Baby Portraits (first attempt) Printing advice needed

[Resin42]

A damn sight more difficult than it looks. The kids are bad enough, the adults around them are even worse.

Anyway, I got a few that seem like keepers to me. I was wondering about printing, can anyone recommend a good quality UK based printing service? Also what size tends to be best when submitting? Lastly these weren't the sharpest shots I've ever taken, will heavy sharpening tend to show up on a printed version?

Here's some of the shots.









The full shoot are here. http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a396/Hollow42/Finn/

C&C would be REALLY appreciated. Thanks

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[ANDS!]

A-[expletive-deleted]-plus on all of them. Outstanding work mate. Get this out of the Begineers Forums, denigrates whats going on in these photos. DO not touch anything else on these shots, they need nothing else.

[Big Mike]

I agree, great shots.

Also what size tends to be best when submitting?

I believe it's best to leave as little as possible for the lab to do...so you should crop and resize the images before you send them to the lab. Crop to the correct ratio for the print size and give them 300 pixels for every linear inch of print size. So a 4x6 print should be a 1200x1800 image. An 8x10 print should be 2400x3000 etc.

[rufus5150]

These are great. My only criticism would be on the B&W it suffers from what I've called in my own shots 'creepy eye syndrome'. His left eye (the one in the light) just looks... not right. The shadows on that image are so nice, though.

[ANDS!]

His eye does look slightly daft, but I just chalked that up to being a UK baby with instinctive eyes. I think it works. And please tell me you did this with your D40 and the kit lens so we can link to this thread everytime someone complains about the D40 being a "lesser" camera.

[rufus5150]

Crop to the correct ratio for the print size and give them 300 pixels for every linear inch of print size.

Caveat that with 'but contact them for their ideal PPI resolution'. Mpix in the US recommends 250PPI as that's all their printers will output.

[Resin42]

Wow! A better reaction than I expected, I hope his mum and dad are the same. For the record I always post my first attempt at anythig in this forum, it only seems appropriate. Really cool of you to say though.

And please tell me you did this with your D40 and the kit lens so we can link to this thread everytime someone complains about the D40 being a "lesser" camera.

Yes and yes, I've had my money's worth so many times over from my little D40 even when I do upgrade (and I will) I could never bring myself to part with it.

The mono shot has caused me some concern. The eye I can live with, it's purely because he's focused on something so close to his face. I like the look of concentration it gives him. My worry is the shadow on his forehead. It's refracted slightly, if that's the right word. Couple this with a slight hot spot next to it and it looks slighty posterized. It's not too much of an issue at this size but I'm is it likely to show up in the printed version do you think? If I know his mum at all she'll want a poster sized version of this.

Thanks for the print advice btw guys, very helpful.

[ANDS!]

If this is for a parent, I would point it out. 100 bucks says they don't give a damn about it, and still love the shot and its overall impact.

[Resin42]

Fair point. I just got a text back from the dad and he likes #4 above and this version of #1



The problem may be solved.

[edit] before printing I may touch up that dark spot on his lip

[nyamy]

I'm just a newbie, but WOW those are great shots. love the last one.

[Resin42]

All opinions are given equal weight. Thank you.

[Amber_Cullen]

I think you did a good job, my favorite is the first one and the conversion you did, the sun is too much in the second too, but thats always hard

[mrodgers]

Opposite reaction from me about the sun in the 2nd shot as stated in post above. I love the color of the light in shot #2. And the shadow of the leaf on his face in #3 is fantastic.

Cute cloths on him. As soon as I saw the pics I thought UK with those cloths and had to check your avatar for your location

[Resin42]

I don't see much wrong with the light in #2 myself, it was a bit over exposed to begin with but I sorted that and very deliberately kicked up the contrast if it's "hard shadows" your referring to. Are you sure your monitor's calibrated Amber?

Cute cloths on him. As soon as I saw the pics I thought UK with those cloths and had to check your avatar for your location

Yeah I know what you mean, I think the flat cap does it more than anything else. His dad said he'd have him working down a mine in Yorkshire before the week was out.

Thanks for all the input guys. Anyone got any thoughts on a UK based online printer I could use?

[Photog]

I seem to get alright results from Photobox, they'll send you a test photo with your order to calibrate your monitor with their printers. They're all I every use, so I've got nothing to compare it too, but I haven't had any specific complaints.