Love it? Hate it? C&C Please

[phiya]

Picture I took of my Nephew and sister-in-law for Father's Day. How do ya'll like it?

 

[480sparky]

Great lighting & expression, but you chopped of his head and right hand.


And your sister-in-law.... she looks like she's a vampire ready to partake in tonight's feast.

 

[Derrel]

Good concept, pretty decent focusing, but the color tones are awfully "cool" for such a "warm mother and child moment. The cool fleshtones give a dreadful quality to the baby's skin.

 

[Ron Evers]

The kid sure has a high belly-button.

I agree with previous comments.

 

[phiya]

Thanks for the comments so far, I'll have to try a warmer edit. I'm kinda chuckling at the right hand comment, does that out of focus hand bring anything at all to the picture? I hadn't noticed it...

 

[phiya]

How about this edit? I know it's still cooler than ideal, but I really like how the coolness brings out his eyes without selective coloring the picture.

 

[Ron Evers]

Needs more warming in my opinion.

 

[Aayria]

Hi Phiya... The baby in this shot is adorable!

There are a lot of glaring issues with it technically, though. First...it looks like you shot with a pop up flash aimed at the baby? Those catch lights (deer in the headlights) dead center in his pupils are a give away. I would expose for the baby's skin and try to get more directional lighting, even if that means bouncing the little pop up flash you have with a card or something.

It's also underexposed, dark, and cool. That means that you need to either lower your apreture, lower your shutter speed, or raise your ISO to get a better exposure. And the coolness is just a matter of white balance which can be easily fixed with a digital grey card in post processing if you shot this in RAW. Compositionally, it's lacking greatly because of the tight crop, and the "story" being told is not at all what you were aiming for.. (IE the vampire comment >< )

Keep shooting though, and looking forward to seeing more of this cute baby!

 

[Kbarredo]

How was the lighting set up in this

 

[phiya]

I actually used an SB600 bounced off the ceiling. I've tried to shoot this same baby with a 2 flash set up, it is just too much of a hassle. I find that 1 flash on camera bounced or diffused is the easiest way to just keep shooting.

Secondly, the coolness is due to the edit, not the white balance. I purposely cooled and desaturated the picture to bring out his eyes.

As far as the composition I was actually trying to reproduce a shot that My sister in law showed me, the tightness of the shot is purposefully done.

 

[KmH]

The mom is so under exposed she isn't really an effective image element.

 

[Ryan L]

How about this edit? I know it's still cooler than ideal, but I really like how the coolness brings out his eyes without selective coloring the picture.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/34432955@N04/5819236935/

The eyes are much brighter in this warmer shot than in the cooler one.

 

[amandalee]

How about this edit? I know it's still cooler than ideal, but I really like how the coolness brings out his eyes without selective coloring the picture.

The eyes are much brighter in this warmer shot than in the cooler one.

I completely agree! The baby looks alive in the second but it needs more warmth to give that awwwwwwww moment that you want.