There is no question that your work, with the top picture as the example, is great. However, I don't know how well the lower picture would sell, but that's probably because I'm such a hardshelled traditionalist.