my kiddo

slow231 · Aug 29, 2012

a few shots of my kid. this is my first post, been lurking for awhile though! it's fitting since he is really the reason i got into photography. i took a film class in HS but never really got into it. fast forward a few (many) years, and after seeing my wedding photographer's pics, i really got an appreciation for good photos. not too soon after the wife was pregnant and i figured it was time to figure out how to capture little guy's moments!

cc 100% welcome

1: Announcement picture. originally bought flash/reflectors etc for this. in the end (after a couple of restless nights...), I shot this 100% spur of the moment with just natural light coming through the front door. there wasn't a big enough beam of light and you can see it cutoff on his head/hair. my other main gripe was the crooked basket covering along the front. probably could have done better in more than a few ways, but in the end was so caught up in being a new dad (and he was too fussy) for me to take a second crack at it.

2: Kind of a self portrait. on the front porch with ton of sunlight coming onto my face which helps the reflection. doesn't pop as much as i'd want. probably going to redo this at some point (especially since he's a lot more cooperative these days), so any tips for the redo are appreciated. maybe more of his face? i had a few like that but felt the reflection was more lost in those.

3: First beach trip. i know, i cutoff the hand! but I like the DOF and framing, just enough space on the left to address the gaze and give scene cues and nothing more. what do you guys think?

sactown024 · Aug 29, 2012

you have the exact same story as I do about photography!

# 1 is aweosme IMO, nice job on the lighting!

I like the picstures man, I wissh i could get my kid to sleept hrough a photoshoot, he wakes right up when i put him down lol. the clarity in the second one is really nice, what lens did you shoot that with? are you photoshopped into the eye, there is no camera in the photo.

SCraig · Aug 29, 2012

The horizon is really tilted in #3, but if you straighten it then it will cut a lot of the photo off. It's also cropped too tightly in my opinion.

rokvi · Aug 29, 2012

You have basically outlined most problems yourself. If you can do that then your well on your way to making great photos. Keep at it!
Good luck.

slow231 · Aug 29, 2012

sactown024 said:
you have the exact same story as I do about photography!

# 1 is aweosme IMO, nice job on the lighting!

I like the picstures man, I wissh i could get my kid to sleept hrough a photoshoot, he wakes right up when i put him down lol. the clarity in the second one is really nice, what lens did you shoot that with? are you photoshopped into the eye, there is no camera in the photo.

it was a 100mm macro. the camera was up and to the right of me, i photoshopped it out.

SCraig said:
The horizon is really tilted in #3, but if you straighten it then it will cut a lot of the photo off. It's also cropped too tightly in my opinion.

i've actually been playing with shooting things crooked to get the main elements better placed (oftentimes diagonally across the frame) so it was a bit purposeful. here i was really wanting to square up with his right foot and the lean of his mom holding him. unfortunately i do agree the tilt is a little too close to horizontal so it's a lot less deliberate and a bit distracting.

here's what i'm talking about. i'm still not sure if it makes the photo more interesting or just makes me want to cock my head when looking at it!
4:

5:

6:

7: (one i posted in the landscapes section)

Jaemie · Aug 29, 2012

Here's part of what I consider a good article on the use of the jaunty or Dutch angle in photography. From Photographic Psychology: Image and Psyche :

Tilted Angles

As I mentioned earlier, we usually experience the world as lines and shapes organized in relationship to the ground or a surface that is horizontally level. If you tilt a camera to one side or another while taking a shot, the resulting photo portrays a scene that appears unnaturally slanted up or down. In cinematography, such effects have been called “dutch” angles because they originated in German (“Deutsch&#8221 cinema during the 1930s and 1940s. The technique quickly spread throughout the world of cinematography as well as photography, becoming particularly popular during the 1960s as an avante-garde rebuffing of conventional horizontal orientations.

Because the tilted angle creates diagonal lines, the composition creates a dynamic feeling of energy and movement. Even subjects that are clearly stationery appear to be rising or falling, or somehow resisting the pull of gravity. Eye movement feels more smooth and natural going from left to right rather than right to left (in cultures where people read left to right), so tilting the camera up on the right side results in an image where the subject and the scene seem to be rising upwards to the right. When you tilt the camera frame down on right, everything seems to be falling to that side. Those sensations can be over-ridden or counterbalanced by the orientation of the subject. So, for example, if a subject is facing left, but the camera frame is tilted up on the right, the subject might seem to be descending to the left even though the tilt creates a pull upward to the right. Those contradictory lines of movement might create an interesting kind of balance or tension.

Photographers also use tilted angles as a way to control how negative space interacts with the subject. For example, imagine a shot upwards into a group of trees or buildings. Slanting the viewfinder different degrees to one side or the other will alter how the edges of the frame shape the negative space and the way it flows around the organic form of the trees or the geometric lines of the buildings.

Because we don’t normally perceive the horizontal plane of our environment as slanted even when we pitch our heads sideways, a tilted camera angle tends to create unique sensations of energy, disorientation, imbalance, transition, danger, unsettledness, instability, tension, nervousness, alienation, confusion, drunkenness, madness, or violence. For this reason it’s a highly subjective type of camera angle that encourages us to experience these sensations along with the subjects in the photo, especially if the subjects present other visual cues that confirm these states of mind. If not, then we, the viewer, might be the container for these emotions rather than the subject. So, for example, if the image is slanted heavily and the subject appears disheveled, then both we and the subject experience that state of disarray. But if the subject looks perfectly calm, then we, the viewer, feel confused while looking out onto a seemingly tranquil scene and subject.

I’m intrigued, or sometimes find myself scratching my head, when I see a wedding shot of the bride and groom walking arm in arm down the isle, in a photo that was obviously tilted. What was the photographer’s intention? Are we and the couple feeling the topsy-turvy excitement of the blissful event? Have the couple undergone a perhaps hazardous plunge into marriage? Were we, the viewers, taking early advantage of the open bar and are now way more disoriented than the newly wedded man and wife? Or did the photographer just use the dutch angle as cool looking gimmick, without giving much thought to its emotional effect?

The dutch angle has been used and overused so much that some experienced photographers will groan when they see it. If you use a tilted angle just for the sake of doing it, the resulting photo could very well look contrived. Give some serious thought to how the slanted effect serves the composition and intended effect of the image.

Also consider the degree of tilt. An extreme one might look overly manufactured, absurd, or just plain silly. Here I emphasize “might” because a contrived, ridiculous, inane, or some other extreme feeling might be the purpose of the shot, whether viewers like it or not. Subtle tilts are similarly problematic or intriguing. When most people see a slightly tilted image, they will think “that’s crooked.” Photographers might even scoff at what appears to be an obvious mistake in holding the camera level. Once again, however, the slightly uneasy and off-balance sensation of a faintly slanted shot could very well serve the composition and intended impact of the image, as in the quirky and uneasy feeling in the shot of the goose by the portable toilets.. The effect might even register on a subconscious level.

slow231 · Aug 29, 2012

Jaemie said:
Here's part of what I consider a good article on the use of the jaunty or Dutch angle in photography. From Photographic Psychology: Image and Psyche :

awesome thanks for the read! i don't know why i never thought of looking up theories/info on it, i just kind of played around with it. I think this line: "Or did the photographer just use the dutch angle as cool looking gimmick, without giving much thought to its emotional effect?" pretty much describes my approach LOL. i think a lot of the article spot on. I have to give it more thought when playing around with it.

Parker219 · Aug 29, 2012

For what it is worth, I love the reflection in the eye image. Very cool.

Jaemie · Aug 29, 2012

slow231 said:
Jaemie said:

Here's part of what I consider a good article on the use of the jaunty or Dutch angle in photography. From Photographic Psychology: Image and Psyche :

Click to expand...

awesome thanks for the read! i don't know why i never thought of looking up theories/info on it, i just kind of played around with it. I think this line: "Or did the photographer just use the dutch angle as cool looking gimmick, without giving much thought to its emotional effect?" pretty much describes my approach LOL. i think a lot of the article spot on. I have to give it more thought when playing around with it.