Wife's eight month maternity shoot

[crimbfighter]

My wife is 8 months pregnant with our second. Needless to say, the second pregnancy has been much less photographed than the first. We braved the cold the other day to dedicate some time to get some maternity photos of this pregnancy. Here are my favorites. All shot with my Nikon D800 and 70-200 f/2.8 VRI. As always, C&C welcome.

1. My overall favorite. 200mm, f/2.8, ISO280, 1/250 sec

2. 200mm, f/2.8, ISO200, 1/320sec

3. 200mm, f/2.8, ISO100, 1/2000sec

4. This one doesn't scream "pregnant" but I liked it. 135mm, f/2.8, ISO200, 1/640sec

 

[Derrel]

Lovely.You did well.

 

[tirediron]

Lovely set, 'though in #3, I would be inclined to either crop the whole face out, or leave it in... the "half face" doesn't work for me.

 

[Photo Lady]

Beautiful and congrats to you and your wife on new expected baby ...beautiful wife and lovely photography

 

[JBPhotog]

Congrats on the new addition to the family. I like #1 too, you have a pretty wife, she has that expecting glow.

BTW, any chance you had VR engaged? I see some nervous bokeh in #2 & #4 especially.

 

[SquarePeg]

Beautiful photos, beautiful wife, congrats on the coming blessing!

 

[Derrel]

Lovely set, 'though in #3, I would be inclined to either crop the whole face out, or leave it in... the "half face" doesn't work for me.

Beautiful photos, beautiful wife, congrats on the coming blessing!

I would agree with these two posters. I think you should crop photo number 3 just below her chin and maybe cut off a bit of the right hand side too, just to put a little bit more emphasis on her. Maybe even consider cropping this to a vertical. The background in this case does not really do a lot to further the composition.

 

[edsland]

Congrats, lovely set

 

[pjaye]

Absolutely gorgeous set.

 

[crimbfighter]

Lovely.You did well.

Lovely set, 'though in #3, I would be inclined to either crop the whole face out, or leave it in... the "half face" doesn't work for me.

Lovely set, 'though in #3, I would be inclined to either crop the whole face out, or leave it in... the "half face" doesn't work for me.

Beautiful photos, beautiful wife, congrats on the coming blessing!

I would agree with these two posters. I think you should crop photo number 3 just below her chin and maybe cut off a bit of the right hand side too, just to put a little bit more emphasis on her. Maybe even consider cropping this to a vertical. The background in this case does not really do a lot to further the composition.

Thank you, both! I appreciate the feedback. I do have a few that showed her face. I was aiming for the emphasis being on the baby bump, but liked the expression visible on her mouth. Here are two that show different composition with #3.

Portrait orientation.

Slightly wider horizontal crop.

 

[crimbfighter]

Beautiful and congrats to you and your wife on new expected baby ...beautiful wife and lovely photography

Beautiful photos, beautiful wife, congrats on the coming blessing!

Congrats, lovely set

Absolutely gorgeous set.

Thank you, all!

 

[crimbfighter]

Congrats on the new addition to the family. I like #1 too, you have a pretty wife, she has that expecting glow.

BTW, any chance you had VR engaged? I see some nervous bokeh in #2 & #4 especially.

Thanks JBPhotog! I did have it engaged. I'm not sure if it contributed to that or not. I think that is actually being caused by tree branches. The reflection in #2 has very fine tree branches in it, and in #4 I was actually shooting through come pine branches, which now that I look closer, clearly caused the strange shadow lines in the bokeh. The images themselves are sharp, especially #4, which is tack sharp, so I don't think it would be possible for VR to have been the cause of bokeh issue. I could be wrong, though!

 

[JBPhotog]

Congrats on the new addition to the family. I like #1 too, you have a pretty wife, she has that expecting glow.

BTW, any chance you had VR engaged? I see some nervous bokeh in #2 & #4 especially.

Thanks JBPhotog! I did have it engaged. I'm not sure if it contributed to that or not. I think that is actually being caused by tree branches. The reflection in #2 has very fine tree branches in it, and in #4 I was actually shooting through come pine branches, which now that I look closer, clearly caused the strange shadow lines in the bokeh. The images themselves are sharp, especially #4, which is tack sharp, so I don't think it would be possible for VR to have been the cause of bokeh issue. I could be wrong, though!

Nervous bokeh can be an issue with specific shutter speeds and particular lenses and FWIW, I’d suggest the artifacts may be contributed from VR use. A great way to discover this is through testing but sharpness of the image and nervous bokeh are two separate parameters when the cause is VR and shutter speed. I have seen this with long lens use in my own shots.

 

[crimbfighter]

Congrats on the new addition to the family. I like #1 too, you have a pretty wife, she has that expecting glow.

BTW, any chance you had VR engaged? I see some nervous bokeh in #2 & #4 especially.

Thanks JBPhotog! I did have it engaged. I'm not sure if it contributed to that or not. I think that is actually being caused by tree branches. The reflection in #2 has very fine tree branches in it, and in #4 I was actually shooting through come pine branches, which now that I look closer, clearly caused the strange shadow lines in the bokeh. The images themselves are sharp, especially #4, which is tack sharp, so I don't think it would be possible for VR to have been the cause of bokeh issue. I could be wrong, though!

Nervous bokeh can be an issue with specific shutter speeds and particular lenses and FWIW, I’d suggest the artifacts may be contributed from VR use. A great way to discover this is through testing but sharpness of the image and nervous bokeh are two separate parameters when the cause is VR and shutter speed. I have seen this with long lens use in my own shots.

Interesting, thanks for the info! I'll have to see if it can try with and without VR in the future to compare. I wonder of that is something worked on with later generations of VR? Mine is the original VRI lens.

 

[Derrel]

I prefer the portrait orientation in photo number 3, but this horizontal shot showing her facial expression is quite a bit preferable to the original one which was cropped at the chin. I shot the original VR 70 to 200 for about 15 years. JB Photographer is right, the VR function can cause nervous bokeh when it is left turned on, and at fast shutter speeds like 1/500 and above it can create some strange effects which are almost impossible to describe.

I do know that when you are shooting through obstacles such as window screening or chain link fencing or gratings or even tree limbs, that quite often these obstacles cause a disruption that is visible in the bokeh.

In my first summer with the Nikon D2x in 2005 I shot quite a few portrait sessions with VR set to on, and I had some strange, "unsharp" results which puzzled me until I found out that I was committing a basic VR no-no.