Family/child portraits

[Nat]

Well, I was asked to do a Cake Smash photoshoot. I am not a portrait photographer.....but I gave it a go. I bought a roll of white paper, cut out banners and strung them, the mother brought balloons (were supposed to be helium ) I used an umbrella with a flash pointed at the paper, plexiglass on the floor (I was going to peel the blue protective paper, but the Mom wanted me to leave it blue) I used my Nikon D7200 with 18.0-55.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 lens and SB700 flash with Demb flash diffuser. Please comment, it's a learning experience. I could not get the little squirt to look at me no matter what!!

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5)

[Shadowman]

Decadent, purely decadent captures.

Nice captures.

[IzzieK]

Mat...I prefer #3 best of all and the last one of the family shot...#3 because of the naughty butt in the cake and the family shot...I really think you did very well in all of these...I was just reading Colin's portraiture lessons yesterday

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https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/forums/thread6923.htm and

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https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/forums/thread12712.htm

and I think one of the lessons there applies to #1 shot...I am just in the process of reading not applying yet. It is a great post for those who wants to learn doing portraits.

[Nat]

Thank you Izzie and John. Unfortunately there were at least 7 people standing in the room behind me, and the baby would not look at the camera, but at everyone else, and the background paper was only 54 inches, so me moving too much around would cause the background not to be behind the baby. I googled cake smash, and the mother showed me some examples of what she wanted so I think she was happy with the end results...Personally, I think I will look for a sheet of paneling that has a medium grey rustic wood look for background rather than the white...make it much wider. I think my flash on the background may have been too bright. I also had the problem that the background flash was an older one, and took too long to 'recharge' so some shots I took were without it....babies move fast! and I missed a few good shots waiting for that flash! I tried an umbrella with a daylight bulb, 200 watt, but it just was not enough light .....a learning experiment for sure.

[IzzieK]

Since the baby was looking at them, you could have asked them to divert his attention to you or the camera...kids can easily easily be distracted by anything that moves. In the outdoor shot, you got his attention there...lesson for you next time too will be to use Shutter Priority. That is what I use for my grandchild because she talks and moves all the time. It wasn't easy and also instead of single shots, I use Continuous Low or Continuous High with her so I get a series of shots. Your D90 is a very good camera especially with the 105mm combo. Just my opinion as I still have that camera as my second camera instead of the D300s which I am going to give to my DIL when I go back to Oz. It has just the right weight for handholding too...

[Nat]

Izzie, it was a small room, and the "family" wanted to watch the cake smash, it was impossible to put 7 people behind the camera lens....LOL! Also, continuous would not work, as I had to wait for the flashes to recharge ( one older one I used as a remote to light the background, but it took at least 8 seconds to recharge, without it, the whole scene was in the dark, someday will afford more expensive lighting)

[IzzieK]

Izzie, it was a small room, and the "family" wanted to watch the cake smash, it was impossible to put 7 people behind the camera lens....LOL! Also, continuous would not work, as I had to wait for the flashes to recharge ( one older one I used as a remote to light the background, but it took at least 8 seconds to recharge, without it, the whole scene was in the dark, someday will afford more expensive lighting)

No...no...I wasn't asking you to put the rest of the 7 people behind the camera lens, I was saying, you could have asked them to help you divert the baby's attention to you instead. My old lighting set-up when I began interested in building a studio consisted of desk lamps and builder's lights.They work too...and they are not that expensive either...just a thought...

[Nat]

Thanks, Izzie. I have Halogen builder's lights, but there was no room, and they get HOT, very HOT! And throw off a yellow glow. Guess I would have to put a gel on my flash to make it match those lights, and then change the white balance in photoshop?? I shot at their tiny house, the room was only 12 x 14 and had furniture and peoples. I put the siblings behind me, but he always looked somewhere else....as if the camera lens ( big eye? ) was something to avoid? I had to take the balloons out, as the baby kept turning towards them, and avoiding the cake! It was just a favor I did for her.....I don't have a studio set up....and she wanted them very bright, and as I said, my umbrellas and LED lights just were not bright enough. Ah, well. I did the best I could under the circumstances....My 105mm lens is manual focus, and I didn't think I could use that fast enough for a moving kid....My Nikkor 70-200 is just a tad soft, and the lens I used was much sharper. Thanks for your comments and help, Izzie. Appreciate it..

[klpurkett]

Nat, I'd say given the circumstances you did a great job! Kids this age have minds of their own, and I've had the same problem trying to get my one year old to look at my camera. A fun squeaky toy (even like a doggy toy or bath toy that squeaks) can do wonders for grabbing their attention... But then you almost need one person standing behind you operating the toy so you still have two hands for the camera! I have yet to do a cake smash shoot... You've inspired me to try it sometime!

One thought on the family shot: I don't know what background options you had, but I'm wondering what it would have looked like if they had moved to the right several feet, thereby not having the dark tree behind their heads. It almost seems to me that the faces might "pop" more if there was just sky behind them. The tree is pulling my attention away from their faces a little bit... But, I realize that sometimes we don't have many options to pick from concerning backgrounds!

Thanks for sharing... These made me smile.

[Nat]

Kristy, thank you for your comments and input! We actually were supposed to go to an old plantation and have the old barns as backdrop....but a thunderstorm broke just before I got to their house, and so then we opted to just shoot in their yard, the mother said, "Let's all stand in front of this tree!" The sun popped out for a half hour....wish it hadn't as it was hard to get everyone either in the sun or in the shade...small yard....I just went with it.....There was an old barn next door, but the lady was in the yard with a hospice social worker, was just diagnosed with cancer....so we didn't bother them. The mother did have a few toys, and she was calling to him, but he chose not to look into my direction. But that's okay with the mom. If I could have just had her in there, and chased everyone else out.....but they wanted to watch it all, so that was that!

[klpurkett]

Kristy, thank you for your comments and input! We actually were supposed to go to an old plantation and have the old barns as backdrop....but a thunderstorm broke just before I got to their house, and so then we opted to just shoot in their yard, the mother said, "Let's all stand in front of this tree!" The sun popped out for a half hour....wish it hadn't as it was hard to get everyone either in the sun or in the shade...small yard....I just went with it.....There was an old barn next door, but the lady was in the yard with a hospice social worker, was just diagnosed with cancer....so we didn't bother them. The mother did have a few toys, and she was calling to him, but he chose not to look into my direction. But that's okay with the mom. If I could have just had her in there, and chased everyone else out.....but they wanted to watch it all, so that was that!

I'd say you did well to just go with the flow... Life happens, in photography as in everything else! I was counting on beautiful golden hour light for a shoot last week, and wouldn't you know that was the one day all week that was overcast. Not nice dramatic clouds, not a nice pretty sunset, just grey skies the whole time. It happens. Better luck next time!

[Nat]

Thanks, Kristy. Each time is a learning time.....hopefully I will improve with each time.....