Her grandchild, my nephew

[doenoe]

My mum asked if i could take a picture of her grandchild (my nephew) so i thought i would use the studiolights for this. This was the first time i really used it and i dont really know what i was doing. But i used one umbrella on the left side and from above. And i used somekind of slave flash, which was placed at the right side, but lower then the umbrella. Also used my on-camera flash, cause i need that to trigger the other lights. Have to buy a cord or something for that. Turned down the power of the on-camera flash a bit (i hope you know what i mean, the flash isnt as harsh then) I also have a softbox (huge one) but i didnt have room to set it up :er: I did have a lightmeter, but i was confused on how to use it, so it was just trial and error for the biggest part. Ill read the manual before the next time.
Anyways, here are the pics. If you got some comments, critique or something else to say, please do. Im still learning to work with the lights and any help is usefull.

And i made some shots of the dog to:

Not really the best subjects to learn, they dont sit still and never listen
Thanks for looking
Greetz Daan

 

[LaFoto]

Well, inexpert as I am with regards to studio lighting, I am probably the very last person you would want to write a comment into this thread of yours, but I will tell you all the same that I cannot see in these photos here that your subjects neither listened nor ever sat still. They look like the PERFECT subjects to me! And my inexpert, middle-aged eyes see nice catchlights in both your nephew's and your dog's eyes, a DOF that might have been a tad too narrow ... I think I would have wanted BOTH your nephew's eyes in focus here ... and photos that will please your mom, mostly so 1 and (in case she also want's a dog pic) the last.

Now let the experts come and speak (and I do see the little blown out spot on his nose, too, and the very light part in his face in 1, but that is not too bad, I say).

 

[KevinR]

they are pretty good. What f stop where you using? I think my biggest complaint is maybe the B&W conversion. Which one are you using? They just seem a little flat to me. Probably could get more punch out of them.

 

[doenoe]

KevinR: uhmmmm i shot with 1.8 and an ISO400 :blushing:
Like i said, im still totally confused with al this stuff and this was the only setting (that i could see) which worked a bit.
I used Wally's B&W conversion, which normally works great. But not in these pics. I also used the wrong WB (yes, ill shoot RAW next time) which made the pics rather yellow, which probably didnt help when converting to B&W. Ill try and fiddle around some more in PS and see if i can get some more punch in there.
Corinna: what makes you think you are the last person that i would read a comment from. I always love your comments, nice and true. And you were right about the DOF, way to narrow. I will work on that the next time when ill shoot something like......i dunno..............a screwdriver, which will sit still and do excactly what i want
And thanks for the comments

 

[AprilRamone]

I agree with Kevin. My biggest concern with these photographs is that they just need more contrast or something to make them seem less dull. They are all just so gray.

 

[doenoe]

ok, so i fidled around in PS and played with the brightness/contrast. Only edited the ones from my nephew. I think they look better now. Hope you guys think that too
So here they are:

Thanks again

 

[KevinR]

When shooting with strobes, you can shoot with a smaller F stop. I tend to shoot around f8 to f5.6. This gives me enough depth of field to keep focused. The strobes help seperate the subject from the background.

The B&W conversion I have been using is:
Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Gradient Map>OK
Then:
Layer>New Adjustment Layer>Channel Mixer-set to monochrome
set contrast to -8 and Red to 80%, then increase blue and green till it looks good. Press ok. Then, Layer>Flatten Image. Try on one and see how it looks.

The new ones are better. Just thought you might want to try another way.

 

[doenoe]

ok, ill just write that down, cause i will forget how to do that. Thanks for the tip