Baby attempt #2

[jax314]

Took this for a friend. It is cropped from the original. Please critiqe the usual elements please, so I can learn what I'm doing wrong...oh and please let me know if I'm doing anything right!! I typically need help with composition, exposure, white balance, and focus. Thanks! BTW, this was taken by weak natural light by a window in auto WB mode...but I changed that.

Camera Nikon D5000
Exposure 0.01 sec (1/100)
Aperture f/1.8
Focal Length 35 mm
ISO Speed 1250
Exposure Bias +1/3 EV
Flash No Flash

[scootermcq]

Hey Jax:

Positive:

Good focus on the eyes
Composition works for me.
WB looks fine based on my crappy monitor at work

Negative:

Really only thing bugging me is the shallow DOF and the babies hand so out of focus. You should be able to slow down the shutter speed to 1/50 and gain a stop to add to the aperture. I doubt that would be enough to get the hand in focus. Since the baby was sleeping, tripod and long exposure might allow you to get a small enough aperture to get the hand in focus, since you have no room left in ISO to work with. I guess really you need a brighter room or some external light to allow a decent shutter speed and a smaller aperture to get the whole baby in focus.

[kristenh]

Jax, i think the composition is fine and i like the use of natural light. i think the focus is fine on the eyes- the blanket up top/left looks verry sharp, so not exactly sure you got the eyes, but they are closed so its hard to tell. first thing that jumps out at me is the coloring- my monitor is actually recently calibrated and she looks purple. maybe that is her real color? i DK. other thing- all the various blankets and textures take away from the baby- i'm a fan of the very simple naked baby, very plain background approach. agree with scooter on the whole dof problem- although i have this same camera and am frankly amazed at how high i can push the iso and still get decent quality- suppose you could try that just to see. but you probably need more light.

[jax314]

Thanks for the advice so far guys......I really do appreciate it!

[SwissJon]

Personally I like the DoF. I like the hand out of focus, but judging from the clothing etc. You've probably got the eyes slightly behind the plane of focus.. Not that it's noticeable. so perhaps stopping down a little might have helped. At that focal length, you should have been able to use 1/50th and stopped down a full stop and still been able to hand hold the camera without noticeable camera shake, that would have given you a few more cm to play with.

New born babies are usually this colour I think.. It's not flattering, but it's reality. Perhaps a little PP might be in order to make the baby less palid, but I'm not a big fan of Anne Geddes style pink bubbly photos either, so the raw reality of the situation makes this photo for me.. Personal taste there.

What I find a distraction really is that for me, the crop is too close to the babies head on the top and RHS of the photo. I would like to have seen just a little bit more colour between the edge of the baby and the edge of the photo to frame the head a little.. The light colours of the blanket makes it feel to me almost as if the baby will fall out of the photo.