Need some feedback...Please be gentle!

[cbryk0718]

Hi. I'm very new at this! About a month ago I was seeing some really great photos that other moms were posting of their babies on a mom board I'm a member of and I noticed how horrible mine were! So I started asking some questions and finding some sites and am trying to learn all I can about photography and editing. Mainly so I can take great photos of my daughter, friends and family. Right now I am using my moms 3.2 mp Canon Powershot S30. It is years old but it's all I have. For Christmas I am getting my own camera although we can't afford too much. Here are a few shots of my daughter I took yesterday. Please let me know what you think! (But like I said, please be gentle )

 

[Sideburns]

Turn off you flash, and shoot in "portait mode"...that's probably the best option for you.

When you do get a new camera, may I suggest the Canon Powershot S3IS or S5...they are not too expensive, but give great results.

 

[nossie]

Well number 2 is nice. It'll be nice to see how you go with your new camera. Keep snapping

 

[calculatinginfinity]

i like number two. i actually said "aww" when i first saw it and thats always a good sign with baby pictures.

 

[LaFoto]

Hiya cbryk, welcome to ThePhotoForum.

I moved your post from The Beginners' Place over to our People and Pets Gallery, since The Beginners' Place is more designed to be a Q&A forum, and the galleries are for showing photos. OK? Even beginners to both the hobby as well as the forums are welcome to post their photos in the galleries.

With a daughter as pretty and as cute as yours I am so NOT surprised to hear you would wish to learn more about photography to take lovely photos of her.

The Powershots, older models or newer ones, are quite powerful little cameras and I am quite sure you will also be able to achieve some good results with your mom's camera. You will only have to observe a couple of little things.

None of the three presented photos is having the focus where it belongs. Your daughter's face - mostly her eyes - are not in focus in either of them, but it is always the background behind her, the bricks, the grass or the dry grass.

When you move in as close as you did (which I think is GOOD), go find the little icon on the back of your camera which is for close-ups. On my Powershot it is a little flower. Push that and keep it on, and when the camera focuses, make sure the little square that shows you where it focuses on is on your daughter's face. That will blur the background and make her face (preferably her eyes) come out sharp.

 

[cbryk0718]

Thank you all for your feedback and suggestions. I will take them and go learn some more! I can't wait to try some more!

 

[elsaspet]

When using any camera on portraits, you want to fix your focus point right between the eyes, at the top of where the nose starts from the forehead.
Try that, because as LaFoto said, they are all off on the focus.
I did enjoy your composition though, especially in the first one.
Thanks for sharing, and keep shooting!