- Joined
- Jun 4, 2010
- Messages
- 2,176
- Reaction score
- 1,654
- Location
- Wisconsin, United States
- Can others edit my Photos
- Photos OK to edit
Ok, so this was my first legitimate attempt at a newborn photo shoot. This baby belongs to a good friend of mine. I asked him if I could do my own shoot, but gave him the caveat he was to have a professional photographer scheduled to do the actual newborn shoot. That way, worst case scenario I walk away with no photos worth anything, but he still gets the nice newborn shoot he deserves.
I shot everything with natural light, which didn't help much since they only window they had faced north and the sun is still in the south sky... I did everything I have read about to make the baby comfy. She was 6 days old. I did it in their apartment, using only props I found around their place. All I had with me was my camera, tripod and a reflector. In an attempt to emulate what I have read other photographers had success with, I cranked the temp in the apartment to 78deg, put a heating pad under the blanket she was laying on, played white noise in the background, and had her fed right before the shoot. Unfortunately, none of that helped... She was still fussy as hell. As soon as she would be naked, she'd start screaming. Anyway, I'm sure getting the touch right comes with time. C&C would be appreciated on these, which were the strongest of the set. I'm especially interested in compositional changes I could make, and whether or not I did ok with the backdrop and subject isolation. It was a blanket I stole from their guest bed.
1. My own C&C on this one: larger DOF. It would have been nice to get the bow in focus. I also noticed I missed the focus by a tiny bit all around. I even tried focus bracketing, with the center focus point, but still couldn't seem to nail the focus. Though, at these shutter speeds I guess it might just be camera shake. I couldn't use a tripod because I needed to be able to quickly move and adapt. Maybe setting the camera to shutter priority with auto ISO would help change that?
2. The focus on this one was obviously on the feet. Not sure about the composition of this one. I wish I would have gotten the feet more in complete view. I also can't decide if this would look better in B&W. Thoughts?
3. This one and #4 are my favorites. Which one do you prefer? And, how could I have improved the composition on them. I also noticed I slightly missed the focus on these two. Again, same issue as mentioned above with focusing. Also probably should have bumped up the f/stop for a little more DOF
4.
Your feedback would be greatly appreciated.
I shot everything with natural light, which didn't help much since they only window they had faced north and the sun is still in the south sky... I did everything I have read about to make the baby comfy. She was 6 days old. I did it in their apartment, using only props I found around their place. All I had with me was my camera, tripod and a reflector. In an attempt to emulate what I have read other photographers had success with, I cranked the temp in the apartment to 78deg, put a heating pad under the blanket she was laying on, played white noise in the background, and had her fed right before the shoot. Unfortunately, none of that helped... She was still fussy as hell. As soon as she would be naked, she'd start screaming. Anyway, I'm sure getting the touch right comes with time. C&C would be appreciated on these, which were the strongest of the set. I'm especially interested in compositional changes I could make, and whether or not I did ok with the backdrop and subject isolation. It was a blanket I stole from their guest bed.
1. My own C&C on this one: larger DOF. It would have been nice to get the bow in focus. I also noticed I missed the focus by a tiny bit all around. I even tried focus bracketing, with the center focus point, but still couldn't seem to nail the focus. Though, at these shutter speeds I guess it might just be camera shake. I couldn't use a tripod because I needed to be able to quickly move and adapt. Maybe setting the camera to shutter priority with auto ISO would help change that?
2. The focus on this one was obviously on the feet. Not sure about the composition of this one. I wish I would have gotten the feet more in complete view. I also can't decide if this would look better in B&W. Thoughts?
3. This one and #4 are my favorites. Which one do you prefer? And, how could I have improved the composition on them. I also noticed I slightly missed the focus on these two. Again, same issue as mentioned above with focusing. Also probably should have bumped up the f/stop for a little more DOF
4.
Your feedback would be greatly appreciated.