Jackson's First Halloween

[Lyncca]

This is my best friend's baby. She opted for a little outfit for him instead of a true costume for his first Halloween, so I played with off camera lighting and a reflector.

I have a few more of him that I haven't finished yet, but I like these...

C&C welcome...

 

[HJM Photography]

AWWW! Adorable!

 

[Lyncca]

Thank you. He is a little doll.

These were taken with my new 35mm f2.0 lens. This lens has been a lifesaver to help get the full body shots with my limited studio space. I was crawling underneath my desk and crammed up against the wall trying to get my shots with the 50mm, and I was still not able to get 100% straight on without cropping some body part....

 

[tirediron]

Great shots Lyncca, but it looks like your lighting is just a hair unbalanced. The right side of his face (Image left) is 1/2ish stop brighter than the left. Esp. in #1, he's almost got a raccoon eye on his right...

 

[Lyncca]

I'm certainly not a lighting genius, it is what I struggle with the most, but aren't you supposed to have different ratios of lighting to avoid "flat" lighting? Otherwise, why not just shoot straight on?

I agree with the first shot being too dark around his eyes. I think I moved the light source shortly after. Then, I used a reflector for his left (image right) side.

I'm not being sarcastic, I'm trying to learn, but sometimes its hard to convey "tone" in writing

 

[jenncolang]

He's adorable

Nice job! What are you using for your backdrop? is that velvet? I can't tell.

For halloween I might have tried a more extreme 2:1 lighting ratio on his face... you kind of achieved it in the first... maybe a little less than a 4:1 though. Kind of spooky but still adorable you know?

 

[Lyncca]

I just used black muslin, but I did have to darken it in photoshop. Eventually I am going to get some velvet or something that will be darker.

I do have some pics where the lighting is a little more extreme, but neither I nor his mom liked those as much because he lost a lot of detail on one side of his face.

 

[tirediron]

You're right about the different lighting ('though I'm no lighting expert either); yours might even be fine, I am looking at these on my crappy work monitor.

Just an aside, be careful and experiment before you buy too much velvet; I tried some, and it was absolute crap because of the nap. Even when you though you had it perfectly there'd be the odd bit that would get brushed and reflect like a hot spot. I bought several yards of black cotton of the type used for t-shirts, and it works well, but it almost always requires a little 'tweaking' in post.