My first infant shoot

[Mark Engelhart]

This was my first attempt at an infant 3 months. Friends of mine. They have a two year old son and wanted sepias to match his infant shots. How is the setup and lighting?



shot at f11 1/250th two novatrons key to left @45deg f11 and fill straight at next to camera @ f9.5. Thanks

[Bruce A]

Mark, I'm no pro, but the first thing I notice is that the cute baby seems to be resting on an amputated hand. If it's not my moniter causing that illusion then I'd like to see the rest of that arm continue to the left hand border. Maybe a little dodging will do the trick. Otherwise I think it is a great shot with some good thinking in the composition.

[graciousness]

Yes, I think remove the vignette so that the hands are not "floating" anymore. It's not doing your photo any favour, anyway (and I'm not against the use of vignette, it's just that this isn't the right time to do it).

I think for a first shot, you did very well. Although I'm not too keen on the monochrome treatment - you don't have enough contrast (I think) either. I think this would just work much better as B&W, but you will need to play with the contrast, etc, so that you don't get just flat grayness, but real contrasting tones.

Cheers and good job!

[Mark Engelhart]

Bruce A and Graciousness,

Thanks for the input. Graciousness, I was kind of force into creating a sepia by customer request. I agree with the looks grey thing. I guess I need to practice my PP tools more to get a better handle on it.

[Niresangwa]

Originally Posted by Mark Engelhart

Bruce A and Graciousness,

Thanks for the input. Graciousness, I was kind of force into creating a sepia by customer request. I agree with the looks grey thing. I guess I need to practice my PP tools more to get a better handle on it.

A quick levels adjustment will fix this very easily, add a little contrast*, the conversion will be fine. I think you did well on the exposure, nothing blown or lost, so you have plenty to work with.

Rather than a blanket basic 'sepia' conversion, I think you'd be better served using split toning with the colour balance adjustment layer. It will give a richer conversion with some depth. I think the 'flat' look people are referring to isn't down to the lighting especially, but the conversion method.

I do agree the vignette is too brusque.

(* - be careful with the contrast. With such delicate details, being ham-fisted will mask them. Usually when making fine changes on a separate layer, I end up reducing the opacity to about 70% of what I thought looked good in the first place)

[Mark Engelhart]

Originally Posted by Niresangwa

A quick levels adjustment will fix this very easily, add a little contrast*, the conversion will be fine. I think you did well on the exposure, nothing blown or lost, so you have plenty to work with.

Rather than a blanket basic 'sepia' conversion, I think you'd be better served using split toning with the colour balance adjustment layer. It will give a richer conversion with some depth. I think the 'flat' look people are referring to isn't down to the lighting especially, but the conversion method.

I do agree the vignette is too brusque.

(* - be careful with the contrast. With such delicate details, being ham-fisted will mask them. Usually when making fine changes on a separate layer, I end up reducing the opacity to about 70% of what I thought looked good in the first place)

I'll give these things a try and lose the vignette.

Thanks

[Mark Engelhart]

Try number two. I am going to have to retrain my eye for brighter images. This to me is blown out, but it is probably just me.