A Little Girl

[Willowmoss]

I did 2 photoshoots yesterday. Both were good friends little girls. Have only added 1 at the moment need permission from the mum of the other one. I really need to sit down and play with paint to fix up the colours a little.

Let me know what you think.

[Willowmoss]

[Geoff F]

For me, Emma, I'm afraid that the lighting and colours are just too harsh. And you have a dark shadow problem.

But, it depends on what you wanted and what the opportunities were.

As quick casual snaps they are potentially quite good; but they aren't 'formal portraits'. However, creating high quality baby photos is a real work of art and needs quite a lot of equipment and patience. I couldn't do it!

[Willowmoss]

Hi Geoff

Yep this one was a "quick she is on the floor lets have a play with the camera moment' not trying to be a pro just learning and practicing

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Emma,

Although you have nailed the focus, have catchlights in her eyes and the background is reasonable, I agree with Geoff; the lighting and saturation is too harsh plus the focal lengths are a bit short (55mm and 44mm) leading to too short a camera to subject distance (for such a small subject).

Definitely a couple of shots to learn from, better than accidentally getting everything right first time and not realising why.

Cheers,

[Willowmoss]

Dave is the harshness something i can play with in Paint to make it less harsh? or something i need to keep in mind to take a better photo?

Lol and since Geoff mentioned the Shadow its now bugging me!

[Dave Humphries]

Dave is the harshness something i can play with in Paint to make it less harsh? or something i need to keep in mind to take a better photo?

Hi Emma,

Well, you could try some dodging and burning, etc. in PP - but far better to improve it at taking time; e.g. greater camera to subject distance, don't use on camera flash, use a flash diffuser (at very least) or bounce it, or shoot into/trhough a brolly - but now we're venturing into the "needs quite a lot of equipment and patience" that Geoff mentioned!

Colin's the man to advise because I have no experience.

[Geoff F]

I would definitely have a play around with different editing, Emma. There are a couple of reasonable photos to be had here.

Is the first one full sized or a crop? Having a little more clear space between the baby's head and photo edge would be a great improvement. The second one is the better photo.

I haven't used that software, but I would probably use Curves as an Adjustment Layer plus mask then edit the mask a little to give more of a selective adjustment.