Lily catching Kate jumping from the swings

Lily catching Kate jumping from the swing.

This is my first attempt at a composite using my girls as subjects. The inspiration for the photograph came from Justin and some of the pictures that he has created of his boys. I have been thinking of creating some more creative pictures of the girls for awhile, and have kept putting it off. This weekend I gave it a go. This is the first idea that I had.

I think the concept worked. I envisioned a picture of Kate flying through the air, and Lily trying to catch her. I gave her my ball glove to try to make it look like she was ready to catch. I had trouble getting Lily to look like she was nervous about being able to catch Kate. Kate’s jump worked well though. Also, to simplify, I went with a picture outside that I didn’t think needed flash. Most of Justin’s images are inside using flash, which I will move up to when I think of something good.

Technically there are a few problems. First is that Kate is blurry. I almost didn’t post this because of it, but decided to anyway. I learned that a kid jumping off a swing is faster than 640th of a second can freeze. Surprised me. I think I got the pictures aligned, but when I went to try to pose Lily, other kids kept looking in the camera and must have bumped it. (we had several over at the time) Also, there is a halo around Kate. I cut her out so I could move her up in the frame to make her look like the jump was higher. Every time I try to take someone off a natural setting I get this. I’ve got to get that figured out.

The other is the view. The kids are heavily weighted to the left of the frame. Not sure I like that. I did choose this angle on purpose though, and that was so that you only saw the garage in the background. I didn’t want to show the crap that is our parking pad and back lane. Thought it would be too distracting. I might try for a different location where I can get them perpendicular to the frame. Trick is to find that location where there aren’t a ton of other kids around.

Thoughts?

1 thought on “Lily catching Kate jumping from the swings

  1. Hey, not a bad attempt at all.
    Are you using the pen tool to cut people out? In not, I think you will see that it will get rid of any halo. (masking tends to leave that if using a soft brush.)
    As far as the blurring goes, not bad, I think implies motion but a flash would freeze the action if that is what you prefer.
    I think a cool angle would be over the shoulder of the “catcher” looking up. That would engage the viewer and make for a cool shot.
    If you are cutting the “jumper” out you could just have her jump off anything and shoot up at her.
    Then just shoot over the catchers shoulder up at the play structure.

    Anyway, good job man. Keep it up.

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