baby portraits - critique

runnergirl · Dec 28, 2012

I just took these photos of my baby. I feel like I am slowly getting better at understanding my camera but still need work! I took these at iso 100, f/1.8, 1/80 with an external flash that i tried to bounce off the ceiling. These were my favorite three, but the last one I'm not 100% sure about...since I bounced the flash off the ceiling and he is facing the floor he seems to have a little bit of shadow across his face, and also his head kind of looks like it is glowing. I'm interested if you guys have any tips or feedback about these three.

pixmedic · Dec 28, 2012

#2 and #3 look very cool (color wise) white balance is off.
the skin tone looks unnatural compared to the first picture. maybe a tad overexposed as well.

runnergirl · Dec 28, 2012

thanks. i guess i will have to figure out how to fix that. i couldn't quite figure out what was up with those two but i agree. i shot it in raw so hopefully i can figure out how to edit the white balance...i am really new to post-processing.

thetrue · Dec 28, 2012

What software are you using?

runnergirl · Dec 28, 2012

aperture, but i haven't really done anything to these yet other than smoothing out a scratch on his face

thetrue · Dec 28, 2012

Is there WB adjustments for raw images in aperture? I don't know, I'm a PC guy right now

runnergirl · Dec 28, 2012

slightly better? you are right about the skin tone looking unnatural before.

runnergirl · Dec 28, 2012

actually i still dont know whats up with the second one. his head still looks weird

i guess i will have to learn more about white balance and post processing

texkam · Dec 28, 2012

i shot it in raw

Good for you. While it is always preferable to get things right in the camera, you should be able to tweak in post and get an even better end product. Consider tighter crops on the last 2.

runnergirl · Dec 28, 2012

so i have been trying to figure this out - in the last photo where the baby is on his tummy...how to i change it so his head isn't glowing?? I think that the sharp contrast with the background makes his head look a little unnatural. I am new to using aperture and i have a book about it coming in the mail but was wondering if anyone knows how to fix something like that. I tried turning down the photo's contrast or decreasing the overall exposure, i even tried a brush that i could brush just the head and "burn" it (darken) but it all looks kinda funny. if anyone has suggestions i would love to know.