A Rookie Mistake

I'll be upfront and honest with all of you because most of you that read this are friends or family of mine! I had the wonderful opportunity to take the family photo of some family friends of ours. And not just one segment of the family, the ENTIRE family. I have never done a full group shot of 10+ people. So I need way more practice doing that.

But I made a rookie mistake. See, John had taken some pictures earlier in the day and was shooting at a high shutter speed to get a good picture of some things he was selling on Craigslist. So when I got to the beautiful gardens on Sunday afternoon I was staking out our spot trying to make sure we wouldn't be interrupting people enjoying the festivities there. I got everyone arranged on the strangely angled staircase. And I forgot to check my camera settings and just started shooting. I was shooting at ISO 1600 and in such bright light and that just means GRAIN. Grain grain grain! I was so disappointed when I got home and looked through all the shots, but thankfully I was able to Photoshop them enough to get the skin tones smooth. If I had the opportunity to do it again I would. But I will forever be checking my camera settings! Overall they look pretty good. What do you think? I might be photoshop'ing some of the kids faces so they're looking at the camera. It's HARD getting them all to look at the camera!