Portraiture critique please

[Travis]

Please critique the flaws of this portraiture. Thank you.

[Marko]

My main critique of this portrait is that there is not enough light in the eyes.
The mom has zero light in her eyes (and her face is also a bit dark )and the baby doesn't have enough.

The baby has a really nice cute expression and it is playing nicely with the viewer. The mom also looks happy.

I think you should try a test. I can see a window in the background. Try posing them (I'm just guessing that you know the subjects) near the window making SURE that their faces and especially their eyes are filled with light. You'll know when you are successful when you yourself can see different tones on the iris of the eye. The iris should not appear black.

Just in case new people are not up on their eye anatomy, the iris is the normally coloured (blue, brown, green) part of the eye that surrounds the pupil (the center) which is black. When you give the iris light the eye comes alive. Although harder to show the tonal difference in a black and white portrait, it really is one of the things that makes a great portrait and all good portrait photographers will try to achieve this 99% of the time.
I've attached an image from wikipedia - just to illustrate the point.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Medicine/Selected_picture

Hope that helps,

Marko

[Travis]

Thanks Marko... Great critique...

There was another window directly to the left of mom and I was experimenting with lighting from the side. You can see the shadows on the babies face. You are right about moms eyes and skin tone. I'm not sure how to deal with this when there is such a difference in skin tone between the two subjects. How is this dealt with? (Colour photo attached)

[Marko]

Thanks Marko... Great critique...

There was another window directly to the left of mom and I was experimenting with lighting from the side. You can see the shadows on the babies face. You are right about moms eyes and skin tone. I'm not sure how to deal with this when there is such a difference in skin tone between the two subjects. How is this dealt with? (Colour photo attached)

My pleasure on the critique - i do love to tell people what they have done wrong..LOL.

Unless mom JUST came home from the beach her face is WAY too red as well. In this case a reflector might well have been the easiest solution. In general the darker skin tone should get more light (be closer to the light source). A reflector (or anything white if you don't have one) would have shone the window light back into the faces and eyes of your subjects.

Hope that still helps - lol

marko

[tirediron]

I certainly agree that the mother needs some eye-work, but I think the baby's are fine. My concern with the image is that it is all mid-range tones. Almost no black or white. IMHO, a contrast boost is required.