Baby Portraits - First Portrait Session

NateS

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More from my first portrait session. C&C definitely appreciated.

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2
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3
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4
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5
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6
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7
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8
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Oh and her name is Lillian (Lilly) in case you didn't pick up on the Lilly Flower.
 
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My best helpful comment is there is tension issues with each. They feel like the baby is falling. Also it looks like the baby is looking at mom the whole time? I would fix the tension, try some new crops and next time see if you could get the mother out of the room
 
My best helpful comment is there is tension issues with each. They feel like the baby is falling. Also it looks like the baby is looking at mom the whole time? I would fix the tension, try some new crops and next time see if you could get the mother out of the room

I don't completely understand what you mean by "tension". This is how this 10 week old looked 90% of the time and I'm not sure how to go about changing that. Mom wasn't near the baby and the baby was looking at the ceiling fan over head.

I'm not disregarding your critique, I just don't really understand it. I was actually lucky to get shots with her tongue in her mouth. I always thought it was good to not look directly at the camera.... I'll try to get her to look at me next time? There is no re-shoot on this one either, just wondering what I can do next time and what mistakes I made.
 
No, you really want a subject to look at the camera. It connects with the viewer. A baby looking away at something out of frame doesn't pull the viewer in. Next time try to make the camera look interesting or use a feather. Turn off the fan. You will notice a big difference in your feeling and the general response if the child is looking at the camera.

Tension...it can be a good or a bad thing in a photo, but it really depends. You dont want to have it with a baby. It makes the viewer feel uncomfortable even if they dont know why. Someone catch that baby! The head pointing down feels like someone is holding the baby upside down and it may just slip off the paper.
 
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#1 &#2 would have come out better if the baby were pushing her head up. #2 would improve with a different angle making the letters of her name easier to read.

#3 lacks a little bit of interest. Not bad but the feet need to be there for a reason...

#'s 4&6 are my favorite I have to say that with such a dark background the baby seems to be swallowed in the images. The prop seems to be overwhelming for some reason. I think the exposures are great. A little work with the composition and aspects of the subject and these will be top notch.
 
#1 &#2 would have come out better if the baby were pushing her head up. #2 would improve with a different angle making the letters of her name easier to read.

#3 lacks a little bit of interest. Not bad but the feet need to be there for a reason...

#'s 4&6 are my favorite I have to say that with such a dark background the baby seems to be swallowed in the images. The prop seems to be overwhelming for some reason. I think the exposures are great. A little work with the composition and aspects of the subject and these will be top notch.


Wow...thanks for such detailed critiques. 1 and 2, she wasn't very cooperative during that time for some reason. I probably should have gone back to that one after she was cooperating more to get a better shot. I also agree about the angle. I was shooting with my 50mm f1.8 so I had not much room to manuever and get it all in the frame. Possibly another foot or two higher would have made the letters stand out better (as you said).

3....yeah, I agree. But her toenails painted was cute and the mom wanted a shot of the feet. I was honestly kind of lost on creativity for a foot shot.

The others (4 and 6 included) I agree that she is kind of lost in the background. I'm not really sure how to combat that. I used a black sheet (and white sheet for the others) and darkened the sheet in post so you couldn't tell it was a sheet. Any ideas on a better way to do that? On the white ones, I selected the white and gaussian blurred it so the seams were smooth. Maybe similar on the black ones would make her not looks so much like falling???

Anyway, I appreciate your thoughts and I was pretty happy with these for my first "official" session. I will work on the pointers you gave though and try to do even better next time.
 

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