Portrait: Mother and Daughter (C&C Appreciated)

[Oz_Beachside]

Hello,
Loving being back in Melbourne, shooting more which is great.

Here are a couple from last week, very happy client. Love to hear your thoughts on our work, and any feedback most welcome.

Thanks in Advance,
Bruce

[chrisk]

they are both beautifully exposed.

love the mothers smile in the first and the tongue/hand position thing with the youngster is cool; playful and fits the mood. i would have preferred if her foot wasn't chopped though.

the second is just stunning, looks about 1/2 stop OE which suits the shot. great pose, awesome rug. love it to bits. if that was my little girl that would be a very large print on the wall without question.

[Matt. K]

Lighting is nicely placed to maximise the form of your subjects. They have that 3D pop off the page look that is a mark of the professional photographer. Good poses and nice exposure. Perhaps the second image could have been slightly improved with another prop...vase of flowers or pet rabbit....I find that the lines of direction as dictated by her gaze tend to lead the eye out of the image somewhat...but that's a minor point and others may disagree. Very nice commercial quality photography.

[Greg B]

These are fantastic shots Bruce. What I particularly like is that - aside from the
very high quality - they have none of that artificiality which seems to be too
common in family/kiddie portraits, to their detriment. These are very natural
and stand out as a consequence.

[Alpha_7]

The lighting is great Bruce very nicely done. I can't get over how young the mum looks, its more like Big and little sister if you ask me


Little nit picks, the foot as mentioned in #1, perhaps a tigher crop just a tad below Mum's ring / hand would work, then you don't get distracted by the missing foot ?

In the second on her right leg, the haze from the white, I'd do a bit of PP to clean up the leg.

[Willy wombat]

Beautiful lighting Bruce. I especially like how the high key lighting has a nice wrap around the child's face in the second image. As mentioned, the white fur rug works well in this set up.

What is the aspect ratio that you have presented in the first image? Looks a bit strage?

[Oz_Beachside]

after I posted this, I thought I'd get a post about the missing hair light, if time permitted I would have liked to add some more light to add shine to the mother's hair. but as I learn on each child portrait session, you have to make the most of the limited time you have before the young ones get restless/tired/cranky etc.

So based on that, the first shot was chosen more for the expression, at the cost of the cropped foot. I tried a few versions as Craig suggested crop close to the mothers hands, but that lost the important aspect of scale that the daughter's right foot/leg brings to the image, so I went with the priorities (generally only photographers notice cropped limbs... ).

Matt, thanks for your positive feedback. I thought about an additional prop, but the client and I agreed that we like the upward eyes, reminding the viewer of how a child looks up at you when they are little.

Steve, the aspect ratio was originally 2:3 for 8x12 prints, but was changed late to 4:5 for 8x10 prints.

Thanks for the feedback on the white casting over her right leg, to be honest, I took the minimalist approach to editing, as I do to any child portraits. Both of these are 95% straight from camera, sing my praises to the large softbox.

the mother will be pleased to hear your comment re age Craig

thanks Greg, I wanted to shoot simple, no extra suitcase/teddy props etc. Just natural, with a simple backdrop.

this will definitely be printed large for the studio wall!

[makario]

gorgeous photos, simple and sweet. The only thing is a few dust bunnies in the top right hand corner.

[Oz_Beachside]

gorgeous photos, simple and sweet. The only thing is a few dust bunnies in the top right hand corner.

thanks Mak, we caught those before the prints

[leek]

Very nicely done Bruce...

You might wanna consider a crop of the first. Maybe a 1:1 towards the top left... including the hands of the mother, but removing the legs and making the head / shoulders the focus... ? It might help solve the problem of the missing foot...

[Oz_Beachside]

after a good nights sleep, taking the "problem" cropped limb on board, I must agree, my logic to keep only one leg was flawed. And my reasoning to show scale is in fact represented with an even better element, the hands. Thanks for the feedback all, here is a re-crop, I think it avoids the problem of cropped off foot, and enhances the personal contact of the image. thanks again