Saturday Maternity Session

Aayria · Nov 8, 2010

Saturday was difficult.. It was with a couple I'd never met, and they were both a little shy around the camera. I tried to keep the mood lighthearted and reassure the girl how great she was looking in the shots etc... The usual things that seem to really help the "connection" in a photo shoot.. But it was reallyyy hard this time around. I think maybe we just didn't hit it off as well? The mom-to-be didn't seem thrilled to have her pictures taken, and on top of that it was starting to get chilly out. I made hot cocoa and we sat sipping it, chatting for a bit halfway through. I think that helped a little.

But I was also feeling super un-inspired this time around! Do you ever feel that way? Like the creativity well has just run dry? I was ready to throw my camera in a bush after she left :blushing:

Oh...and I asked him about the bandanna. He didn't want to take it off, because he didn't like the way his hair looked, lol. So we went with it

Anyway..here are a couple that turned out the "best" from the day..but I really feel like they're still not quite *there* yet! Any advice on lighting, composition, editing, is absolutely welcome. (Please don't make me beg! =P ) I think I need to post for CC more often, because I'm getting lazy. ><

Ok less typing, more pictures! Here they are, all shot with my D5000 and the 50mm 1.4G. Aperture ranged from 1.8 to 2.2ish. The belly shots on black (bad burning job with halo'ing and cheesy edit?) were 1.4. Natural light during the golden hour, with a large gold reflector.

I've been pushing the color "pop" in lightroom a lot more than I'm used to, but I think I may have gone overboard here. Getting some orangy skin tones, and they still aren't consistent throughout. I know this is a large share, but I wanted to have a good example of the variety of skin colors I'm getting. I understand if you only want to pick one to comment on.

Thanks so much for taking the time to view these!

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

6)

7)

8)

9)

And this was the only one I actually felt somewhat proud of from the day...

10)

MohaimenK · Nov 8, 2010

I like them very much! You go girl!!!

rainking · Nov 8, 2010

Very nice. The only one I really didn't like was 4. The OOF foreground was distracting. How did you shoot 10? Very interesting angle.

Aayria · Nov 8, 2010

rainking said:
Very nice. The only one I really didn't like was 4. The OOF foreground was distracting. How did you shoot 10? Very interesting angle.

#10 was actually a reflection in the pond. =)

rainking · Nov 8, 2010

Aayria said:
rainking said:

Very nice. The only one I really didn't like was 4. The OOF foreground was distracting. How did you shoot 10? Very interesting angle.

Click to expand...

#10 was actually a reflection in the pond. =)

Wow, I would have never guessed seeing how clear it is! Very nice! You rotated it 180?

Aayria · Nov 8, 2010

rainking said:
Aayria said:

rainking said:

Very nice. The only one I really didn't like was 4. The OOF foreground was distracting. How did you shoot 10? Very interesting angle.

Click to expand...

#10 was actually a reflection in the pond. =)

Click to expand...

Wow, I would have never guessed seeing how clear it is! Very nice! You rotated it 180?

Yep, in camera they were upside down. I liked it, because the pond acted like a natural polarizing filter for the blue sky.

Tbini87 · Nov 8, 2010

nice shots! great looking couple, glad you were able to get some shots of them looking relaxed. noticed a few shots without the belly in it... and didn't really strike me as maternity shots. other than that i enjoyed them!

Sisco · Nov 8, 2010

Your outside natural light photos are just beautifully done.

misstwinklytoes · Nov 8, 2010

These are just beautiful, as usual with you.

I'm so jealous.

The pond picture is absolutely stunning!

Did you photoshop something out in the first one?

doctorh · Nov 8, 2010

Beautiful work!

PerfectlyFlawed · Nov 8, 2010

Wow, for being 'un-inspired', you sure did a good job.

Only a few things i noticed that jumped out at me...and since you asked for C/C, here they are:
1. Kind of looks like it was trimmed down, or cut out of something to me, the edges of the subject are blurred/softened. ( Still looks good though )
2. Has a super.. foggy and soft.. look to it. I dont know if thats what you were going for?..I think that shot would benefit from being sharper, imo.
3,4,5,6 and 7.) Great job on the focus and DOF! Vignetting ( I think ) works well on #6, and regardless of the bandanna in #7, you still were able to pull of a great shot.
8.) Great shot! I love the DOF and the way the fall colors just blend together with her hair, eyes and sweater. Very festive

9.) ^
10.) .......WOW. I had to look at this turn around and upside down a few times :biglaugh:

I knew it was a reflection of some sort, but just could not figure it out (until i read further in the thread) The colors, framing and creativity of this shot are amazing! You did awesome on this

Aayria · Nov 8, 2010

misstwinklytoes said:
These are just beautiful, as usual with you. I'm so jealous.

The pond picture is absolutely stunning!

Did you photoshop something out in the first one?

Thanks so much for the sweet compliments everyone! It means a lot after how frustrated I was with this shoot!

As for the first one....let me see if I can get the original up. I took a lot more than something (singular) out LOL

Aayria · Nov 8, 2010

PerfectlyFlawed said:
Wow, for being 'un-inspired', you sure did a good job.
Only a few things i noticed that jumped out at me...and since you asked for C/C, here they are:
1. Kind of looks like it was trimmed down, or cut out of something to me, the edges of the subject are blurred/softened. ( Still looks good though )
2. Has a super.. foggy and soft.. look to it. I dont know if thats what you were going for?..I think that shot would benefit from being sharper, imo.
3,4,5,6 and 7.) Great job on the focus and DOF! Vignetting ( I think ) works well on #6, and regardless of the bandanna in #7, you still were able to pull of a great shot.
8.) Great shot! I love the DOF and the way the fall colors just blend together with her hair, eyes and sweater. Very festive
9.) ^
10.) .......WOW. I had to look at this turn around and upside down a few times I knew it was a reflection of some sort, but just could not figure it out (until i read further in the thread) The colors, framing and creativity of this shot are amazing! You did awesome on this

Thanks for the detailed CC! You're so sweet =)

The first two were edited wayyyy more than I like to ever have to edit anything. I actually took out the background completely, and fixed the crazy noise (shot around ISO 2000).... I had this idea I wanted to try, and when I got home to look at the pictures it looked really terrible! But I still wanted some shots of just her belly, and these were it, so I worked with what I had =P I was afraid the first one especially might look too "cut out" but I think if I tweak it a bit more it can be better.

I'll get the originals up in a sec so you can see just how terrible my original idea was :lol:

Aayria · Nov 8, 2010

Here are the originals SOOC without editing of the two I blacked out:

Oh and I know his fingernails look pretty awful here.. If you look in the edited version of #2 in my OP, I actually painted over his fingers, and replaced his thumbnail with hers LOL