Well, I am working on different aspects of working in the studio. Riley gets cranky when lights are low and strobes flash. Actually, I have brought him into the studio every three months and shot his mother as my first maternity shoot. My goal was to see what I could do with a 1/2 hour of shoot time (or less). I got 40 images and of those 25 could be presented to a client for sale - maybe even more.
Hi Kathy,
First I must congratulate you on your industry and devotion to set up your new family portrait gallery. This gives me joy as we can feel bonded to you in your efforts as part of OPF as like the mothers you photograph, your loving attention and skill has been there from the early times to delivery and beyond. That's how we feel about your studio, almost our child!
Next kudos for noticing t
he new prefix drop down menu in the dialog box for starting threads. By doing this people will be able to find work according to topic in the prefix.
Now to this portrait. We'll all ignore the band accross the lower end which cuts through his feet since in a print I'm sure this would be much smaller and is just there for identification. Could be smaller if you have a smaller version as it's distracting.
1.
Immediate Impact: Smiling infant seated against black background. Well illuminated and exposed in blue sweater and mostly Cyan like pants with straps over the sweater.
2.
Pose: Child is comfortable and has obvious energy. This is great.
3.
Composition:
- First we need to be captured by the face. That's really the mid face, (the eyes to the lips)
- Next we need a strong harmonious chest and head of hair to encompass the face.
- Then, the whole body form should be harmonious and not clumsy
- Lastly the background should be less powerful than the person.
Any patterns or clash of colors on clothes are potential issues. Also the most important part of the child is the mid-face. Here, however we have a strong pattern in weak colors on the pants with narrow straps that detract from the strong blue of the sweater. This is complex and competes with the childs face.
The lighting on Riley's forehead is bright and to some extent, pulls attention from his mid face. This might be worth experimenting with by burning this in or locally selecting this area with a large feather, (of say 10-20 pixels) and adjusting with curves to make this area less important. Whatever one decides, come back after a break and reduce this correction as much as you can as there's always a tendency to over do any isolated correction. That for me is an absolute rule. So your best, then reduce its contribution. Sometimes only 7% of a change will really do the trick!
Riley's lovely blonde-brown hair is an asset for the picture that might well be better exploited as it would add balance. Right now it is plastered down flat. Perhaps a more full head of hair and even curls if they are natural, would add much to the picture.
The background seems to me to be very harsh and dominant negative space that immediately captures one's attention. It's a component here which creates a dichotomy that is only required if one is declaring something metaphorical. Could you perhaps try close trimming away of as much as the black as possible and see if Riley gets to dominate the picture and make the background irrelevant. Perhaps you made this black in order to swop out the b.g. for a beach scene or such, and so my comments here are just academic. If this is, indeed,
the chosen background, then I'd consider making it lighter or relieving it with a cloud pattern, so it's not so important. The backgrounds that Will uses are light, add fun an do not steal our attention.
A man's face, with the detail of the skin and strong jaw and nose feature can take a black background more easily. Partial black backgrounds, ie vignetting at the corners and edges can be a remarkably easy way to increase the impact of a portrait.
I hope, Kathy, my comments are at least somewhat helpful and might strengthen you work. However, esthetics come in here and I can only give my limited opinion and this may fall short of what your client ordered.
Thanks for contributing Riley's portrait for critique.
Asher
