I attempted our Christmas pic.

Let me know what you think. I thought self portraits were hard... self couple shots are twice as hard! Not sure I have the patience to try this again for a while. Anyway, we usually don't bother with Christmas pictures, I thought it could be fun to do something casual, since I have the lighting setup this year.

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Love the green, the tones all word really nice together. Job well done!

Great job on the image.

What options would be available to add separation from the background? On my calibrated monitor it appears as though there needs to be "something" to ensure that your hair does not blend in with the background...maybe a hairlight or background light coming up...I had the same problem with some images I recently took with people in front of a black background. I would be interested to hear what folks have to suggest.

Keep up the solid work and have FUN!

I like it - I think it's a great shot - I do however agree that you need a little backlight, a small lamp would probably do it (I'm no expert tho!).
You really must give it one more go

You'll get more advice in the Critique Forum instead.

The composition is odd. And dead space on the left 1/3.

The lighting is nice, except the lack of a BG light. The skin looks a little smoothed over and you've chopped off some toes! Just for future reference since, as a Christams pic to send to friends/family, I doubt they'll care about any of the above!

I think it's nice, Is it cropped for 4 X 6 ?

Dan

Very good shot, I like the colors. Two minor problems - your wife's undershirt is hanging out which is distracting takes away from her green blouse, and her toes are chopped off. But as someone else said, these won't really matter to your Christmas card recipients.

Nice shot, you do need a light of some sorts to get you away from that background.

One other picky-point..... but it's not very "Christmasy" - couldn't you have hired a snow machine!? , yes, I know, you did say a couple was bad enough!

....or a bit of red, or holly? ..... or even.....a Christmas Tree (oh, OK, that's a bit over the top! )

Thanks for the comments . I guess the thing I need is a hair light.

JimCapaldi wrote in post #2251809
Very good shot, I like the colors. Two minor problems - your wife's undershirt is hanging out which is distracting takes away from her green blouse, and her toes are chopped off. But as someone else said, these won't really matter to your Christmas card recipients.

I am the wife . I had the white shirt hanging out on purpose, but now I look at it I can see it's the only white part of the picture and could be distracting.

TeeJay wrote in post #2251820
One other picky-point..... but it's not very "Christmasy" - couldn't you have hired a snow machine!? , yes, I know, you did say a couple was bad enough!

....or a bit of red, or holly? ..... or even.....a Christmas Tree (oh, OK, that's a bit over the top! )

lol, yeah as I said, we don't usually do Christmas pics. Actually... we haven't even decorated or had a tree in the 4 years we've been together. The green was our attempt at a Christmas decorating . Point taken, though.

I would crop out the feet, but otherwise, I like the two tone green effect. Personally, I think the totally black background looks fine, but I understand the mention of some for a bit of back lighting.

Is this better? I softened it less, so there's more detail on our faces and clothes. I do have one other picture where our feet aren't cut off, but I'm not keen on the pose.

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The second version is definitely better. When I looked at the first one, the oversmoothed skin was the first thing that jumped out at me. This skin smoothing thing has gotten WAY out of hand IMHO, but I digress. Anyway, nice shot but I agree that it's not very "Christmasy."

Todd

I agree that the 2nd version is better! I also agree with some of the previous posts above mine, Hairlight or backlight would have been nice, and the foot is chopped off a bit.... Otherwise i like it!

nice job on the self "couple" shot