Football player at 4 months! C&C appreaciated.

ORourkeK · Feb 8, 2014

I saw my son start to play with a little football so I quickly went and grabbed my camera. Everything went wrong that could go wrong. I went to start shooting and realized I didn't put a SD card in. So I went and grabbed one. It was in and I was ready to shoot. At least I thought so... After a couple of shots, the battery was to low. I replaced the battery. Good to go! Just kidding. The batteries in my flash are low. Replaced them. Finally! Everything was smooth sailing after that. What have I learned from this? ALWAYS, no matter if I think I am going to take the camera out or not, make sure I have everything ready to go for moments like this.

Below are a couple of the shots I thought were decent. Any C&C that you believe could have made the shots better, please feel free to comment. None of these have been edited. Is there anything you would have done to make them look better?

1.

2.

RichieT · Feb 8, 2014

Cute baby. You're lucky he had the patience to wait for you to be ready. You learned the first lesson, have you stuff ready to go otherwise you risk losing those once in a lifetime shots. In the first shot, try not to cut the feet off. In the second, be aware of the background. The rock em sock ems are a little distracting from that great expression. Nice job.

TreeofLifeStairs · Feb 8, 2014

Is that just the natural lighting of the room?

ORourkeK · Feb 8, 2014

No I also used an sb700.

robbins.photo · Feb 8, 2014

Ok, from here on out start calling the kid Bruiser. Every great football player needs a cool nickname. Lol

tirediron · Feb 9, 2014

#2 would have been a really nice shot if you'd just moved a bit to your left and avoided the busy, cluttered background image left.

The_Traveler · Feb 9, 2014

IMO both are slightly underexposed and the lighting is too flat.
You clipped his foot on the first; that's a no no.

ORourkeK · Feb 10, 2014

tirediron said:
#2 would have been a really nice shot if you'd just moved a bit to your left and avoided the busy, cluttered background image left.

Yeah I wish I had removed the objects in the background sooner. I had removed them later on in the shoot, but I didn't like any of the shots after that. I may try to set this up again.

ORourkeK · Feb 10, 2014

The_Traveler said:
IMO both are slightly underexposed and the lighting is too flat.
You clipped his foot on the first; that's a no no.

I thought the 1st photo was a bit underexposed, but you think the second one is as well? As far as the light being flat, is there something you would have done to change that? I couldn't believe I clipped his feet in the first picture. Beginner mistake.

The_Traveler · Feb 10, 2014

Coming from a place of knowing absolutely nothing about artificially produced light, I am free to speak confidently

He doesn't glow like babies should and do and the single just seems to blow all the micro-structure out of his face.
Try diffusing it more, getting it off axis and a bit more exposure

ORourkeK · Feb 10, 2014

The_Traveler said:
Coming from a place of knowing absolutely nothing about artificially produced light, I am free to speak confidently

He doesn't glow like babies should and do and the single just seems to blow all the micro-structure out of his face.
Try diffusing it more, getting it off axis and a bit more exposure

Thanks, I will try to take this into consideration next time I shoot.