Trying to figure out baby photography, please help?

[Rebekah5280]

I have always been interested in photography. I love baby photography and am trying to figure out how to get the amazing bright and polished look that professional photographers acheive.
The photographers in my area are reluctant to help me because I live in a small community and they are afraid that I'll take away from their business. (I am terrible compared to the others in my area, but I love it and I want to get better for the people who want me to do their pictures.)

Could/would anyone help me with this picture? I want to figure out how to fix the babies skin tone (on the arm mainly) and how to polish/brighten the picture.

Any advise would be appreciated.

and any suggestions on this one?

 

[The_Traveler]

What are exif?
What is lens?

 

[mwcfarms]

What editting tools are at your disposal as well. I use LR3 and would increase the contrast a bit and try to smooth out babies skin with the adjustment brush.

 

[The_Traveler]

Before you go fiddling around with contrast, etc, are you taking the pictures with the sweet spot on your lens, at a good aperture and shutter speed?

There is no single trick.
There is getting the right exposure, getting the composition right, getting sharpness when you want it - and that means knowing your camera.

Post bigger pictures.

but.

Look at the second.
Generally raising contrast won't do much but some area sharpening will put more oomph in the skin tone.
Also, the framing is, imo, way too loose. A little bit of interest surrounded but uninteresting stuff.
Why not crop it to get some draw and tension in it?

 

[Rebekah5280]

I love the cropping idea. That would bring out a much better picture!

I don't have the exact data on the picture, but I'm guessing it was: 1/100 F 5.6 ISO 100

I was using natural light with a fill light. I was underexposed, so I brought that up PP. All of my pictures have been underexposed because I got wrong information about staying at 100 ISO. So I am going to practice at a higher ISO and see if I can get rid of my underexposure problems without gaining excess noise.

I just purchased my Nikon D3100 3 months ago. I was going to purchase a prime 50 to get a lower aperture, but I decided to learn what my camera could do with the kit lens it came with before I invest in a new lens. I'm glad that I decided to wait because I'm pretty sure I do not want a prime lens as I love to photographs toddlers and a zoom lens is much better for what I like to do.

 

[The_Traveler]

Rebekah,

With due respect to your interest, if you know so little about photography that you 1) got got wrong information about iso and 2) you don't know that all the camera information is embedded in the digital file, you are a very long ways from getting the 'polished' look.

Start from scratch, learn about exposure, etc., take lots of pictures, learn about composition and lenses.
Photography is a craft and an art that takes time to learn and you are clearly just beginning.

 

[Rebekah5280]

I got the wrong information from my photography teacher (or perhaps I inturpreted it wrong) regarding ISO.
I have since been corrected, and plan on trying a few new things (mainly with ISO/exposure).

I can find the exif in my RAW files, but I converted these to JPEG and can't seem to locate the info.

I tried asking questions about this in the beginners forum, and got some questions answered, but I was hoping to get a little more specific in the Professional forum.

I am not a professional, I'm mainly just trying to get beautiful pictures of my daughter while she is still a baby, and do my sister's and friend's kids too. I was just asking for tips to try before she grows up, and I did get some great advise about composition from The_Traveler. Thank you!

 

[Rebekah5280]

2nd picture:

Camera Maker ~ NIKON CORPORATION
Camera Model ~ NIKON D3100
F-stop f/5.3
Exposure Time 1/80 sec.
ISO speed ISO-100
Exposure Bias 0 step
Focal Length 40mm
Max aperature 4.8
Metering more spot
Subject distance
Flash mode no flash
Flash energy
35mm focal length 60

Contrast normal
Brightness
Light source unknown
Exposure program Manual
Saturation Normal
Sharpness Normal
White balance Manual
Photometric interpretation
Digital zoom 1

 

[The_Traveler]

I'm sorry I misunderstood.
I thought that you were a new dslr owner and wanted to go into business shooting baby photos.

In any case, my advice is the same.
Try all combinations of iso and aperture and find the best place to get sharp clear images.
You will find that usually 2 or 3 stops down from maximum opening is often the sharpest.

Always shoot in aperture preferred.
Use Online Depth of Field Calculator to calculate the dof you have and adjust your camera to get all teh baby parts you want in sharp focus.
Look at lots of good baby pictures and try to emulate them.
Find a book on composition and see how the good shots usually follow the 'rules.'

Start trying to see the light and find times/places to shoot were the light is soft and diffuse, yet strong enough to give the detail you need.

Shoot lots of pictures, then post the best.
Then people can help with processing to get that polished look.

Best of luck,

Lew

 

[Rebekah5280]

Try all combinations of iso and aperture and find the best place to get sharp clear images.
You will find that usually 2 or 3 stops down from maximum opening is often the sharpest.

Always shoot in aperture preferred.

Thank you for the aperture suggestion. I will definately try out bringing my aperture down a few stops to get sharper images.

I find when shooting in Aperture preferred, my shutter wants to go to around 1/30, but actually, now that I'm thinking about it, its probably because I was trying to shoot 100 ISO.

I will definately try a few of the suggestions! I'm taking pictures on my daughter and my neice tomorrow evening and maybe I'll post a few of those.

Thank you!
~Rebekah

 

[The_Traveler]

I find when shooting in Aperture preferred, my shutter wants to go to around 1/30, but actually, now that I'm thinking about it, its probably because I was trying to shoot 100 ISO.

ISO is a measure of how much light a sensor needs to give an image.
Low ISO = needs lots of light (but is less sensitive to random electronic noise)
Higher ISO = needs less light but is more senitive to random noise.

Larger aperture (smaller number) means that light can get in fast and thus shutter needs to remain open only a short time
Smaller aperture (larger number) light gets in more slowly thus shutter needs to be open longer.


Last basic info from me, time for you to do some work.

 

[ajkramer87]

Here is a video that will help understand more about exposure and how everything relates.

 

[Rebekah5280]

Thank you ajKramer87 ~ That was pretty much my 10 hour DSLR class in 12-13 minutes. Except this guy was ok with shooting above 100 ISO.

 

[Rebekah5280]

Ok, I bumped up my ISO and gathered a good exposure (according to my camera). PP I ended up increasing the exposure to brighten the picture. Then I also bumped up the contrast a little to try to bring out the pink in her cheeks and lips.

Any suggestions? (This is my daughter BTW) I shot at 1/125, perhaps I should be shooting faster to get a sharper image?

Oh, and if you all would like me to go to a different forum with this, I will. I'm not a professional, I just want to try to get as close to professional quality pictures of my baby as I can. Your advise is

helpful.

 

[EPPhoto]

Thank you ajKramer87 ~ Except this guy was ok with shooting above 100 ISO.

I had to laugh...there are times I shoot at 1600-3200 ISO and even higher and my pictures come out sharp still lol.

Granted I use pro gear, but the new pro-sumer Nikon DSLR's should be fine up to 800 ISO with little to no noise at all.


I actually will never shoot below 200...100 will ruin image quality. 200 is fine for outdoor full sun.

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