C+C Please :) First in-home newborn shoot :D

[lepierce3]

Ok, so I've been working in retail photography for a little over a year now (yeaah I know, boo retail!) And I've actually learned a lot about posing and working with newborns, and I've really been reading and working with my personal camera to learn the rest of it too. I know I still have a long way to go, but my neighbor just had a baby, and I took this opportunity to practice some of what I've been learning. I can already see a lot of problems, but I'm not really sure how to fix most of them such as the softness (used an iso of 400 cus I was afraid of noise), and some other things as well, but I was really just hoping to get some professional opinions and advice so next time will be even better!So, here are some of my favorite images from the session, please let me know how I can make these better for next time Thank you!!I used natural light, in her home, with a Olympus E300 with a 14-45 mm lens (it's old stuff I know, but I can't afford anything new and shiny till after college )1.

2.

3.

4.

 

[SteffJay]

The first thing that comes to mind after looking at these is be careful with exposure. You've got a lot of hotspots in photos 1,2, and 4 (where the detail is lost and the brightness catches the eye very quickly).

The posing is very nice, however

 

[lepierce3]

Hm ok, I see the bright spot in #2, but not the others. Could you describe what you mean? I see that the moms eyelashes are really dark, but I'm not sure if that's what you mean? And thank you

 

[baturn]

Collage? Really?

 

[lepierce3]

Arg well Im not an english major :

 

[SteffJay]

generally, a hotspot is an area of the photo that's overexposed and that's when detail becomes lost.

in photo 1, that spot is between mom and baby. i'm not sure what that is between them, but the eye was drawn to it. and it loses some detail in the skin tone, which the black and white helps but does not eliminate.

and in photo number 4, look at the upper right corner. the photo itself is beautiful and i adore the composition, but the bright spot in the corner brings it down a lot for me.

what kind of light source were you using? if it was a strobe, i'd suggest bringing it a foot or so back. and be sure to meter


PS: Baturn: I don't know if that post was intended to be negative, but it sounded like it. I'm brand new to this forum, but one thing that I see is that negativity (at least without constructive criticism) doesn't really have a place here. Especially over a misspelled word. That's all.

 

[nyamy]

3 is my fav, followed closely by 4 (those are sweet baby feet!!)
I want to like the first one but something about the pose isnt working for me. not sure, maybe its cropped too tight? the moms blouse breaks it up I think. would love to see skin-on-skin there, but I know that isnt everyone's thing.
in any case, they are all WAY better than anything I've done. nice job!

 

[tevo]

#1 feels a bit busy, would soften the skin tones
#2 definitely soften the skin tones, make them more pink as opposed to red
#3 " " " " " " " " " " " "
#4 like this one, maybe a little too pink (imo)

 

[KmH]

A hot spot is a highlight that is brighter than it's surroundings, and is often a reflection of the light source(s). When a spot is so bright it has gone to pure white (all 3 RGB channels at or above 250), called blown out, then detail is lost.

In checking the exposure of #1 with Photoshop, I cannot find any area in #1 that is even close to being blown out (brightest is right around 225). In most people photos highlights on the skin are unavoidable, and often desireable.

In the lower left portion of #2 the white fleece the baby is on is indeed blown (at the maximum of 255) in many areas.

Overall the exposure of all 4 is good, but the use of light in the photos could stand some improvement, as can some other technical issues.

In #1 Mom's OOF and distorted hand in the foreground is distracting. You used 39 mm for your focal length which contributed to the distortion and the OOF foreground from the shallow DOF. As space allows use the longest focal length you can for the best depth-of-field. Many pros like to use 200 mm.

In #2 the light is farily harsh for an infant shot. Note the shadow cast by the lower part of the babies face. A apparently larger light source would let the light 'wrap' more makeing the shadow edge more diffuse, and less noticeable.

In #3 the infants face seems a bit soft, so that photo may need a bit of sharpening, or mid-tone contrast adjustment.

In #4 I would dodge the upper foot a bit to make it darker and better separated from the background.

 

[dakkon76]

I'm brand new to this forum, but one thing that I see is that negativity (at least without constructive criticism) doesn't really have a place here. Especially over a misspelled word. That's all.

You must be new... Because useless negativity is allowed a very large share here. Lots of hypocrisy too, especially over the spelling

 

[lepierce3]

Wow, thank you everyone for your help!

in photo 1, that spot is between mom and baby. i'm not sure what that is between them, but the eye was drawn to it. and it loses some detail in the skin tone, which the black and white helps but does not eliminate.

Hmm ok, that was a pillow cus she was sitting on her bed, so I guess I need to watch out a little more carefully for what's in the background.

and in photo number 4, look at the upper right corner. the photo itself is beautiful and i adore the composition, but the bright spot in the corner brings it down a lot for me.

what kind of light source were you using? if it was a strobe, i'd suggest bringing it a foot or so back. and be sure to meter

I was just using natural light since I don’t have access to any kind of other lighting equipment at the moment. The window was from that side, so that’s why it's a little brighter there. On the left the baby's body is showing through the tutu, so it's darker. I guess this is just another example of watching the background a little more closely haha. Thank you for your input!

3 is my fav, followed closely by 4 (those are sweet baby feet!!)
I want to like the first one but something about the pose isnt working for me. not sure, maybe its cropped too tight? the moms blouse breaks it up I think. would love to see skin-on-skin there, but I know that isnt everyone's thing.
in any case, they are all WAY better than anything I've done. nice job!

Thanks! And yeah, I see what you mean now, I think it might look better if I had included a little more of the moms face, like now that you point it out, it seems really tights around her lip area. Thank you : )

#1 feels a bit busy, would soften the skin tones
#2 definitely soften the skin tones, make them more pink as opposed to red
#3 " " " " " " " " " " " "
#4 like this one, maybe a little too pink (imo)

I tried to smooth out the baby’s skin tone a little with the clone/healing brushes on photoshop, but I mostly just took care of the little scratches and things that baby’s get on their faces. When I look at newborn portraits from other people, I can see that it seems like they really smoothed everything out, but I can imagine using the healing and cloning brush to do every single image from a session would get crazy tedious. Are there any other ways to do it that maybe would make it go faster?

In #1 Mom's OOF and distorted hand in the foreground is distracting. You used 39 mm for your focal length which contributed to the distortion and the OOF foreground from the shallow DOF. As space allows use the longest focal length you can for the best depth-of-field. Many pros like to use 200 mm.

Thanks for going into so much detail! I didn’t know about measuring hotspots, I’ll have to keep that in mind. Do you think that using aperture (is that the right word?) would have helped too? I read that to make the background blurry I should use a smaller aperture, so used the smallest one I could lol. How do I know what I need to keep the foreground in focus too?

In #3 the infants face seems a bit soft, so that photo may need a bit of sharpening, or mid-tone contrast adjustment.

Yeah, I noticed that too but I didn’t know what else to do. I tried sharpening, but I didn’t know that mid-tone contrast adjustment would help with that, I’ll try that too. Thank you!

 

[SabrinaO]

Love the feet shot! You need to fix your white balance and watch your exposure... lots of blown spots. ugh I hate shooting newborns on white. Put a white sheet or a diffuser reflector over the window if you are gonna use natural light.

 

[KmH]

Thanks for going into so much detail! I didn’t know about measuring hotspots, I’ll have to keep that in mind. Do you think that using aperture (is that the right word?) would have helped too? I read that to make the background blurry I should use a smaller aperture, so used the smallest one I could lol. How do I know what I need to keep the foreground in focus too?

You use a DoF calculator like the ones at www.dofmaster.com.

The lens aperture size is adjustable. A larger aperture opening, like f/2, helps produce a shallow depth-of-field (DoF). Read this short tutorial: Understanding Depth of Field in Photography.

A larger aperture is represented by a large number too. Note that f/2 (or f/3.5, or f/4) is a fraction, and is a larger number than f/22 is.

A shallow DoF makes both the foreground and the background blurry.

Only 1 distance from the camera is sharply focused, and is known as the focus, or focal, point. But DoF is such that there is a range of distance in front of, and behind that focal point that will generally have acceptably sharp focus. However, focus sharpness begins falling off immediately with distance in front of or behind that focal point.