First portrait shoot...CC welcomed (Please...)

This was the first time I have shot anyone's portraits for real besides family...

Used the A100 with/Beercan (70-210 f/4) and the HVL 56 off camera (wireless). The camera was in manual mode and manual focus for most of these...

The the background was black fleece and the models were around 4 feet or so in front. The flash was fired into a white umbrella on a stand at about 45deg to the models. I adjusted the distances as needed. I had a friend using a gold 42" reflector camera right adjusting the height as I went.

Shot in RAW, post in LightRoom & CS2. Most of the post work involved some levels adj, noise reduction and some USM...

How did I do with regard to the following:

Lighting?
Posing?
Post work?

Thanks in advance for any advice you might give...

Images posted in next line of thread...

Here are the shots...

1. 1

1. 2

1. 3

1. 4 - The man's head is an import and a touch of Lucis was applied to the whole image. They are all wearing black...
   
   

1. 5

I really like number 3.

The family photo, the patriarch is way too overexposed in my opinion.

In the shots where you have the black shirts, they need to be drawn out in the picture more. It looks like floating heads in the picture.

You've got some good ones, just need some fine tuning of your exposures.

Thanks for taking a look...

The man was complaining the whole time about how no one ever takes a good photo of him...turns out he was mostly correct...

I will try to bring out a little more detail in the black shirts by playing with the exposure some. What about adding some noise in the shirts if I cant get the exposure correct?

I liked everything but the floating heads

for the guy try a 2/3 face pose with the left side of his face in shadow and tilt the head slightly away form the camera. have him bring his hand up to his chin lightly to cover his fat double chin. Less small because of the bad teeth. He is ugly just like me so he will always take a bad picture HA HA !!

While not crazy about the "floating head" look, I LOVE the expressions in that shot - especially the girl 2nd from left. SO CUTE!

I like the rest too, but it seems like you did skin PP on them (or they have freakishly smooth skin, even for kids) - little kids have such lovely skin, it seems a shame to remove the unique texture it has. But as I said, otherwise very nice IMHO.
--
Don't assume. It makes an a** out of you and me. ;-)
http://flickr.com/photos/bellabull8/

Thanks for the feedback...

I realize that I have a lot to improve on. Next time I will probably rent a much more powerful light set-up... add a little body to the floaters.

Some of the images needed Noiseware and that is were the skin detail snuck off to...

What did you think of my work on the eyes?

liked the eyes a lot they are dark but still stand out

I love the last shot the...
--
Kevin
http://www.campbellweddingphotography.com
http://www.digital-wedding-photographer.com

I love the last shot....hmmmm I wonder what it would have looked like with a lighter background.
nice work!!!

Nice. Those eyes really pop. What settings were you using?

--
Michael
http://www.pbase.com/michaelroop/

The camera was set in manual mode and the flash was wireless and at full blast into the umbrella...

Camera settings: f/8, 105mm, 1/100, ISO100 in RAW

PP included Levels agj, eye work[whites, irises, and catchlight w/reflections] then I used USM with layer mask to just focus on the eyes...

Most the photos received similar PP...

Thanks for checking them out!

Hapster