My Kids
 

Hi everyone,

I photographed my kids yesterday using the same backdrop and under the exact same conditions. It was between 3 and 4 in the afternoon and very gray outside (ah, January in Michigan!). I used a large south facing window, placed the kids about six feet in front of it and used a backdrop of a green wool cape. I can't believe the difference in the lighting! Obviously I am not the world's greatest photographer. I shot the photos with my Pentax Optio 33L with 3.2 pixels. I set the white balance on both for shade. My daughter's skin tones read quite true, my son has more olive skin but I was surprised how overexposed and warm the light was on him verses the cool tones on my daughter. I am happy with my daughters and I love the expression on him but the photo may be unsuitable. I want to paint these to hang together. Any thoughts or advice will be greatly appreciated.

Vianna Szabo

I have two thoughts. The first is that your difference may have to do with the subjects relationship with the background. In the shot of your daughter, she seems to be separated from the backgound more than your son. For your daughters case the cameras exposure took less account of the backgound and gave a different exposure. The fact that your son was standing closer to the background made the camera take it more into consideration.

The other thing I have noticed about cloudy days is that if the clouds are patchy you can move into and out of very different lighting situations very quickly, and you don't even realize it's happened.

You've got a good eye, Mike. You're right she was farther away from the background than him. We have another lovely gray day so I'll try and re-shoot the photos when he returns from school.

Thanks, Vianna.

I think that the light measuring differs in the two pictures. In the girls picture it looks like the camera has measured the light on her face correct because the highlights on the left side are correct exposed and the background is underexposed.

On the boy the face is overexposed and the background is correctly exp.
The camera has measured on the background, and that is why the face is overexposed.

Do you have a spot metering in the camera? Be sure to measure at the light parts of the face.

Allan

Let me first say you have great looking kids. Besides the lighting, I think they have different feels to them. As you were saying about your daughter's expression, it has a very classical look to it. Your son has a contemporary feel (earphones wires and all). Nothing wrong with it, I personally like more contemporary poses, but hanging together might be distracting. Or, I could be completely wrong. Good luck.

Vianna, this doesn't exactly fit with your main question. But if you're planning to reshoot, you might want to consider having them face different directions, since you're planning to have them hang together. Just an idea.

John C.

Dear Vianna,

Your daughter is the Girl with the Pearl. Lovely angle, lighting, excellent resource. I also like the picture of your son. Nonetheless, the lighting is superior on your daughter, and I think that's what you should seek with your son so that they are compatible.

The things that I think count most in painting a pair of portraits are:

canvas size
head size
light color and quality
background continuity
and as John mentions, a relationship, direction wise.

So deductively, that leaves you with working with your son's image. Here are some thoughts:

If you are working in photoshop ( I have CS, don't know much about the other versions,) you can adjust color temp through Image, Adjust, Photo filter. I don't know if that will be enough to equalize the color temp, you'd have to try it to see.

Directionally speaking, you could flip one of the images to have the kids face each other. However, the light directions will be opposing. You will have to decide if that works for you or not.

Or you could work both paintings simultaneously, using a color photo image of your daughter , and a high res B/W of your son. Make the color quality and harmony in his painting agree with hers.

Of course, you can always take more pics of your son:) Set him up with the light and direction opposite to your daughter. It might be a good time to experiment with different white balance points in your camera. (Or Diane can come by with her fancy camera, and you can work on the lighting together.)

Good luck. I know these will be excellent paintings.

Allan Rahbeck wrote: That's exactly what I was thinking. It seems as if either spot metering or "center weighted metering" was in effect and the camera metered off a different part of the image in each shot. There's no way to recover enough information in the blown out highlights in the left areas of his face. You'll need to reshoot.

Thank you everyone for the wonderful feed back. I think of this site as portrait university, but P.U. doesn't sound so good. I took more photos of my son yesterday and am happier with the results, however, after reading all the great advice I think I will photograph him again in front of a different window, posing in another direction and use the spot meter. Luckily he is very easy going. Painting your own children is an interesting challenge. The mother in me is looking for those expressions of their personalities that I cherish and makes me overlook artistic flaws in the reference material. I suppose I am my own worst client. Thanks for the compliment, Jimmy, I do have "great looking" kids.

Vianna

Vianna,

That looks much better. Since you are thinking about making a matched pair I would vote for changing your sons jacket, which in contrast to your daughter seems really casual. I think I would go with a collared shirt and sport coat. The suggestion about opposing views is also a good one.

It may be personal preference but I would like to see your daughters head go a little more toward the vertical.