Chillun - C&C welcome

FoxT

Well, I have 3 sons, aged 19, 17, & 8. My mission is to get a 'decent' 12"x12" portrait of each. Now the 8 yo is cool with being photographed but has the attention span of a gnat. As for the other 2 , they are allergic so there is no q. of a 'portrait', the best that can be done is some kind of quasi - candid....I think I have 2 of them shot plausibly presentably - would welcome your C&C on these:

http://picasaweb.google.com/Jforrest1/2010Portraits?authkey=Gv1sRgCNWayOnZu7eAUQ&feat=directlink

and

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/qZqVQtRKaei2WZibnYXdqVOpEyKjN0wppQk5Pz4ClGw?feat=directlink


Thanks!

- FoxT

FoxT

This whole embedded image thing is beyond me. Sorry lads, I cant figure it out! So if anybody can help with that it'd be great.

Thanks,

FoxT

melekalikimaka

give em a boot in the arse for some proper shots imo. if not, maybe work on the background, the yelow/white split is a bit distracting

FoxT

.. is a very tempting prospect, I'd love to call 'Sit down there you little Bashturt till I take your photo' but if I attempted that I would face even more resistance + wrath of The Mammy!!!

Good comment about the background though - I agree with you. Recently got a 50 f/1.4 so shall proceed stealthily to take wide open shots in background-neutral kind of places....

To elaborate a little - I read somewhere recently that portraits ought to have something extra present, or, something missing. I have 00's of shots of these 2 boys, but I felt these were the most interesting - young fella loves lego, and I got him to pose for about 5 mins... caught the older guy using his mobile to talk to a friend, a candid shot, when I looked at it afterwards I thought his face very adult,his hand very childlike.... maybe thats just my daddy hormones though, hence request for C&C!

-FoxT

hbr

I like the picture of the younger lad. Nicely framed

I think the older fellow is cropped too tight (the photo, not the haircut) and
the lighting is a bit dodgy. Overexposed on the left side.

Good luck with photographing the teenagers. I know what it is like, we have
two of them here. "G'way ya weirdo!" "leemee lone, ya spa!"......

A good BUTA or try bribing them. Phone credit is always a good incentive.

smelltheglove

My advice, from experience, lads are often harder to agree to have their picture taken for display. Now usually when there is a stranger taking the picture they dont want to embarass themselves and want to get it over and done with as this is not the case you will need to tacke it differently.

An example, I have a 13yr old brother, for the life of me he would not allow me to take confirmation pictures of him at home, I got moods and temper tantrums, it was not happening, so I gave up. I asked my mam to bring him into me in work. Whilst there he opened up completely, did what I asked and we got some great results. Whats the difference? There were strangers around, he didnt want to embarrass himself and he was told, look if we can get this over with nice and quickly you can go home and relax. Tell the kids you want to get some pics, take them to the beach or the park and get some nice outdoor pictures where they are not as likely to throw a tantrum on you!