autumn fairy

[2kids2shoot]

Took a few pics of my daughters in their Halloween costumes (first time I ever made any). This is my favorite. It was the first time I used the custom white balance function and was pretty pleased with the colors. I wish it would have removed that branch as well... What do you think?

[MB1]

That is hot!

Great costume and a really good pose.

I pretty much like the photo but if you wanted it to be better/different you might try to seperate the background a little more either by getting some more light on her costume to bring out the colors even more or by moving her away from the background to make it even less in focus. Plus I might like to see all of her wing instead of it being cut off by the right margin.

Still you have a great pose, costume and her expression is wonderful.

[adina]

The branch doesn't bother me at all. I would like to see more wing as well. Also, you might want to play with the curves a bit to brighten it up.

Nice job on the costumes. I had planned on making the girls some this year, they even picked out patterns. Then all hell broke loose and we will be using what we have from years past, or buying some as a last resort.

[2kids2shoot]

Thanks for commenting MB1 and adina.

After reading your comments I agree that her costume could use a bit more zip. It was an overcast day when I took this (I wasted the two nice days this week doing mundane things like food shopping). I'll try tweaking curves. The wing didn't bother me as much but agree it would be better all in. Funny - I hadn't noticed either until you commented. I guess you see what you thought you shot rather than what you actually did.

I've attached 2 other locations I shot at in my yard. I've cropped both a little and had to lighten the one in front of the red bush up (I messed up the metering mode). I'm afraid that one's too noisy.

I'll try and have another go assuming the weather and the 4 year olds cooperate!

2k2s

[dbutler]

These are all adorable!! I wish the trees in the first had been further along in their autumn colors. It wold have appeared as if she was truly coming as a fairy from the trees. The branch didn't bother me either. I thought it was her wand since she is the Autumn Fairy, with leaves and all.

On the second, I just wish her little face was lit a bit more. I love the third one. I can't decide whether I think it would have been better had she not been looking directly at the camera or not. It's still a great shot. And a very cool costume!

[OldSchool]

Hey 2k2s,
Those are all just cute shots. What a great costume. I agree with adena, that they are all a bit dark (and thus flat). Did you shoot RAW? If so, I'd up the exposure before conversion. If not, you can spread out the histogram.
Great shots,
Tim

[2kids2shoot]

dbutler -. I picked that location for first post since I wanted to contrast the costume with the leaves instead of blending in. I'll try and get another one with the leaves more changed to see what that looks like. The second one I was partial metering and so I'm pretty sure it was metering off her nearly white sweater or face. I upped the exposure on conversion by 1.7 in this post. I may need to try just getting her face. The image is a bit noisy with the histogram all the way to the right and ISO 800. For the third pose, I was trying to convince her to bend down and look into the pond but I think she was afraid she'd fall in so this was the alternate pose!

OldSchool. I did play with exposure comp some. It is a bit dark but a larger problem is that the lighting is just flat due the overcast day.

Again, thanks for all your suggestions!

[Chunk]

I think your choice of background worked well and agree with others about trying to light her a bit more. If you are going to do more shots of the costume you might try to pose her as emerging from a pile of fallen leaves.
Nice work. What's the other kid wearing?

[2kids2shoot]

The other one's a bat. She wanted to wear a mask (one that just covers the eyes and nose) but I didn't like any of the pictures with it since it covers up her eyes too much. That and it was tough to get a decent exposure with the costume being black and the mask silver and shiny. The only pic I really like was one with the mask off! I might post those later in a separate thread since I'm having a bit of trouble finding a pose I like with the bat. I tried a few shots shooting up so it looked like she was flying but it didn't quite work out.

I'll have to work on finding a pile of leaves - otherwise it would involve physical labor like raking wouldn't it??