Oh Little Levi

Fidge · Sep 11, 2007

1

2

3

4

5

My son just turned 7 months old today. I'd love some pointers on how to best capture him. What can i do to improve, keeping in mind that at the moment I only have an A540 to work with :er:

Corry · Sep 11, 2007

Again we have a lot of overexposure here...although it does have some benefits to it in some cases...such as in #3, it helps to make the things in the background less distracting, and it does seem to really bring out his eyes...

....good LORD he's a beautiful child, have I told you that lately?

Sideburns · Sep 11, 2007

1 thing....the lighting is really harsh in almost all....try and control that...makes him look like a reflector.

Fidge · Sep 11, 2007

Sideburns said:
1 thing....the lighting is really harsh in almost all....try and control that...makes him look like a reflector.

is the lighting too harsh in 4 also?

3 is the only one where I intentionally amped up the lighting. I like how it sets his eyes off

Is there anything I can use from around the house to act as a pseudo reflector until I can afford to purchase one?

Fidge · Sep 11, 2007

Corry said:
....good LORD he's a beautiful child, have I told you that lately?

after some prodding I send a few of his pictures out to local agencies. Just waiting to hear back now. :sexywink:

Corry · Sep 11, 2007

Psuedo reflector: White foam core board.

I've got a big hunk of it in my backseat still from when I did the pics of my cousin.

LaFoto · Sep 11, 2007

Heya Fidge, welcome to ThePhotoForum!

You have a precious little son!
And also a nice little camera, I should say. One you can really work with, no problem.
Only recommendation I can give about Powershots in general is: never use them in automatic mode. They sure tend to produce overexposed photos. Mine does the same. I could "beat" it when I switched to Programme Mode (P) and set the exposure to 1 stop below or even more. Those settings at least gave me more room to work with in Photoshop later. Once blown (= totally overexposed and therefore bright white) areas in a photo are lost. Too dark areas still contain a lot of information that can still be brought out.

You say you went for that bright look in Photo 3 here to bring out his eyes more? I see where you come from and what your idea was, but with the background it does not work. The toeboard, spot on wall and toy invariably pull at least my eyes away from your son. Composition speaks against the overall good concept here.

All in all, though, I can only applaude the fact that you decided NOT to use the on-camera flash!

Fidge · Sep 12, 2007

Corry said:
Psuedo reflector: White foam core board. I've got a big hunk of it in my backseat still from when I did the pics of my cousin.

ahh excellent! I think I have some laying around but if not it's very easy to pick some up

Fidge · Sep 12, 2007

LaFoto said:
You say you went for that bright look in Photo 3 here to bring out his eyes more? I see where you come from and what your idea was, but with the background it does not work. The toeboard, spot on wall and toy invariably pull at least my eyes away from your son. Composition speaks against the overall good concept here.

All in all, though, I can only applaude the fact that you decided NOT to use the on-camera flash!

you are right about that, the background IS very distracting. Would softening the background image using some computer trickery save the over all composition or just make it look like a muddled mess?

LaFoto · Sep 12, 2007

With this very photo ... more "muddled mess", I'm afraid, if you want my frank and open answer.
But he's your son.
And still young enough to be a willing subject.
You can try and try again every day to get a good photo of him.

Now my daughter ... ! :shock:
She's 14 .................................................... doesn't that say it all?