Exercise 6 - The best of a sequence

I decided to use some of the pictures I had taken for Assignment 1 as I have been working through each portrait and these images also fit in here.  The pictures were taken in the living room of Lucy's parents' home.  The lighting was quite different for the pictures and needed to be adjusted through the Levels feature in Photoshop.

I spent some time talking to both subjects about things in general to get them to relax.  At the time I thought the sunburst mirror would be good to feature in the pictures but it just drew the eye.

Picture 1-good, balanced image, Picture 2-too dark, heads together, Picture 3-too twee, with mum looking at daughter

Picture 4-nice relaxed portrait, Picture 5-doesn't quite click, something about mother's gaze into distance, Picture 6-same as picture 5.

Again, not sure, jewellery too small to be seen, mother's gaze works better; Pictures 7 and 8 more relaxed and working together.

I tried a different situation with mirror in the hall. The colour of walls in the hall made such cold images, I also couldn't get far enough back to get a good shot, I was actually standing pressed against the hall coat stand as it was. Difficult to know where to focus - back of Lucy's head, mother's head, faces in the mirror?  On reflection the faces should be in sharp focus in the mirror, good image in Picture number 12 with both faces in sharp focus and looking round.

I tried to reintroduce the necklace but still didn't work.  Still couldn't get far enough back to get a good shot.

We had a good session trying to incorporate a family portrait but not suitable for final portrait as mother introduced another area which was not related to the theme of the whole series of pictures for assignment 1 - people aware.

it was a good exercise in portraiture and communicating with subjects to keep them interested and relaxed.