Maternity photos

zulu42 · Dec 14, 2015

Some friends were kind enough to let me do some maternity photos as a learning experience with flash lighting. I did learn a lot in the process.
Comment and critique is much appreciated to help me improve. Thanks very much!

EDIT: Photos (and links)removed to replace with edited photos

tirediron · Dec 14, 2015

Not bad at all for a first go! There are a few areas for improvement, IMO, such as the exposure in #1. I think if you'd brought your light a little closer to the camera, you would have had a better "wrap" and the hands on the RH side of the image wouldn't be so quite lost in shadow. #2 is clever, 'though I think colour might better here. My major nit is the distractions on the wall, especially the picture to the viewer's left of the subject, which looks almost like it's competing with her. #3 is nice, but again I think different light placement would have improved it, in this case about 30 degrees camera right. As-is, your highlighting Dad's back; not terribly interesting, and Mom is in shadow. The last one is really cute, but at least 1 1/2 stops under-exposed.

zulu42 · Dec 14, 2015

Thanks tirediron. I agree with your comments. Everything is about a stop brighter on the monitor I used for processing. Guess it's time to get serious about calibration.
1. Yep good suggestion. 2. I do have a color version of this. I will look at it again. 3. Absolutely. If only I had switched their positions, or swapped the key and fill lights. 4. Agree is under exposed. Tried to bring the exposure up in post, but was blowing out the face of the boy on the right.
Thanks very much for the helpful comments!

Derrel · Dec 14, 2015

zulu42 said:
Thanks tirediron. I agree with your comments. Everything is about a stop brighter on the monitor I used for processing. Guess it's time to get serious about calibration.
1. Yep good suggestion. 2. I do have a color version of this. I will look at it again. 3. Absolutely. If only I had switched their positions, or swapped the key and fill lights. 4. Agree is under exposed. Tried to bring the exposure up in post, but was blowing out the face of the boy on the right.
Thanks very much for the helpful comments!

Your comments in reply to T's C&C are pretty much spot-on. Main light position on 1, color, maybe on #2, although it's solid as a B&W, and the B&W coordinates with #1. Trying a color conversion on #1 might help with the shadow issue, although to me, it reads okay as the heart symbol in B&W. All in all, pleasant images. Much better than many I think.