Family with baby: amateur shoot for C&C

[zulu42]

Tried a few new things, including lighting the white background with a gelled speed light, playing with the light fall off. I didn't anticipate having trouble with the reflections on the subjects from the blue background. Live and learn
I would love any CC on any aspect of these. Thanks for looking!

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6

 

[Designer]

I see no fall-off to speak of except a little in #6.

1, 2, & 5 the light is very flat.

You're getting some shadows in #1 & #4.

Gelling the background to blue wasn't helping. Probably should have been white, in retrospect.

#4 very nice pose and frame.

White balance difference between #1 & #2.

The B&W conversions don't do anything for me.

 

[zulu42]

Tanks for the comments. Regarding the flat light, maybe my key light was too diffused with an umbrella? Should have used a smaller source to provide more shadow?

 

[Designer]

Tanks for the comments. Regarding the flat light, maybe my key light was too diffused with an umbrella? Should have used a smaller source to provide more shadow?

Not necessarily. My understanding is that your key light should dominate the fill light, but it can still be diffused, same for the fill light. A "split" is what you would get by creating a differential between the two lights.

 

[vintagesnaps]

You gotta know how to work with kids and get them looking at you (especially working with the baby is probably more of a challenge). Maybe find another way to practice the lighting so you know how to set that up before you get kids in it when you have to be ready and adjust quickly.

I'd work on your framing and think about where you're cropping people off and how you can keep them more in the frame.

 

[Derrel]

OMG--the LAST one is FUNNY!!!!! I love that! That shot is going to be a special family memory in the future. It just captures that new baby time frame, where an infant is sort of...I don't know how to put it..."new to the world and its myriad strangeness," I guess. The baby looks so bewildered. I love it! From a technical standpoint, it does show one thing--the need for a good lint brush for every black-shirted shoot you do.

I recall very clearly my first white backdrop + gelled flash experience in 1986...wow...I had much,much worse blowback than you got, but I was using a powerful studio flash...I ruined most of the whole shoot. White fabric or walls reflects a lot of light. Also, I can see b y the shadow outline on the backdrop in shot #1 and #4 that the people were fairly close to the paper, so they have attachment shadows from the main light.

In #1, the dad hip-holding the baby looks awkward. I think I would have given Mom the infant. In #4, I might have given Mom an apple box under her right foot, to help elevate the infant a bit higher, put a foam block with cover under the baby's butt, to elevate him that way.

If you had fired the speedlight onto black, or thunder gray paper, it would have dramatically decreased the reflection of the gelled light on to them. I know space if often at a premium. One thing too--if yuo open blue gel backdrop images in POS, and go to selective color, you can adjust the backdrop color pretty easily.

 

[zulu42]

Thanks very much for the helpful tips. Great suggestions. Yes, we all loved the baby's expression in the last one.
It was a tough shoot. Gotta hand it to you pros. It's not easy.
The oldest boy is always patient and willing. The baby is just being a baby. he did fine. But the younger boy, he's going to be trouble. Even his parents can't control him. He loves nothing more than to do the exact opposite of what he's asked. What a handful!