Baby shoot pic #1

[kimspics]

O.k. so yesterday was fun exciting and very tiresome after 3 hours of shooting on location. I took 932 shots. I am sitting today and deleting the ones that are obviously no keepers ( ones out of focus ect...) this is one I would like your opinion on. Also can I post more today in the share your shots section? after reading numerous tutorials about photographing babies, I chose not to use a flash at all. I kept the camera on aperature priority ( just learning what that means) with a low f stop ( 5.4) I was using my only lens a 18-200 VR. Since the only pp I know how to use is picasa - I did change it to B&W and added soft glow- which on my computer screen I like the looks of. I know Iv'e got a long way to go but I feel pretty good about this pic- I'll post one per day in this secton but I will post more today in share your shots if It's allowed. Thanks a bunch everyone!!!!!

[KathrynWilson]

The motion blur on the hand (or is it just DOF - not sure) is quite distracting on this one I find. Great shot otherwise. Only other tips are to play with your BW conversion a bit, this seems a little flat to me. And the eyes are too dark here. Looks like the shoot went well though!

[kimspics]

Thanks Katherine. I will soon be getting photoshop but for now all I know how to do is picasa and when you convert to b&w there are no levels to choose from. The hand bothered me too, but I still like the pic. I wonder why her eyes are dark ? I never noticed until you said so.

[peeperita]

over 900 shots?....lord, woman, you're as bad as i am.....

gorgeous baby.....i'm sure it was a pleasure to take her image....i like the posing, and the drape of soft fleece....

kathryn had a point about the black and white conversion...a straight conversion often leads to a bit of flatness as the program looks at tonal value and nothing else....i would very much like to see this image before that was done so i can wonder a bit about why you chose to do it.....

her eyes may be dark because there's no light reflecting back towards you from them.....possibly the light from above and behind your subject was blocked by the blanket.....catchlights really do add life to your portraits....i would suggest being more conscious of them in the future.....maybe wag along an alternate light source you can place beside your camera.....

i'm fairly certain the blurred hand is motion blur.....i saw from your exif that your shutter speed was set to 1/20.....using a tripod will not help your camera forgive your subject's movement....i know why you did it, there just wasn't enough light.....even at an iso of 500....

more light more light more light.....

thanks for sharing...

peeper

[Darryl]

Well, much is in the eye of the beholder. I like the soft look, the b+w gives it a sort of pristine character- from my initial impression, the baby is saying 'this is the life'- but the eyes are a bit dark. Because I tend to look for humor in everything, I see the hand giving a 'thumbs up'- I like it. It does portray something to me, whether it is what you intended or not.

Captured by Kim is nice, I like the look of that- I would have raised it a little to center it in the corner though- unless that's a consequence of how this forum has displayed it. I think the style of that suits this picture well. If you print this picture, I would pay some attention to where that ends up after whatever cropping that might be done by the machine. A nuance perhaps, but one that my eye catches right away.

You brought up a good point, that of how you see the picture on your screen- others will see it differently. I'm seeing it on my old computer, the one I use for the internet. The presentation will be different on another monitor. You might consider doing as I have done- have a few photos printed, then compare them with how they look on your screen. Some photos that I have sent out look a little 'chromy' when viewed on my friends newer monitor. I don't know if this will be a bigger factor for b+w vs color- possibly so.

[peeperita]

oh shoot.....i meant to mention that it is perfectly alright to post two shots per thread in the share your shots section on the same day as one in the critique.....just like critique, though.....only one thread per day....

peeper

[tekla]

Just a thought on B&W conversion in Picasa, have you tried the Filtered B&W option? I find that playing with different colored filters gives you choices instead of converting a photo to B&W straight away. Photographing babies - such a rewarding challenge! And I love the fleece, too.