Baby pics - My First Attempt (C&C welcome)

[D L]

I'll add to the latest craze on CiC... baby pics!

Another genre I haven't attempted before. This is our friends' baby girl, only a few days old when we did this shoot.

I used window light, with TTL fill flash popped into the white ceiling, or into the white wall opposite the window. I took a few initially without the fill flash but I thought it was too much contrast.

I think the most important part of the shoot was the assistance of the "baby whisperer" (my wife). Getting this little cutie settled was the key.

1. In her Dad's hands

1/80s, f/5.6, ISO 400


2.

1/125s, f/5.6, ISO 400
She didn't like having her hands posed by anyone else. This is where she put them.


3.

1/160, f/5.6, ISO 400


4.

1/125, f/5.6, ISO 400
She had purple feet. It's apparently quite common with newborns. It looked a bit odd, so I converted it.


Any feedback will be appreciated. In particular, composition/cropping, processing and (gulp) the monochrome conversion. Also, you may have noticed that I haven't retouched her skin. I'm waiting to here what her Mum thinks about healing/cloning dry skin etc but I'm interested in what you think too.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi David,

Welcome to 'the craze' from me.

#1 - Bet she's thinking "I wish someone would turn that light off" - yeah, I know, it's a window, but cut me some slack to have a little fun Good exposure and natural looking contrast ratio - not sure if this is one you filled with flash or not?

#2 - I see the choice was made to use a prop here, it works well with the complementary colour of the blanket. Tiny crop above the head perhaps?

#3 - My only suggestion here would be to crop a little space off the left hand side, although I see there are wisps of hair you'll probably not want to disturb.

#4 - with the mono conversion, the blanket looks more like sack cloth, which seems an unusual choice for a new baby to be wrapped in - in hindsight (and I know how good that is) perhaps a different material weave would have been better.

I think the predominant daylight has given them all a bluer look than my series have* - and this possibly combined with the tendency to purple feet brought it out so much you felt the need to do the mono conversion. Did you deliberately then tint it red with a hint of blue? I ask because you're getting back to purple again there

* I'm possibly a bit too yellow, if anything.


Exposure is good across the series, they are quite bright, but that doesn't worry me. They are all good for focus and Depth of Field.

Also, you may have noticed that I haven't retouched her skin. I'm waiting to here what her Mum thinks about healing/cloning dry skin etc but I'm interested in what you think too.

Yes, I didn't the first time or two, now I do - I think it is a phase we go through

Cheers, Dave

[Shadowman]

Cute captures, agree about the overexposures.

[ionian]

I think these are great David - maybe a little bright, but it would be easy to have a play and see what you think in your processing software. Beautiful baby. I like the texture in the 4th pic myself - it's a nice contrast.

I clone baby skin if needed, but that's a personal preference. Her skin is so perfect that there is little need. Reducing the clarity selectively can help smooth any uneven tones, but it is easy to overdo it - luckily non-destructive editing is a godsend for experimenting!

[D L]

Dave, John and Simon, thanks for your comments.

Regarding #1, I checked the metadata, and the flash did fire. I'm not sure why it has a bit more contrast than the others. I can't see why the TTL metering would've been significantly different. Maybe the batteries getting low? It was actually towards the end of the shoot when the Dad showed up. I wish the metadata would say what power the flash actually fired. Same as the others, it just says i-TTL BL -1.0 and I used matrix metering throughout.

For #2 and #3, I'll try your crop suggestions. I thought I was in danger of going a little tight... apparently not.

#4 yes, I played around with dual tones on this one. The Mrs had suggested sepia. You are right, I have taken it back towards purple I'll keep playing with it. Maybe a true mono.
After the fact, I actually thought the same as Dave with the texture of that wrap. A bit too much like a hessian sack. The more I've looked at it the more I've thought more along the lines of Simon. Hopefully more people think like Simon. What I didn't do, was any shots of the feet with any of the other wraps used. She wouldn't keep her feet still when they weren't wrapped, so I gave up on the feet after these.

I'll definitely tweak the exposure on these as there is pretty strong consensus on that one. You've saved me some re-printing costs there.

[rpcrowe]

Lovely captures... You will cherish these images for the rest of your life...

[rudi]

Very nice captures David,

Not much to nitpick anymore, Dave beat me to it. It isn't difficult as I am Always late to the party

I have a bit the same feeling as Dave about the mono version. Maybe darkening the cloth and brightening the feet will bring more attention to the feet ??

[Dave Humphries]

Feet are best shot when she's asleep; so a full tummy and after winding, plus have the heating higher than normal if you want to capture pictures with less or no clothing/coverings, so the poor little mite doesn't feel the cold and start wriggling

[IzzieK]

I had learned with my little Anika when she was just a tiny mite, as in #4 shot to move a little bit farther to the subject then when post processing, you can zoom in. This takes care of the sack-look of the blanket.I also learned this kind of shooting using my macro lens to keep back a little bit when there is fabric with my subject. It makes the shoot more natural.