Several friends have asked me to do family portraits and for friends. I usually give in and say ok. I've done this family before, but this time they wanted all 9 grandkids. Their schedules were super hard to work with, so we ended up with 9:30am on Black Friday - and of course, there was NOT ONE cloud in the sky to filter the sun. The other side of the covered bridge was worse, but I'm only mostly happy with the result. Used lightroom and photoshop to mask the background to bring the tone down, masked the group to minimize the highlights, and then some extra masking to minimize the shadow on the girl in the middle. I didn't notice how stark that shadow was at the time or I might have reordered them all. Half of them don't smile normally, so generally expressions I'm happy with.
5 comments posted
Syed Shakhawat Kamal
Hi Erin,
Greetings my friend.
You have done an excellent job, with the family portraits of the grandkids. It seems the background soothing and most importantly you could get all the eyes open in one frame. Sometime you know, I have hard time keeping them all open or some time; someone did keep it open half way through, which truly spoil the whole frame. But your image gets 10 on 10.
Thank you foir sharing.
Have a wonderful holidays ahead.
Cheers.
Kamal. Posted: 12/08/2025 07:22:45
Gregory Waldron
Hi Erin,
Happy Holidays!
What a nice capture. I like what you did in post processing to open up the shadows the texture in the tunnel.
Best Regards,
Greg Posted: 12/10/2025 21:04:43
Tom Brassil
Hey Erin, what a lovely portrait and great location shot! The processing looks fantastic. Just being a bit picky here, but with your Photoshop skills, maybe try applying a slight Gaussian blur to the bridge on the right-hand side. Also, consider removing the sky along the bridge line to make it blend better. Again, just my very picky suggestion!
Wishing you and your loved ones a joyful Christmas and festive season! Posted: 12/12/2025 03:47:47
Ingrid Lockhart
Hi Erin. Your friends should be VERY happy with this family portrait! They cooperated well, wearing subtle shades of green and red for the holiday season, and smiling nicely in a natural way, while keeping their eyes open as well. I think your crop is excellent and you have done a great job of opening the shadows within the bridge and lessening the effect of the harsh light on the figures. I think Tom's suggestion of reducing the brightness of the openings to the blue sky on the right of the bridge is a good one. The brightness draws the viewer's eye away from the family. But overall, this is a wonderful portrait worthly of accolades! Posted: 12/14/2025 23:44:07
Darcy Johnson
Hi Erin - I have to agree - you did a lovely job. It can be tricky getting nine kids and teens to work together. Not only are all eyes open, with genuine facial expressions, they are nicely staged, and even all their feet are well placed. There is a natural, relaxed look to the image which was helped by your subjects coming dressed appropriately for the location. I also like your efforts in post. Despite your misgivings, I imagine that these grandparents are quite happy with your efforts! Posted: 12/18/2025 19:20:30
