Chealsea, Courtney & Taylor (Critique)

I had the opportunity to do some family portraits for these young ladies. They were great to work with, they had many ideas for photos and really enjoyed being in front of the camera. I had a blast with these 3 young ladies. This was only my 4th portrait session so I'm still a noob. Please harshly critique these photos so I can improve.

1.

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In picture #1, young lady in the back-right is not very well lit. She is figuratively and literally "overshadowed." All look quite a bit underexposed. Finally, portraits are all about eyes, and none of their eyes have "pop." Some of these things can be fixed in post. Spend some time working with these pictures, and you'll have something that you, and they, are happier with.

I guess number two would be my favorite since the lighting is a little better but they all feel a little flat. No pop to them, but I think with some PP you could really get them better. I like the poses and think you did a great job there. All seemed very interactive with the camera, so you nailed that.

The lighting just seems flat. No depth, no wow factor. Maybe its the bg sheet. Not being lit hurts, imo.

DocMike wrote in post #9608692
In picture #1, young lady in the back-right is not very well lit. She is figuratively and literally "overshadowed." All look quite a bit underexposed. Finally, portraits are all about eyes, and none of their eyes have "pop." Some of these things can be fixed in post. Spend some time working with these pictures, and you'll have something that you, and they, are happier with.

+1 for me amd I would aslo light up your backdrop more. Check your WB.

As I said, I'm new to portraits. what is the best way to light the backdrop? Have on of the lights off to the side pointing at the backdrop to light the whole thing up?

I did a quick re-edit on 2 and 3 to fix the WB and bump up the exposure in hopes to make these "pop" a little more.

2 edit

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Got Torque 570 wrote in post #9609437
I did a quick re-edit on 2 and 3 to fix the WB and bump up the exposure in hopes to make these "pop" a little more.

I tried to do a re-edit on the first but I wasn't happy with the results when I tried to brighten up the girl on the right. Are these an improvement?

I think they're a significant improvement. There are now some mild "hot spots" due to the lighting, but realistically speaking, the pictures are now MUCH better, and much more appealing to the eye.

If you turn image editing "on," I might want to give a try at doing something with #1.

I think I turned on image editing, feel free to attempt #1 when you have the chance

they should be moved forward from the background more, and a light used to illuminate the backdrop (after it has been ironed) would be good. Ideally you want at least 6 feet of separation from subject to backdrop, you can get away with 4 if you have good lighting. If these were shot in RAW there is plenty of editing that one could do, even with jpeg.

They are in general, under exposed. As a rule I prefer solid shirts or stripes, checkered shirts aren't my favorite.

#1 with a curves adjustment, then levels with a mask over the front person. It could use more work on the background and I was sloppy with the mask, but you get the idea...

Wow, those adjustments made a huge difference in this shot. What program did you used for this editing?

Are you on a calibrated monitor Doc? quite the pink hue there.

I used photoshop Michael, I usually use lightroom.

Skrim17 wrote in post #9610015
Are you on a calibrated monitor Doc? quite the pink hue there.

No calibration - however, I didn't adjust any of the color curves at all. Just some brightness and contrast - left the colors "as is."

newb here, but I took a crack at it as well: