Need help with baby/newborn photography

Rebekah5280 · May 25, 2011

Disclaimer: I am very very new to photography. I love doing it, but I am nowhere near where I want to be! For that I need some help!!

I have been formally doing pictures for 3 months. People understand that I am new and I do not claim to be anything more than someone trying to learn.

My clients think my pictures are great, but I know that they can be so much more! I want to get a more polished look, and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to do that! Here are some of my recent pictures. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

This first one, Is my problem that its underexposed? I just can't figure it out.

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Rebekah5280 · May 25, 2011

That first one is just so dull and lifeless. It needs a lot of help! (Meaning I need a lot of help!!!!)

The second one is really orange... But I don't know how to fix it!

The third, the hand closest the camera looks a little out of focus. Is this an aperture thing?

Gaerek · May 25, 2011

I don't do much portrait work, so I can't be of much help on #1. I imagine your lighting setup is mostly to blame. But since I don't work much with artificial light, I'm not going to be much help there.

In #2, your white balance is off. There are several ways to fix this. This will depend on your photo editing software. I won't tell you how to fix it because there really are many different ways and it will depend greatly on what software you use. Just Google it and you should find a tutorial.

In the last one, it is an aperture thing. Not sure what setting you used, since it appears your exif is stripped. Though, the most important part (the face) appears to be in focus, so it's not really a big deal that the hand is out of focus.

Derrel · May 25, 2011

Yes, #1 is underexposed. See how dark it is? See how the woman's hair has no detail in it? That's because it is under-exposed. You need to use a higher ISO setting, or a wider lens aperture, or bring more light into the set to counteract the underexposure. The third shot, the bright one, is almost bordering on overexposure of the highlight areas.

Rebekah5280 · May 25, 2011

Is it possible that my camera is telling me that I am properly exposed when I am really underexposed? I always am having to fix the exposure PP.

Also - I just finished a 10 hour DSLR class and was told to shoot at 100 ISO to prevent noisy pictures. But, if I underexpose my pictures to stay at 100 ISO, and try to fix the exposure PP, I still seem to have a lot of noise. Is the noise coming from them being underexposed and not neccessarily from my ISO? Like, if I shot at 200 or 400 ISO and was exposed perfectly, would I have noise that I would need to remove PP?

Thank you!!

Rebekah5280 · May 25, 2011

Gaerek: White balance! Brilliant! And so obvious... hehe thanks.

OK, I have one more photo:

How do I even out this little girls skin tone? I see pictures of these babies that just look so bright and polished. How do I get there? Here is a ling of what I'm talking about: http://www.tntphotographybaby.com/index2.php#/rgallery/2/ particularly the first picture on the slideshow, the colored pics of the little baby girl on blue.

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Gaerek · May 25, 2011

Rebekah5280 said:
Is it possible that my camera is telling me that I am properly exposed when I am really underexposed? I always am having to fix the exposure PP.

Also - I just finished a 10 hour DSLR class and was told to shoot at 100 ISO to prevent noisy pictures. But, if I underexpose my pictures to stay at 100 ISO, and try to fix the exposure PP, I still seem to have a lot of noise. Is the noise coming from them being underexposed and not neccessarily from my ISO? Like, if I shot at 200 or 400 ISO and was exposed perfectly, would I have noise that I would need to remove PP?

Thank you!!

Underexposure adds noise. The more underexposed, the more noise. My rule of thumb when it comes to ISO. Use the lowest ISO setting you can while still properly exposing the shot, and using the settings you want. I really can't believe a photography teacher would say to shoot at 100 ISO only. Must have been smoking crack. There's a reason it's adjustable. Sometimes you need a bit more, and don't be afraid to use it.

Also, I don't know what camera you use, but as long as it's been made in the last year or two, you should be able to use at least 800 and maybe even 1600 without introducing too much noise.Again, don't be afraid to crank it up if you need to.