Lighting, for the most part, plus poses

OK, this shot has some problems. To save your time I'll tell you what I know and you can help me along with the rest:

1. I wanted to shoot this while the background was still sun lit but I ran out of time. It's darker than I wanted.
2. My wife was gone and I really struggled to get 4 kids to look reasonably good. You should see the discards.

I shot this with 5D, 35L, f/8, 1/100, 430EX remote, diffused on 42" umbrella about 45 degrees off to the left.

I'm looking for comments on the lighting (pretend I shot this a little earlier and the BG isn't so dark) and comments (suggestions) on posing these four supposing my wife is home to help me.

Thanks!

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Technically, its a good photo. Posing doesn't make it. When shooting 3 or more in a group, it is common practice to arrange the subjects in a diamond pattern. It's also wise to keep limbs in the same plane whenever possible.

IMOP, your photo is worthy of a spot in any family album.

As far as the lighting goes, it doesn't look too bad, but to me it looks a little hotter on the two faces on the left side of the image (the older girl holding the younger kid) which would be consistent with your description of the shot (one umbrella to the left). I'm sure there are others here who could be more specific, but it's been my experience that if you're only working with one or two subjects, you can get away with the single umbrella/light box off the the side, but in a case like this where you have multiple subjects and have them spread out across the horizontal plane in regards to your light, you're going to have problems with light fall off...which is what looks to be the problem here (IMHO). Again it's not bad, but on my monitor at least, it is noticeable.

Next time, -if- you have two flashes and two umbrellas, I'd go with one on each side. If you only have the one flash, I'd go with the ol' portrait studio stand-by and position the flash/umbrella pretty much over your right shoulder. You will loose some depth in the lighting and shadows this way, but you will get a more consistent lighting across the whole field as it were.

Now as to the poses....hmmmmmm. I think I might have tried putting the older child holding the younger sibling in the middle with the two kids on the right on either side...that "diamond pattern" that jam was talking about. I also may have tried the same thing without the wicker love seat...just put the kids on the ground instead. It also looks like you were a little below the kids shooting up at them...in either case, I'd try to shoot more on a level plane with the kids.

Also I find it a little distracting that the kid in the lap isn't really looking at the camera. This is a tough thing with a single kid, let alone multiple kids...trying to get them all to look at the camera at the same time. The older kid should be fairly co-operative, but for the younger kids, I'd probably try and have a favorite toy or something available and pull it out just before you hit the shutter! Something that will get everyone's attention centered on the camera...maybe even mom making goofy faces just behind you or something. Not to be rude, but shooting kids is a lot like shooting dogs (which I do a lot) in that they tend to have very limited attention spans and their focus tends to wander rather quickly. I would say that what ever "tricks" you plan to use (mom, toys or otherwise), make sure you have them ready before the shoot so that when the time comes to press the shutter button, you can pull them out, get the shot and hopefully walk away with something great! If it takes more than 5 or 10 minutes tops, I'd let it go and try another day.

As Jam said, it's a fairly decent shot as is and should make for a nice scrap book memory but I think if you work at it a little, you can come up with a real wall hanger .

Peace,
Jim

Thanks for the suggestion. I was thinking of moving the light closer to the axis as suggested, but I was also thinking about a longer focal length which would need it more to the side or it will be too far back to power.....I'll have to experiment.

Good ideas on the posing. I'll reshoot this with my wife's help to both get them positioned to to get them to look at me.

I feel like I'm preaching to the choir but a little shadows/highlights work in PS will help this image a lot.

I also think the point of view is too low - very cute overall though!