More of my daughter for C&C.

JAC526 · Dec 3, 2012

Hi guys. I know lately I've been posting a lot of shots of my daughter. I am practicing my OCF work and she is a willing and able model. As a plus she can't really run away. My wife and I are taking a picture each month for her 1st year and putting a book together. So I took some "3 month" shots today. In another thread started by Kathy, Derrel posted up some stuff with xmas lights that turned into big glowy balls.

I decided I wanted to try. Found out a couple things along the way. 1st....its hard to get babies to sit still for their photographs. Second, it was really hard to achieve good focus on the eyes at a shallow enough depth of field to get the lights to turn into big glowy balls. I was dropping the AF cursor right on her eye closest to the camera and still having trouble.

As far as lighting goes I used a reflective umbrella camera right and just higher than her. Behind her and camera left I put a grid spot on a second speedlight to get the rim highlight on her left side. I also put up a reflector camera left to act as some fill for the left side of her face.

untitled-8310 by JChick526, on Flickr

untitled-8312 by JChick526, on Flickr

untitled-8302 by JChick526, on Flickr

Thanks for taking the time to look.

Joe

Xavieous · Dec 3, 2012

Lots of likes!

jwbryson1 · Dec 3, 2012

Cute baby. You know about the focus. I think the crops are really tight---it's a baby RIGHT IN your face on each shot. I might prefer something cropped a bit less.

The catch lights are really large in relation to her eyes.

JAC526 · Dec 3, 2012

Xavieous said:
Lots of likes!

Well thank you.

JAC526 · Dec 3, 2012

jwbryson1 said:
Cute baby. You know about the focus. I think the crops are really tight---it's a baby RIGHT IN your face on each shot. I might prefer something cropped a bit less.

The catch lights are really large in relation to her eyes.

They aren't cropped hardly at all. In fact I think the first one is the only one that is cropped at all. The big catch lights are from the umbrella. Guess I could of shot bare flash for a smaller catchlight but I'd rather have a large catchlight and prettier light than vice versa.

All I have is a 50mm 1.4 so to achieve the compression of the background necessary to get big oof balls I had to get really close. I think a telephoto would of helped this process quite a bit. But you work with what you got.

JAC526 · Dec 4, 2012

Bumped for morning peoples...

jowensphoto · Dec 4, 2012

I don't hate the catchlights, but they could do with being a bit smaller. Perhaps move the light back just a bit (if you have the space, I know it's hard to use OCF in my home)?

Watch the placement of the Christmas lights; most noticeable in #1, the light is actually covering parts of her ears and headband.

2WheelPhoto · Dec 4, 2012

jowensphoto said:
I don't hate the catchlights, but they could do with being a bit smaller. Perhaps move the light back just a bit (if you have the space, I know it's hard to use OCF in my home)?

Watch the placement of the Christmas lights; most noticeable in #1, the light is actually covering parts of her ears and headband.

+1

and if those aren't cropped move the cam back a bit too =)

JAC526 · Dec 4, 2012

jowensphoto said:
I don't hate the catchlights, but they could do with being a bit smaller. Perhaps move the light back just a bit (if you have the space, I know it's hard to use OCF in my home)?

Watch the placement of the Christmas lights; most noticeable in #1, the light is actually covering parts of her ears and headband.

Yeah I had the light right in really close and I tried to feather it to avoid lighting the background. We could always use more room to set up the lights ya know? I guess in this case it wouldn't of mattered too much. I agree I wish the lights were a little farther away from her in number 1.

Her eyes also aren't as sharp as I want them. Getting focus right on this shoot was definitely the hardest part. I was putting the cursor right on her eye. But I was so close that if she moved a little it ****ed me up.

Her expression in 1 is so good though I decided to overlook those flaws (that may just be my sentimentality).

JAC526 · Dec 4, 2012

2WheelPhoto said:
jowensphoto said:

I don't hate the catchlights, but they could do with being a bit smaller. Perhaps move the light back just a bit (if you have the space, I know it's hard to use OCF in my home)?

Watch the placement of the Christmas lights; most noticeable in #1, the light is actually covering parts of her ears and headband.

Click to expand...

+1

and if those aren't cropped move the cam back a bit too =)

If I moved back I couldn't get the lights to go oof. I didn't have enough lights behind her to go wider. We gots a charlie brown xmas tree this year (trying to save money).

Next time I'll move the light farther away from her.

The_Traveler · Dec 4, 2012

IMO, too close, too contrasty, too low an angle.

and too many things close to the camera that are OOF

JAC526 · Dec 4, 2012

The_Traveler said:
IMO, too close, too contrasty, too low an angle.

and too many things close to the camera that are OOF

Yeah...her hands being oof right in the front of the frame doesn't help at all. I agree I think they would look better if I had shot from above her a bit.

I don't really mind the contrast though.

jwbryson1 · Dec 4, 2012

Do you have softboxes? I was trying umbrellas (shoot thru and bounce) in my tiny home studio too and found that it was hard to control the light. Once I moved to 24x24 softboxes, I think it's a bit easier and softer. I found a pair of them on Ebay for $70 for the pair.

JAC526 · Dec 4, 2012

jwbryson1 said:
Do you have softboxes? I was trying umbrellas (shoot thru and bounce) in my tiny home studio too and found that it was hard to control the light. Once I moved to 24x24 softboxes, I think it's a bit easier and softer. I found a pair of them on Ebay for $70 for the pair.

Eventually...not in the budget for now. I'm thinking of trying to use a shoot thru further away and flag the half that is in the direction of the background. Maybe it will work.

Only one way to find out.

ManualMode · Dec 4, 2012

JAC526 said:
They aren't cropped hardly at all. In fact I think the first one is the only one that is cropped at all. The big catch lights are from the umbrella. Guess I could of shot bare flash for a smaller catchlight but I'd rather have a large catchlight and prettier light than vice versa.

He meant in-camera crop. I would agree. I think they're lovely and she's cute, but she's being squished just a tad (I'm terribly guilty of this myself) and Personally I find the vantage point a bit too low.. the OOF hands kinda break it for me.. enjoy your babies.. they're awesome