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[STiZzle2010]

It's later in the year than usual but we just received our first snow storm in Rhode Island yesterday. Naturally my wife wanted to get a shot of our of 8 month old son enjoying the snow for the first time. He was quite unsure what to think at first and right after I snapped this picture, he lost his mind. I guess he likes snow just as much as much as his Daddy does lol. CC welcome.

Shot with a Nikon D5500, Nikkor 50mm 1.8G lens, and edited in Lightroom as well as Photoshop.
f2.5, 1/400th, ISO 100, natural light

JMH_0001 by Hebee's Visions, on Flickr

 

[JonA_CT]

My six month daughter's first snow too! Unfortunately, where I am in CT, all of the snow blew out of our yard and into the woods.

I like the shot overall, but I think the bright light in the upper left hand corner is distracting. If it were my photo, I'd probably do a 1x1 crop or try to burn that part of the photo a bit. The tint might be a bit cool too...I know it's hard in the snow -- I'll be throwing up some pictures here in a little while that will probably need WB work too, haha.

 

[STiZzle2010]

You should definitely go in the woods to get some shots then! I would have much preferred to do that instead

I agree that the light up top is a bit distracting. Unfortunately this was taken during harsh light and I was working in minimal shade. I thought about doing a 1x1 crop but I liked the negative space showing him in the snow. I tried doing the edit in B&W to reduce this "hot spot" but I just like the color one a bit more. I am still very new to PS and have not done any dodging or burning yet. 95% of my edits happen in Lightroom but I'm slowly trying new things. Like you JonA, I am a father and hobbiest looking to get better and over the past 10 months, I've definitely seen improvements thanks to the help I've gotten from places like here. (I'm also a huge supporter of music and noticed you are (or were) a musician. I play the guitar, bass, piano, drums, and sing. I've been in a few bands and loved gigging but my family came first and I just couldn't do it anymore. I don't play as often as I should but that is partly in blame to my new photography hobby as well as my new son lol).

Thank you so much for your feedback!

JMH_0001-2 by Hebee's Visions, on Flickr

 

[vintagesnaps]

I like the patch of sunlight and the sunlit background - but it probably would have worked better placed differently in the photo. Change your vantage point and/or the position of the subject.

Before you take the picture - look at the scene and decide where you want him sitting in relation to the patch of sunlight and the background. Meanwhile his mom could play with him while you figure out the shot. Either/both of you could play with the snow a little and have fun with it to help it be fun for him (what fun is it sitting in the saucer in the cold?? lol not much from the look on his face!) - scoop up a handful of snow for him to see/touch, etc. Just have her play away from where you're setting up the shot so the snow won't be messed up in the picture.

Then when you've got the shot figured out, sit him on the saucer and take the pictures - right away. The younger the kid the less time they can sit and wait while you putz around with your camera. You gotta be quick, set up the shot before you get him in it. And of course with little ones if they're not having it or they're done, then they're just done.

It's still a rather sweet picture. I like it in color much better than in B&W.

 

[JonA_CT]

I like this one too -- it does diminish the brightness of that spot a bit, but I agree with you that the photo is better in color. The snow is rough for light for sure. I took a bunch of pictures this morning with a gnarly angle of the light, and when I pull the files into LR, I'll probably have a bunch of work.

I do all of my editing in Lightroom still. You can use the adjustment brush to do some of that work, but I'm not a great resource for settings. I got some great advice from someone (Derrel?) on here for some brush settings. I used those at a starting point to start playing with it. I guess there are lots of youtube tutorials too, but don't always have the time or focus to watch something versus reading something.

As far as the music thing goes, I've played guitar and sang mostly backups with a moderately successful cover band for the past 5 years. We got to the point where we could afford to turn gigs down and raise our prices, started doing more event work, etc...but since the band started, all of our life situations have changed. My daughter was the icing on the cake pretty much -- I tried, but I just have no desire to do club gigs anymore. 3AM is too late to be getting home when she'll be up at 6. We are still playing events and will do some of the easier summer gigs (bar patios, wineries, etc), but we aren't learning new music or practicing regularly. Using my camera every day has been a big help in filling that void.