Baby pic for C&C

[carolinajack]

A picture of my daughter from several weeks ago. Shot at f/1.8, 50mm Nikon lens on a DX body.

 

[carolinajack]

I think posting the link instead of the picture at first scared some people away

 

[jowensphoto]

Cute baby!

Did you just get that 50mm lens? I'm guessing so by the use of such a large aperture. A smaller aperture (bigger f-stop number) will give you greater DOF so more will be in focus. Try something around f/5.6. That should have her face in focus, with a nice blur starting around the plane of her ears.

 

[jowensphoto]

Also, this is a bit under exposed. It's hard to slow shutter speed down when photographing children, maybe try a reflector or fill flash.

 

[SoonerBJJ]

Need some fill on camera right and the split color background aligned with the side of her head is distracting. Extremely soft, missed focus. The eyes at least need to be crisp. Centered composition isn't particularly interesting.

Cute snap for parents to enjoy, but that's about it.

 

[tirediron]

Rule #1: Just because your lens has a maximum aperture of f1.8 does NOT mean that you need to shoot at f1.8. Based on the aperture and camera to subject distance, your DoF was probably in the neighbourhood of 1" or so; not only does this large aperture provide minimal DoF, but no lens performs as well as it can wide open; typically stopping down at least one or two stops is necessary to acheive the best results. You've got the left eye in focus, but almost everything else is soft. Had you used an aperture more like f8 or f11 and moved back a couple of feet, you would have captured all of the child's hood, had sufficient DoF to ensure good focus over the whole face and been in the lens'es "sweet spot" for sharpness.

 

[SoonerBJJ]

Rule #1: Just because your lens has a maximum aperture of f1.8 does NOT mean that you need to shoot at f1.8.

My photography got so much better when I finally internalized this fact. I got my first DSLR with a 50/1.4 just before my first child was born. Unfortunately, most of my pics of her first 3 months are really soft with missed focus. The only good ones came out of our P&S camera that was smart enough to stop down.

 

[carolinajack]

Thanks guys! I realized later about the DOF and knew I would get knocked for that. I was more interested to hear what people had to say about the lighting. That room has really beautiful light and I was trying to capture that.

 

[amolitor]

The light is fairly lovely, yep. Disagree that it's underexposed, the highlight is blown out and there's no blacks to speak of, could probably have used a smaller aperture or faster shutter (and the mucked around in post to bring the skin tones back).

The light in the room is actually still a trifle harsh. Notice that the shadowed side of the face has quite nice tones, even a little on the dim side, but that lit side is blown out - patches of pure white.

It does capture the feel of the light quite well, I don't fuss about blown hilights as much as some people do. If you love the light in the room, use a reflector on the shadowed side (a relatively flat white object just out of frame will be fine, you'll be startled at how much lighter it makes the shadowed side of the face) and use a smaller aperture, for less total exposure. This will tame the highlight some, without making the shadowed side of the face go too dark. Well, it will, if all goes well.

Alternatively, wait until the light through the window is somewhat less intense, perhaps an overcast day, or a different time of day. You run the risk of making the whole thing too dark in this case, though.

There's stuff you can do with flash as well, but it sounds like you want to use the natural light, since it's the light you love.

 

[carolinajack]

There is a door right beside the blown out portions on her face and I could have pulled the curtains more or moved her out of the beam, thinking back.

jowensphoto: I have actually had that lens longer than any other lens but have only recently being trying to really use it. It's a series E off of my Nikon EM.

I'm working on paying more attention to lighting. I do like the lighting in that room, there is a lot of white and at the right times it's very wrapping and nice. That doesn't mean, though, that I can't aid the light with a reflector or flash though.

I had noticed the split background but this picture wasn't taken so much in a photoshoot setting so I wasn't thinking a ton about the background.

 

[cgipson1]

I had noticed the split background but this picture wasn't taken so much in a photoshoot setting so I wasn't thinking a ton about the background.

Every shot should be treated like a photoshoot setting.. unless it is just a snapshot! That way you will pay attention to the important things!