Babysitting Adventure

[jmtonkin]

Hey everyone,

I'm getting ready to do a newborn session tomorrow and so I decided to take some time today and do a little more practicing with OCF. I was baby-sitting today so I thought, "Why not? It will keep her entertained..." I shot some shots and had several that I was pleased with, but I'd like some CC on them.

Here is the shot:

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[TR="class: exifVisibleRow"]
[TD="class: exifTd"]Exposure Time[/TD]
[TD="class: exifTd exifTdShort"]1/500[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: exifVisibleRow"]
[TD="class: exifTd"]F Number[/TD]
[TD="class: exifTd exifTdShort"]f / 6.3[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: exifVisibleRow"]
[TD="class: exifTd"]Exposure Program[/TD]
[TD="class: exifTd exifTdShort"]Manual[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: exifVisibleRow"]
[TD="class: exifTd"]ISO Speed Ratings[/TD]
[TD="class: exifTd exifTdShort"]100[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR="class: exifVisibleRow"]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]


Like I said, I'm quite pleased with these shots. One thing I noticed is that the light seems a little too much on her face causing it to be washed-out. She has a rather fair complexion already and the flash did NOT help with that. I did some processing in Photoshop, but not really much on the exposure.

This was definitely a learning experience for me. I only have one SB-900 and a LumiQuest Pocket Bouncer. I was roughly three feet from her with the flash at camera left about 45 degrees angled down at her. Also, the background was a white wall, so I had to do some experimenting here. I placed my iPad of all things next to the flash to block the light from hitting the wall, and I shortened my shutter speed to get the shot to have a much darker background. Also, I'm not sure what she was doing with her mouth; she liked to make faces at the camera while I was shooting.

I'd LOVE some C&C on this shot! Thank you for your time!

 

[DannyLewis]

it is a snapshot

 

[jmtonkin]

What about this makes it a snapshot? Compositionally, it isn't the best, I suppose. Her eyes are dead center, afterall...What specifically classifies this as a snapshot? Is it the lighting, the composition, her posture (which wasn't really posed at all), the weird smirk thing? I don't mean to sound short or disrespectful, I would just like to learn from this.

 

[CowgirlMama]

The lighting feels harsh to me. Can you either diffuse it somehow or bounce it off a large surface? When I did my 3 year old's birthday portraits, I hung a white sheet on the wall and bounced light off of that. It spread the light out and made the shadows softer. It might help balance the light a bit, rather than have places that are too bright and others that are too dark like you have now.

 

[jmtonkin]

This was bounced using the LumiQuest Pocket Bouncer. I had it out and was messing with it to see what kind of results I got. When I tried with out the bounce-thing, I got a lot of spill light on the white wall, which I did not want. That's part of the reason I decided to give that a shot.

Perhaps the bouncer wasn't sufficient enough to diffuse the light...

 

[jmtonkin]

In case anyone asks, I don't plan on using the flash a whole lot tomorrow. I have a very large window that I'm going to do the newborn shoot next to. I'm just trying to get ahold of this OCF stuff.

 

[mishele]

it is a snapshot

How dare you use that horrible word!!! Ok, I agree...snappy, snap.
How to Photograph Children