First Newborn photo shoot! CC pretty please!
- Thread Starter Jeanelle
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BuS_RiDeR
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I think they are great... But the white spot/spec/whatever it is... edit it out.
BuS_RiDeR
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Yes sorry. I had a brain fart. Upper right corner of #3.
Jeanelle
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Thanks for the comments guys! I was really nervous about this shoot. I am an outdoor natural light photographer (and still a newbie at that), so this was a stretch for me. I made my own light from a post I read on here, and I thought that it worked exceptionally well. I was just so worried about that there was going to be a lot of noise in the photos, but you can't exactly take a newborn out in the winter weather! I have learned so much by joining this forum, I love the critiques and all the neat ideas that everyone has.
KAikens318
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Love love love the last one!!!
Robin Usagani
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jeanelle, good job. If I have to be picky, I would rotate the basket so it is perfectly horizontal. Also I would be more consistent with my series. You have 3 different treatments on your black and white. I think that isnt necessary. I personally like the last treatment the best. Also the shadow is pretty harsh on the basket shot.
Studio7Four
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Very nice set, you should be very pleased with them! I'm going to try to be super critical only as suggestions for you - my tastes my not agree with yours (or your clients'), so take this with a grain of salt. (Oh, and for laziness' sake I'm going to call the kid "he" - you don't say and it can sometimes be hard to tell at that age.)
1) I love the composition on this one. I'm guessing that he is being held on a parent's arm...I like how you cropped it to cut down on how much of that arm is shown. I could almost believe that this is just the baby's leg, he's folded back onto himself. This feeling really works with how you've cropped his head, giving the impression that he's somehow folded into a little box.
I go back and forth on whether I like the softness/sharpness of this image. There are some areas which seem pretty well focused (his hairline, the fine hairs on his forehead and upper arm), but there are other areas such as his mouth and chin which seem too soft. I would have liked to see the face (basically from the hairline to the chin) either all soft or all sharp. I like the color treatment you gave to this one, but it looks just a tad bright. You don't seem to have blown any of the highlights but you've come close - from a technical perspective it's well shot, but this gives a bit more energy to the image than such a serene scene should have in my opinion.
2) I like this concept. You see hands making a heart on the belly in maternity shots so often it's cliche' but this might be the first time I've seen it done with newborn feet. I'm guessing that you draped a black cloth over the parent's arms and baby's body, and that the lighter areas (above the hands, to the right of the bottom finger nail) are light hitting wrinkles in this fabric. I'd suggest darkening these areas (perhaps not removing them entirely, I like how the shadowing of the fabric on the camera-right wrist works with the shadowing between the hands to create depth). You might also want to look at this as a square crop, or at least even out the negative space on the sides.
3) I agree that the tilted basket is bugging me. Unfortunately, simply rotating it to level the handles would put the baby's head lower than the rest of his body which just feels wrong. If you're good enough with Photoshop you can probably move each of the handles just a little without touching the rest of the basket or the baby so everything feels more level. I kind of like the neutral color of the blanket he's lying on, it blends in with the basket a bit and allows the eye to go right to the baby. However, though I'm sure it's really soft in person, it doesn't convey that. I'd suggest in the future using something more blatantly soft, something fluffier or shaggier. I also think this would work well as a B&W, particularly if you tone down the brightness a bit. (Similarly to my comment for #1, "baby in a basket" is a serene scene and I'd like to see more mellow lighting.)
4) I really like the composition of this one as well. And unlike in #3, here I get the impression that the afghan is nice and soft. The only small complaint I have is that the spotlight falling on the light afghan creates a bright spot which tries to draw the eye there, away from the baby's foot. I'm not sure I have a better solution (post-processing or using a darker afghan would make the image too dark I suspect) other than slightly altering your lighting setup. I do like how this setup creates a rim light on the big toe, separating it from the other foot, so I honestly don't know how much I'd alter the lighting.
Again, I would be very happy with this set as is, so take my suggestions as you will.
1) I love the composition on this one. I'm guessing that he is being held on a parent's arm...I like how you cropped it to cut down on how much of that arm is shown. I could almost believe that this is just the baby's leg, he's folded back onto himself. This feeling really works with how you've cropped his head, giving the impression that he's somehow folded into a little box.
I go back and forth on whether I like the softness/sharpness of this image. There are some areas which seem pretty well focused (his hairline, the fine hairs on his forehead and upper arm), but there are other areas such as his mouth and chin which seem too soft. I would have liked to see the face (basically from the hairline to the chin) either all soft or all sharp. I like the color treatment you gave to this one, but it looks just a tad bright. You don't seem to have blown any of the highlights but you've come close - from a technical perspective it's well shot, but this gives a bit more energy to the image than such a serene scene should have in my opinion.
2) I like this concept. You see hands making a heart on the belly in maternity shots so often it's cliche' but this might be the first time I've seen it done with newborn feet. I'm guessing that you draped a black cloth over the parent's arms and baby's body, and that the lighter areas (above the hands, to the right of the bottom finger nail) are light hitting wrinkles in this fabric. I'd suggest darkening these areas (perhaps not removing them entirely, I like how the shadowing of the fabric on the camera-right wrist works with the shadowing between the hands to create depth). You might also want to look at this as a square crop, or at least even out the negative space on the sides.
3) I agree that the tilted basket is bugging me. Unfortunately, simply rotating it to level the handles would put the baby's head lower than the rest of his body which just feels wrong. If you're good enough with Photoshop you can probably move each of the handles just a little without touching the rest of the basket or the baby so everything feels more level. I kind of like the neutral color of the blanket he's lying on, it blends in with the basket a bit and allows the eye to go right to the baby. However, though I'm sure it's really soft in person, it doesn't convey that. I'd suggest in the future using something more blatantly soft, something fluffier or shaggier. I also think this would work well as a B&W, particularly if you tone down the brightness a bit. (Similarly to my comment for #1, "baby in a basket" is a serene scene and I'd like to see more mellow lighting.)
4) I really like the composition of this one as well. And unlike in #3, here I get the impression that the afghan is nice and soft. The only small complaint I have is that the spotlight falling on the light afghan creates a bright spot which tries to draw the eye there, away from the baby's foot. I'm not sure I have a better solution (post-processing or using a darker afghan would make the image too dark I suspect) other than slightly altering your lighting setup. I do like how this setup creates a rim light on the big toe, separating it from the other foot, so I honestly don't know how much I'd alter the lighting.
Again, I would be very happy with this set as is, so take my suggestions as you will.
Robin Usagani
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misstwinklytoes
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I think these are very nice! I've never photog'd a newborn so I can only imagine the challenge (fortunately, I get to take advantage of my friends baby that was born yesterday this weekend!). The only one I don't really like is the basket. I wish the angle was more interesting or... something. It's not bad, I just wish there were something different that I can't put my fingers on.
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