5 Day Old Newborn

mc1979 · Apr 1, 2011

Love all the photos, I especially like the last one! It caught me right away, and yes even though you don't see the baby's face, this is a great perspective. As a mother myself, I loved every looking at every little detail of my baby, all those tiny wrinkles and little rolls of fat, ahh too precious.. I love this pose, and it's one I haven't seen before!

Great work!

andynrach · Apr 1, 2011

I love all of these!! Seriously, way better then I could do! I like the fringe blanket. I've seen it before and I think it reflects quite a bit of light, doesn't it? It looked very blingy and distracting in the other photo I've seen, your use of it looks wonderful and complimentary. If I really HAD to come up with something, some of the skin smoothing looks a little too smooth...almost plasticy or doll-like. That is only if you FORCE me to really scrutinize to find something. What was your lighting set up if you don't mind my asking? Looks like nice window light?

twocolor · Apr 1, 2011

andynrach said:
I love all of these!! Seriously, way better then I could do! I like the fringe blanket. I've seen it before and I think it reflects quite a bit of light, doesn't it? It looked very blingy and distracting in the other photo I've seen, your use of it looks wonderful and complimentary. If I really HAD to come up with something, some of the skin smoothing looks a little too smooth...almost plasticy or doll-like. That is only if you FORCE me to really scrutinize to find something. What was your lighting set up if you don't mind my asking? Looks like nice window light?

Thanks! I use portraiture on baby skin at a 60% opacity. I suppose I could still bring it down a bit! As far as lighting goes, strobe with softbox directly above camera, strobe with softbox to the right of baby 1-2 stops brighter than the other. f2.4 1/90

c.cloudwalker · Apr 1, 2011

Let me say that I am not in love with babies. To me they are just wrinkly little things that can't argue about anything

Now that that is out of the way, I like your approach. Yes I think the last shot, with no face, is very nice. For an album that is. It doesn't do anything for me on its own. Then again I'm an album kind of guy. As an ex PJ I find/realize/know that 1 picture is worth a 1000 words is total BS. So I like series/sets. They tend to tell a much better story and that is why I am invaded with photo albums, lol.

#1 The baseboard on the left bothers me greatly. And I would have liked/preferred to see the whole baby in focus. His left hand seems OOF and that's too bad.

#2 Lose the diaper.

#3 Wonderful expression on his face, the whole baby seems sharp and, nothing annoying in the background.

#4 Hate this one. Something about the PP, I think, is weird.

Overall I think you have a very nice and interesting vision. You just need to work out some details. Some of which I may add are just or may just be a matter of taste.

andynrach · Apr 1, 2011

Thank you so much! I would NEVER have guessed these were strobes. I need to get a second softbox, that light is beautiful!

kundalini · Apr 1, 2011

Thanks for not showing that black nub of an umbilical cord. Other than that, it's not a genre that particularly interests me, but your lighting and compositions are nicely done. Thanks for sharing.

noomen · Apr 9, 2011

nice shots...love ur baby pictures..what mode u use?is it manual?

wlbphoto · Apr 15, 2011

i like

good shots

SabrinaO · Apr 19, 2011

LOVE the lighting! Heres my critique. Theres wayyy too much going on in #3. My eye is drawn to that mess of yarn instead of the baby. This shot would of improved being in landscape mode. Try to keep portraits simple. Theres too many colors(mis matched), patterns, textures and things going on in those shots. Do you have any pull back shots?

twocolor · Apr 19, 2011

SabrinaO said:
LOVE the lighting! Heres my critique. Theres wayyy too much going on in #3. My eye is drawn to that mess of yarn instead of the baby. This shot would of improved being in landscape mode. Try to keep portraits simple. Theres too many colors(mis matched), patterns, textures and things going on in those shots. Do you have any pull back shots?

There is alot going on in this shot. The blue/brown blanket was wrapped around the baby long enough to warm him up again and lull him back into a deeper sleep. Then he pulled that little smile and I happened to be in a position to capture it. Sometimes you grab the shot because you get the perfect expression. It may not be the most perfect technical shot, but the mother LOVES that we got one of those cute newborn smiles captured on camera!