Maternity

foned · Mar 30, 2009

Went to my girlfriends for the weekend, her friend asked if i would shoot maternity pictures of her cousin. I had limited time, no real equipment, and not much to use for lighting or back grounds.. heres what i came up with..

IMG_2705 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

IMG_2744 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

IMG_2718 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

IMG_2686reg on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Flickr: foned's Photostream

foned · Mar 30, 2009

be cruel ;]

nikonguy · Mar 30, 2009

i would say considering the notice, and gear you had, not to shabby.. of course, theres lots of things we could say about the photos.. why dont you start off by telling us what you see as "wrong" with them.. that way, you can see how your learning too

foned · Mar 30, 2009

sure why not.

The first one i like the composition, and my creative idea

but the shadows are sort of distracting behind her, and the colors are sort of boring.

The second one theres a bit of lens flare by her crotch, her surroundings are quite awful but sort of white trash and fitting for her outfit. Once again the shadows, especially on her face are bad, her face needs to be lit up.

The third one is ok i suppose.

The fourth, her surroundings once again lame, the light reflecting in the picture make it even worse, you can't really tell its a maternity shoot and she should be brighter..

eh? theres my critique of my own stuff.

Sherman Banks · Mar 30, 2009

Good critique. And lol at the lens flare on the crotch, didn't notice until you said it. My recommendation would be different angles to showcase her stomach, the straight on shots just look like a big belly (no offense to her) and the others don't really look like a pregnant belly either.

Little Petals · Mar 30, 2009

I would agree, i think this was a good attempt with no warning but for some you needed to be lower or level with the belly so it doesn't look like something extra hanging around. Next time try and emphasize the belly even by having her hands on it. It makes it more showcased that she is pregnant.

foned · Mar 30, 2009

I agree, imo her belly sorta just looked like a big belly anyway, I have a bunch of different angles Maternity - Nicole - a set on Flickr but most of them are crappy surroundings or lighting..

this one seems to be popular on my flickr

IMG_2667 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

But there is some noise from post production tweaks, and its got blur in some spots that was unintentional.

manaheim · Mar 30, 2009

I went and installed my exif reader to check your images, but you have no exif info in them. :lol:

It -looks- like you were using a wide angle lens up relatively close. This is not a complimentary thing to do to people, ESPECIALLY more round people. I'm not sure if I'm right, though.

Also, she's dead-center a lot, which is fine but tends to make pictures a little less exciting.

The fence and the window... I've noticed this in a couple people's shots... having someone dead up against a plane perpendicular with the camera really doesn't seem to work a lot of the time, whereas a simple angling of the same subject against the plane can actually be pretty cool.

The first shot screamed "look at my vagina proxy!!!!" to me. I may be a sicko, dunno, but that's totally what I thought of. The positioning of the flower makes it all the more so... to be honest, I think that's quite an effect, so if that's what you were going for, it then just becomes a matter of how people react to that. For me, it wasn't desirable, but that's me.

All this said, keep in mind I tend to dislike a LOT of maternity photos. I have never been into the "oh, look at her, she looks so beautiful and glowing!" I'm more the "Good lord she looks ginormous and massively uncomfortable and awkward!" I once told my lovely wife that she looked like a beached whale.

(now don't all freak out on me, I'm very supportive and I love my lady wife and rubbed her feet and bought her pickles and ice cream and the whole deal... I'm just saying this to level set the OP since I'm clearly biased against pregnancy photos)

You can put your torches and pitchforks away now.

foned · Mar 30, 2009

haha i tend to agree with the maternity thing, some women pull it off, some don't. I was more or less forced into this lol, with three women running around finding random idea's online of what they liked. stupid hands in the shape of a heart on your stomach.. sure i can shoot that why not, banality is my specialty.

manaheim · Mar 30, 2009

omg the hands/heart thing... :lol:

Be sure to smear some vaseline over the lens for all the shots, too. :lol:

EhJsNe · Mar 30, 2009

manaheim said:
All this said, keep in mind I tend to dislike a LOT of maternity photos. I have never been into the "oh, look at her, she looks so beautiful and glowing!" I'm more the "Good lord she looks ginormous and massively uncomfortable and awkward!" I once told my lovely wife that she looked like a beached whale.

(now don't all freak out on me, I'm very supportive and I love my lady wife and rubbed her feet and bought her pickles and ice cream and the whole deal... I'm just saying this to level set the OP since I'm clearly biased against pregnancy photos)

You can put your torches and pitchforks away now.

:lmao:

:lmao:

nice....

I agree with the disliking of these types of photos.

but for the time giving aand the lack of proper equipment and not good lighting....you did a pretty good job.