tying out my new lens, baby photos C&C

[hayleyfraser24]

Hey, ive been away for a while but thought id get some brutal critique on a photo shoot I did recently with my friends baby. I have a sony a290 dslr and I got a new lens for christmas! woo hoo, its a sony 50mm portait lens f1.8. I made the usual mistakes I normaly do and took about 100 photos, snappy happy, without realy looking at them properly untill I got home. My camera was on arpeture priority setting at f1.8, this was maybe a mistake as alot of the photos came out blurry in places I didnt want them to be blurry. My iso was set at 200 and I had a fluffy blanket and a soft box (my soft box is also new and I havent quite grasped learning how to use it yet. I didnt want to do much proccesing on these picutures put I ended up doing alot. The babys skin was very dry and I found this hard to fix in photo shop without the pictures looking over done. I will post the original and the processed picture for comments and critique, I have 2, the second original looks really different than the processed one, but im sure it is the original, I cant seem to find it if it isnt. Im not happy with the pictures as I think they look overdone but Im not sure how else to tacke this, As always, C&C is greatly appreciated!

1 baby (processed)

2 baby (original)

3baby processed 2)

4 baby original 2

 

[gsgary]

They are all very soft and it is not down to shutterspeed, just because you have an F1.8 lens does not mean you have to shoot at F1.8, you missed focus on all shots because of a very narrow DOF

 

[hayleyfraser24]

They are all very soft and it is not down to shutterspeed, just because you have an F1.8 lens does not mean you have to shoot at F1.8, you missed focus on all shots because of a very narrow DOF

I did say in my post that I realise shooting at f1.8 was a mistake, im still learning and I realised my mistake as soon as I uploaded the pictures. Like I said im happy snappy and I know I need to work on that. I was hoping for some tips on processing?! but thanks for your comment anyway.

 

[gsgary]

If i was shooting babies i would never do any kind of skin smoothing, for me it should stay natural

 

[Hereindallas]

I am not a pro and hardly anything about processing but from a consumer's point of view if I had to choose between the originals and the processed I would select the processed hands down.

 

[hayleyfraser24]

I dont think the mother would be happy with that in this case as the baby had extremely dry skin, if you look at the originals I posted you can see it . She asked me if I could fix it and I said I would try my best. Im doing another shoot with the baby next week but I liked the first picture I posted and wanted to make it the best I could for my friend. Im not a proffesional, just want to do a good job for my mate.

If i was shooting babies i would never do any kind of skin smoothing, for me it should stay natural

 

[hayleyfraser24]

Thanks, I know I can do better but I appreciate your comment and I agree.

I am not a pro and hardly anything about processing but from a consumer's point of view if I had to choose between the originals and the processed I would select the processed hands down.

 

[gsgary]

I dont think the mother would be happy with that in this case as the baby had extremely dry skin, if you look at the originals I posted you can see it . She asked me if I could fix it and I said I would try my best. Im doing another shoot with the baby next week but I liked the first picture I posted and wanted to make it the best I could for my friend. Im not a proffesional, just want to do a good job for my mate.

If i was shooting babies i would never do any kind of skin smoothing, for me it should stay natural

E45 works better than photoshop

 

[hayleyfraser24]

Well, my friend obviously looked after her baby by moisturising his skin, what kind of a comment is that? Honestly, I wondered why ive not been on here for so long! Now I realise, the traveler was right, its not constuctive critisism from some folk on her its an excuse to make comments that are more suitable for a playground than a forum.

I dont think the mother would be happy with that in this case as the baby had extremely dry skin, if you look at the originals I posted you can see it . She asked me if I could fix it and I said I would try my best. Im doing another shoot with the baby next week but I liked the first picture I posted and wanted to make it the best I could for my friend. Im not a proffesional, just want to do a good job for my mate.

If i was shooting babies i would never do any kind of skin smoothing, for me it should stay natural

E45 works better than photoshop

 

[gsgary]

Well, my friend obviously looked after her baby by moisturising his skin, what kind of a comment is that? Honestly, I wondered why ive not been on here for so long! Now I realise, the traveler was right, its not constuctive critisism from some folk on her its an excuse to make comments that are more suitable for a playground than a forum.

I dont think the mother would be happy with that in this case as the baby had extremely dry skin, if you look at the originals I posted you can see it . She asked me if I could fix it and I said I would try my best. Im doing another shoot with the baby next week but I liked the first picture I posted and wanted to make it the best I could for my friend. Im not a proffesional, just want to do a good job for my mate.

E45 works better than photoshop

I'm just saying i don't think baby photos should be smoothed

 

[hayleyfraser24]

Well, my friend obviously looked after her baby by moisturising his skin, what kind of a comment is that? Honestly, I wondered why ive not been on here for so long! Now I realise, the traveler was right, its not constuctive critisism from some folk on her its an excuse to make comments that are more suitable for a playground than a forum.

E45 works better than photoshop

I'm just saying i don't think baby photos should be smoothed

Thats fine, I get that you dont like the processing, as I said in my original post, im well aware of the mistakes I made with the arpeture and I actually only wanted to warm up the pictures and sharpen the eyes but because of the dry skin they look over processed. You only gave me critique on things I was already aware of in my original post. I can handle tough critique but your comments were not critique. My photos are ok to edit, why dont you show me what you would do?

 

[GeorgieGirl]

I do think you did a great job getting the hand out of the 1st shot.

 

[classixuk]

I adore them! I think they both turned out beautiful. Very well done.

If I were the baby's parents I would buy them, so I think that just about says it all. Is the mum pleased with them? My advice would be to enter them into a baby photo contest (especially the first one, which I could imagine on a calendar or something).

 

[hayleyfraser24]

I adore them! I think they both turned out beautiful. Very well done.

If I were the baby's parents I would buy them, so I think that just about says it all. Is the mum pleased with them? My advice would be to enter them into a baby photo contest (especially the first one, which I could imagine on a calendar or something).

Aww thanks thats such a lovely comment, I havent shown the mum the pictures yet, i was trying to improve them first, I know that they should be sharper but im hoping she will like the "soft" look.