maternity shoot C&C please!

jackieclayton · Dec 20, 2009

my first maternity shoot... a friend was nice enough to let me be her guinea pig... i tried to experiment with some direct sunlight. shot with nikon d700 24-120mm lens... no flash (although on some i realized i should have used it...) I'm a newbie here to learn so fire away at some C&C! thanks in advance!

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Nikkor · Dec 20, 2009

I loved 8.

GFreg · Dec 20, 2009

1. I like the idea of it. The white balance seems off though. Her skin looks gray.

2. The focus is soft. I think it works ok with the style but that is the first thing that I noticed.

3. I like this shot. The blown out left side is a bit distracting to me especially in the water but the exposure on her is good and I love that expression on her face.

4. I really like this one.

5. Skntone still looks a bit unnatural to me.

6. Doesn't do much for me. I don't the lens flares. I don't like her centered in the frame but I think that this picture is really just personal preference. It is just something that I don't personally like but it is a pretty good shot, just not my style.

7. Nice shot but one thing that sticks out to me is the crop cutting a bit off his elbow and her fingers. I think I would also like to see her face too. Turn the camera and take a portrait orientation shot.

8. Beautiful shot. One question I have though; Did you intentionally set the focus on the grass in front of her or was that an unfortunate autofocus mishap? I still think the shot turned out great. This is my favorite.

9-11. Sorry, I ran out of time. Nice shots

Keep up the good work. Was your model pleased with the shots? That is really the only thing that matters.

jackieclayton · Dec 20, 2009

Thanks for the critique!!!

I agree, my focus was soft, one of my complaints after i looked at these photos. wish they had been sharper... the sun was going down and at that point, do i need to use a flash? I boosted my ISO which i think gave me a grainy appearance... how would i avoid that softness at dusk?

#8 is my favorite too! i'm glad you all liked that one too. i actually took two shots, one with her in focus and one without... i liked the one of her out of focus better, so i chose that one instead.

lol, i think she liked them! she told her friends about me and one of her friends called and wanted me to do some family portraits sometime. i have a lot to learn but it was really fun shooting maternity pictures... i wish i had gotten some done when i was pregnant...

Pablojinko · Dec 20, 2009

N° 8 and 10 are my favorites!! Beautiful photos!

I like the idea in 1&5 but something doesn't seem right to me with light and WB. Also I would open a little the frame
Keep the good world... I know I'd love to take photos of my wife once we enter the parenting world... but we want to wait a little hehehehe

clbd39 · Dec 20, 2009

8 and 9 are my favorites!

good job

ANDS! · Dec 21, 2009

I'm really not feeling too many of these. I will definitely say I hate the baby-blocks one. Yes it is a tried and true (perhaps cliche) maternity shot, but everytime I see it done, and when I see it done bad, it is because the subject is positioned awkwardly and in an unflattering light, so to speak.

For #2, what were you shooting at/with - I am not crazy about the umbrella (it just seems. . .there and no real reason behind it other than "pose the subject with an umbrella"), but the grain in the photo is throwing me off quite a bit more. I have the same grain complaints about 3 and 4.

Overall, for me - the photos don't work. Numbers 8 to the end begin to show some promise, but again some of that grain keeps peeking back in. I also think, for something like this, if you were going for a soft evocative mood, i would have put the subject in a light dress instead of jeans. The jeans is killing it for me, especially contrasted against the lazy relaxed vibe of the setting they are in.

GFreg · Dec 21, 2009

jackieclayton said:
Thanks for the critique!!!

I agree, my focus was soft, one of my complaints after i looked at these photos. wish they had been sharper... the sun was going down and at that point, do i need to use a flash? I boosted my ISO which i think gave me a grainy appearance... how would i avoid that softness at dusk?

You could use flash but I think even the addition of a reflector to bounce some of that light back as a fill would have worked well. This would have allowed you to turn down the ISO. Were you letting your camera autofocus? Was it having difficulty in the low light situations? This may or may not work. I have never tried it but if you are shooting low light and the autofocus is having issues set up the shot and try illuminating the subject with a flash light. Depress the shutter release to let the camera auto focus. Once it focuses then switch it to manual focus so it wont try to refocus when you take the picture (make sure you turn off the flash light and expose the shot properly). I don't know. I'm at work and I'm bored. Coming up with stuff in my head that sounds like it possibly would work. Who knows, this might be something that has been posted somewhere. I didn't bother looking.

Edit: I did a quick search on that Nikon 24-120mm lens and it got some pretty unfavorable reviews. The word soft was used quite a bit. Ken Rockwell said it is one of Nikon 10 worst lenses, for what it's worth. I tend to find Ken to be a loud-mouth goon. I'm not suggesting you go out and buy some new pro glass with a price tag that is comparable to a used car (although it would be fitting for your body

). I just thought you should know.

GeneralBenson · Dec 21, 2009

These were shot with a d700? I'm sorry, but the image quality is atrocious. I don't know if it's a bad editing or resampling or what. But none of them are sharp, the colors and contrast are all flat. It looks like in alot of cases you shot with the sun as rim light, which probably gave you a pretty dark subject, then you cranked the sadows back out in post. Which explains all the noise. It's a d700, not a magic camera. It's still going to give you horrid results if you bury all the information in the bottom of the histogram, then try and dig it back out in post. Also, many of her poses and expression come across awkward. Keep at it. Learn more posing techniques, more about fill flash, more about understanding exposure, more about reading a histogram and more about proper editing.

iolair · Dec 21, 2009

I like the idea of 1 and 5, but they don't really work for me I'm afraid.

2... the profile with arms crossed is not a good pose here - the crossed arms prevent her bump from being shown off sufficiently, and a full profile with this subject makes her chin look larger than it should - contrast with the pose in number 3: still side on, but with the arms back and the head at a slight angle.

4 ... would benefit from a little fill light, either reflector or low flash.

6 ... again the full-profile, a slight angle to the head would have been more flattering.

7 ... head straight-on is rarely flattering, again a slight angle would have helped. I think a wider crop showing her face too would have been overall a more pleasing photo.

3, 8, 9, 10 and 11 are LOVELY! Well done, great work.