newborn shots - 1st attempt

[Dmariehill]

We recently traveled out of state to adopt our son. We were stuck out of town in a vacation condo for 2 weeks waiting to come home when I realized any chance for newborn shots lay with me. I just had my camera and flash to work with. And he was getting too old for the traditional naked laying on his stomach shot. So I had to get a little creative for poses.

This one is my husband's favorite. I couldn't get him to hold his hand the way I wanted with only 1 finger down. He was holding the baby and posing at the same time so it was a bit awkward.


I did get a foot shot, although it's a little non traditional. Hubs likes this one but I wish the back foot was also in focus.


This is my favorite. Although I think it would have been better on the white background.



I think newborn photography is not going to be in my wheelhouse - but these aren't horrible. Thoughts, critiques? I need to take 1 month pics soon, so tips on adjusting the lighting or composition etc are helpful.

 

[tirediron]

I rather like the first one; I agree that the hand position isn't quite ideal, but I do like sense of scale. I think however your conversions could use a little work. they appear rather mid-tone rich and lacking contrast.

 

[Dmariehill]

I rather like the first one; I agree that the hand position isn't quite ideal, but I do like sense of scale. I think however your conversions could use a little work. they appear rather mid-tone rich and lacking contrast.

Is that more of a lighting issue or something I do post processing? Right now, I'm really only using iphoto or picassa for editing so I've been pretty limited in what I can do.

 

[KmH]

Your husband's fav, and your fav are both grossly under exposed. The foot shot looks about right, exposure wise.

For digtal photos many use an exposure control approach know as ETTR: Expose-To-The-Right - meaning to the right side of the image histogram.
Exposing to the right - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Optimizing Exposure
ETTR

Tones & Contrast

• Understanding Histograms, Part 1: Tones & Contrast
• Understanding Histograms, Part 2: Luminosity & Color

 

[Dmariehill]

Thanks! I'll check out those links.