Need Help! Blah Photos!

[kb522]

Hey, ladies! I took some 2 year birthday pictures of a friends little girl today. they turned out OK, but didn't quite "pop" like I was hoping they would. We got a couple of cute ones, and my friend was happy with them, but "I" was disappointed!

I have a DSLR and take pics for fun mostly, but my friend wanted some quickie pics of her DD for her birthday party. I set Alice up in my entry way (nice natural light) and used a white backdrop from a home portrait studio kit.

I just can't get them to look right. Do you ladies have any suggestions for what went wrong? They just look drab to me. I am inserting a link to my flickr set. Some of these have been Photoshopped a bit... they were the ones she is taking to be printed. The others only had some white balance and curves adjustments in LR.

Any suggestions would be awesome!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kami522...7606135248939/

Kami, these are fabulous! I am clueless as to how to help you with "in-camera" suggestions. I look forward to hearing what others suggest. I took the liberty of quickly messing around in LR using free presets and this is what I got:





Here is Jessica Sprague's Shazam "action" you can try: http://spraguelab.squarespace.com/bl....html#comments

I looked around at your other flickr photos...they are awesome as well! Good luck!

[ajfetzer]

The poses and expressions that you were able to capture are great. I wish I had that talent when it comes to photographing my boys! I have also had the drab photo experience. I keep thinking it is a white balance issue or a lighting issue or maybe both. B&W does seem to help this problem I would also try Jessica Sprague's Shazam method it helps give pictures a great pop! Good luck! I will also be interested in hearing what our wonderful photographers here have to say.

[DebbieHodge]

I really like these free actions from The Pioneer Woman http://thepioneerwoman.com/photography/2008/04/actions/

[katrinak]

Your shots looks great. I think a little post processing (like Joey showed) is all you need.

Since you are using LR I would suggest playing with your vibrance, contrast, and clarity some.

I'm not certain about Nikons, but with my camera I'm able to bump up the contrast in camera which helps capture better color.

[SAHMom]

I think it's mainly just white balance and some exposure issues thrown in. But you got some super expressions and she seemed very relaxed and natural which can SOOO be a challenge with a 2 year old!
Did you shoot in RAW?

[kb522]

Thanks for the comments, guys. Joey the presets you used looked better than the B&W ones I used. Where are they from? I have Kelsy's presets, but every time I tried using one, the contrast just wasn't there. They just looked all gray. I don't think I've dowloaded the Pioneer Women ones yet.

I did shoot these in Raw. I'm glad I did, because I am sure that it will help me process them a bit. I need to finish reading Scott Kelby's book. I basically only use WB and curves. But I'll play with the vibrance, etc. like Katrina suggested. I'll work on these today and post my results.

One neat thing... I uploaded the pics to Snapfish for my friend so she could quick print them at Walgreens and she said she had to argue with them to get them printed because they thought they were professional! :-)

Thanks again! I really appreciate it!

Here is a place with a ton of free presets:
http://www.prophotoshow.net/blog/200...troom-presets/

I THINK I used Kesley's BW preset #7 and moved the exposure to the left a bit so it wasn't so blown out. It might have been WOW preset #7. I am so new to LR that I don't know how to run everything. Is there a histroy that tells me what preset I used even after I close LR down? Sorry to be so ignorant!

[katrinak]

Originally Posted by babyroo7

Here is a place with a ton of free presets:
http://www.prophotoshow.net/blog/200...troom-presets/

I THINK I used Kesley's BW preset #7 and moved the exposure to the left a bit so it wasn't so blown out. It might have been WOW preset #7. I am so new to LR that I don't know how to run everything. Is there a histroy that tells me what preset I used even after I close LR down? Sorry to be so ignorant!

If you go to the photo you were making changes to you can see the complete history of your steps on the right hand menu (at the bottom) in the Develop mode.

[kb522]

OK. I finally had a chance to mess around a bit more. here are some more edits. I think they're looking better.

Here's my link again: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kami52275/
they're the newest 3 in my photostream.

Thanks again for all the suggestions!

Thanks for the info on where to find LR history, Katrina!
Kami, those photos are super cute!

[HeidiKnight]

I think those photos are fabulous! Love what Joey did with them too.

[scrappurple]

We are hardest on ourselves ... they looked GREAT! You did a wonderful job at capturing her expressions.

I am glad I stumbled onto this ... I have LR too, so this is great info!

[calligraphybycarol]

The pictures are adorable! I would suggest that you might want to bump up the "BLACKS" setting to around 10-12 under TONE setting (in Develop) in Lightroom. This helps with the contrast and makes the pictures pop a little more.
When you start with the RAW photo, you want to sort of do the adjustments in the order that they are listed in LR. We went to a Lightroom seminar by Scott Kelby and he showed his workflow in there. He basically went right down the Develop side making minor adjustments to the picture in the order they are positioned. First the white balance, next Recover if you've blown anything out, then Fill Light if needed, then blacks. Then he skips down to Clarity and Vibrance and sharpen...then Sharpen at the end. I think you just need a little more contrast in the photos...but he doesn't use the contrast setting; he uses the blacks setting to make it more contrasted. Hope that helps.

[kb522]

OK. That does make sense. There is just so much on there, i never know what do do first. I did buy a Scot Kelby book. hmm... maybe I should start reading it since clearly sleeping beside it every night isn't helping. :-)