Composition Suggestions

[cowgrlsheart]

I shot this picture very close to my subject with the intention of getting a good picture of the eyes. Does anyone have any tips on how to get great pictures of a baby's eyes? I see pictures a lot where the catch-lights are very noticeable...I think this may be photo-shop. I am not a good post-processor. I gave this picture no editing after downloading it...but am wondering if there is a good way to make the image more powerful: I think it would evoke very strong emotion and be a strong image if it had better lighting, and maybe even different composition. Any thoughts would be appreciated...

Taken with DIGITAL CANON REBEL XTi
1/80s
f/4.0
ISO 200
Focal length of 50mm

_MG_5318.jpg

[BigVinnie]

You can fake catchlights with photoshop but I'm not a fan.

You really need a lightsource. For kids it does not even have to be very big. When my kids were little I used this cheap little blow up softbox. I just held it using an off camera cord in one hand and shot with the other.

You can find them for about $20 and gives amazing results with small faces.

[zona5101]

windows make nice catch lights
work your window light, different times of day will give you different qualities and color temperatures of light. Work with positioning you subject so you have the light striking from different angles. Observe how the shadows change as you move the subject. Have some poster board or a reflector available to bounce some of the window light back into the subject to even out the deep shadows. And have fun!

[SusanH1970]

You do have lovely catchlights in the eyes in this portrait - but the conversion is very dark and muddy, which is making them much less noticeable. Would you mind if I had a play?

[cowgrlsheart]

@SusanH1970: Go for it. I'd love to see what you come up with! It's always nice to see what COULD be possible with your photography if you knew how to do it

[SusanH1970]

Here ya go. Out of curiosity, how did you do your conversion?

Opened in ACR, brought up exposure. Opened in CS2, levels adjustment to brighten midtones and darken blacks. Then duplicated layer, lassoed eyes, new layer via copy, set blending mode to screen at about 80% opacity, then painted black (erased, basically) over area surrounding eyes (this brightened the eyes and brought more definition to the catchlights).

Not perfect - this was about a 30 second edit. Just wanted to show you how just a few tweaks could make the eyes pop.

[LeeR]

I don't know that this image has quite the emotional content you were hoping for but I agree with Susan that the catchlights are already there and only need to be teased out a bit. As for the shot, you have taken on a challenge by allowing the hat so low over the eyes; hard to get light in their when you do that. I think a solution better than flash would have been to place a reflector low and in front.
I did run your image through PS and I like the results but Susan has already offered to tinker with it and she shoots a lot more portraits than I do so I'll let her have the honors. If you don't hear from her let me know and I'll post my results.

[SusanH1970]

Originally Posted by LeeR

I don't know that this image has quite the emotional content you were hoping for but I agree with Susan that the catchlights are already there and only need to be teased out a bit. As for the shot, you have taken on a challenge by allowing the hat so low over the eyes; hard to get light in their when you do that. I think a solution better than flash would have been to place a reflector low and in front.
I did run your image through PS and I like the results but Susan has already offered to tinker with it and she shoots a lot more portraits than I do so I'll let her have the honors. If you don't hear from her let me know and I'll post my results.

Lee...I already posted my edit in the above post. Thank you for the kind words!

[cowgrlsheart]

okay...Susan, you did a fantastic job with that!!!!! All I did was load this picture from picasa google. I am terribal at post-processing and not firmiliar with it...so forgive my ignorance, but what is ACR? I assume it's Adobe something?

Also, LeeR, I would LOVE to see what you did as well. Please do post!!!!!

[LeeR]

I was afraid you would ask me to post anyway. I will warn you that I took a few liberties. Nonetheless, here goes:



By the way, ACR stands for Adobe Camera Raw. It is packaged with Photoshop and may come with PS Elements as well. It is a tool for working with RAW images and only makes gobal changes to an image. You cannot lighten the eyes with ACR but you can make adjustments to the overall image, then you can transfer the image to PS where you can make changes to small areas. Like Susan, I used ACR first to make changes to the overall image, then moved to PS to lighten the highlights and apply my own special technique for warming the image.

Precious image: precious child.