Dailey in a dress
 

Here are 4 of my favorites I took of my daughter.

This painting will be for a sample piece of a more classic traditional pose.

Tell me what you think of the compositions especially.

Michele & Linda take note! A dress! Flowers! A nice chair! Traditional, yes?

This first one is my favorite for composition, I think. I'd get rid of that vertical line over her head, not sure of background, but I think I like all that space.

Another, too slouchy perhaps.

This one I love, but that hand is not too attractive.

OK, I may be posting too many, but my daughter's friend & sister were there so I shot them as well. I do not like the clothes, but I do like the photos.

Another.

One more and I promise to stop.

You should create samples of the kind of work you'd like to be commissioned to do. Samples of pretty little girls in dresses will get you hired to do the same. If this is what you'd like to paint (and it IS what I like to paint) then you should create samples of that subject matter. It totally depends on what you want to do.

When I look at the samples of the very successful family portrait artists in many parts of the country, this is what I see a lot of. Some artists can't stand painting this type of thing. It's purely personal preference.

Commenting specifically on these photo examples, I think there are problems with the lighting in all of them. A more directional light source, without all the ambient light bouncing around, will allow you to define the form more clearly. Also the artificial lighting temperature is very warm which can do odd things to the skintones.

As far as compositions, I like the first one best, with most of the upper background cropped out.

Michele,

I would not mind being hired to paint a whole slew of pretty little girls in dresses for commissions. Being that it is my daughter and will be around the family for years & years - I just have a personal taste that runs a bit 'different.' If this were to just hang in my home I'd have to change it for me, but I do want more commissions, so I am trying!

I agree that the lighting leaves a lot to be desired. I do not have any studio lights, it was rainy today, etc.

Thank you for the input!

It would be okay to sit your subjects beside a window, even on a rainy day. The color temperature of an overcast sky is only slightly warmer than that of a blue sky so you'd be fine doing that. Window light is wonderful since it is directional enough to establish form but also is a large and soft enough light source to be flattering.

Kimberly,

I agree with Michele that rainy or overcast days near a window can produce a very appealing light. You can also employ one of these munchkins to hold a piece of foam core as a reflector.

And one more tip, when photographing a full figure as you have done above, plan to move in for a close up of the face just before or after you take the full shot.

You asked for comments on composition. I'd pull back and do the full figure, and the whole chair. If this is a portfolio piece, make it really sing. I notice that a lot of online portfolios include a large number of the very expensive, full figure portraits. As Michele said, you want to include the kind of portraits you want to do. That includes the big commissions, no?

Mike,
When I am getting the close ups I should just zoom, correct? Not change my position at all? My zoom does not zoom enough. (that's real technical speak there).

At least half of the photos were blurry. I put it on a tripod. I do not understand. I've read so many of the photography posts, but they pertain to good cameras usually.

Jeff,
The entire figure is what I was going for, but it was hard to get far enough. There was no color in that room (friends house). I took a bunch down lower than her - why I don't know - and those were awful.

I need a house with better windows. A decent camera. A photography course. Lights perhaps. A fancy chair. A personal trainer, club med vacation.....

Kim,

Zooming in is fine, if your camera's zoom won't let you get as close as you want just move the camera closer. Be carfull that you don't change your perspective. If your camera height, on your full shot, is slightly below the face and then you move the camera in close you may find yourself shooting up at the face which will give you a different perspective. If you are going to move the camera in and out it may be best to start out with the camera at the same height as the subjects nose.

On any given pose I would take 4-5 shots of the full pose and then move the camera and take 4-5 close ups.

Even an inexpensive camera will take clear pictures and the most expensive will take blurry ones. You have to impress on these kids that they must be very still. Both camera and subject must be very still. You were probably shooting at a very low speed because of the lack of available light. You should be using 400 asa speed film for these conditions. Taking at least 4-5 shoots of each pose will up your chances.

If you are manually focusing I find that if you ask your subject to hold a pencil vertically at a point near the closest eye it makes focusing a little easier.

When taking pictures of kids I find that you should do as much planning as you can before you ask them to pose. Their expressions are freshest early in the game.

As far as better windows, remember the light doesn't know what it's coming through. It could be the front door or the barn door. I could even be a porch during certain times of the day. Although I would keep searching until my indoor possibilities were exhausted.

When photographing kids I always plan on taking between 100 and 200 shots so at least some of them are good. (Thank goodness for digital cameras.)

I also find that with some subjects, they are tense in the beginning of the photo session and later they relax and give you better expressions near the end of the session. Depends on the person.

I photographed two kids on Saturday, one of whom was moving around a lot. I shot 200 photos of just the one pose, with my camera in the same spot, on a tripod, for each shot. I zoomed in for some closeup shots and zoomed out for the overall shots, but didn't change my position or their location in relation to the light (a big window off to the side).

None of the shots I took will be perfect in and of themselves. I'll need to combine perhaps five different photos to get one good overall composition that will work. But because the kids. my camera, and the light were always in the same relative positions, I'll be able to combine these parts and it will look right.

I am going to try the old 35mm automatic next time, along with the digital.

My digital let's me turn off the flash, then the only choices are the white balance and brightness, EV?. I've fiddled endlessly, and am starting to understand what settings are what. The blurry ones happen when the little hand flashes on my screen - telling me it's likely & to use a tripod. I did & it still happened. The kids were actually really still most of the time.

Thanks for the tips, this is very helpful.

Kim,

I had problems getting sharp pictures with my digital (an expensive fancy one at that). What I discovered the hard way was when you focus, whether manually or auto- make sure you point the lens at an area where there is enough contrast for the camera to read. For example, the chin line and the dark part of the hair (something like that). Talk about an 'a-ha moment'!

Hi Kim! I'm new at this so take my input for what it's worth.

Wanted to let you know I just love the strong diagonal in your first photo. The photo was a bit dark but still a nice image, still usable, I think. I just finished a portrait from a rather dark reference photo and had to play around with it a lot on the computer to pull out some of the detail I needed - gotta love that digital photography!

I would want to see just a bit more of her iris, though so that her eyes didn't look blank. I hope you don't mind, I took a copy of the picture and played with it in Paint Shop Pro to brighten it up a bit and adjust her eye... Don't think you'd want the background quite that bright, but you could see her a little better to paint from, anyway.

Stanka,
Great tip, I'll have to see if that makes a difference!

Terri,
Great changes, thank you. That eye certainly looks better. I really like this composition. It looks do-able to me, but I think the others are right that that particular light will make modeling the form harder. At the very least it lacks drama in the lighting.

Since I cannot get back to that chair right away (or that dress for that matter) I think I'll start my sketch with this one, then get a new photo - same thing exactly - but nearer the window that was behind me.

Thank you everyone.

This pose struck me right away too. Gosh, she's pretty. But I think there might be a few things that will cause problems later on.

The tangent of the nose and the back of the chair will probably be easy to address with some space. You might want a bit more lighting to give you a cast shadow here and there, but I don't know. Others may disagree but I think even lighting on a little girl is nice.

Upswept hair on a child is sometimes hard, because their hair is so fine that what you really get is a skullcap effect, with a poof somewhere crown-wise. Then fuzzy bits and baldspots are a challenge to address delicately.

The dress bunches and folds in unsubtle breast-like patterns. Next time she sits, you may want to snug it a bit. Even like a fashion photographer - if you have to use masking tape to make it fit her ribcage better, the sheen and the folds of the fabric will be pretty.

Her left hand is missing a few digits. Maybe you could extend it a bit. The gesture of the hand is precious.

I just love the nonchalant pose. She looks like a beauty queen.