Someone else's kid

[AesBreCov]

LOL! I finally have a photo of somebody's kid besides my own! I find it much easier to be objective that way (for myself, as well as anyone not wanting to offend by critiquing a "mommy" shot!). This is one of my faves from the shoot, but please be completely honest with your critiques - I need all the help I can get!

What do you think of the composition? I don't think I cropped this one at all after I uploaded it - should I, or should I leave it as is? I think I got the focus right, but please lend your eyes to help me learn for next time, if it's not quite "there"....

Also, she was SURROUNDED by pink, as you can tell. When I messed with the white balance, I could take the pink tones out that were reflected in her face, but then it really softened everything else, and I didn't like it. Should I do two separate layers, and tone down the pinks in just her face, or is it ok to leave what her skin would naturally reflect?

Lastly, I'm far from professional, and haven't yet been able to afford any kind of lighting. What was available for this picture was a big window (that I put a sheet over, because the sun shone in just right, and it was awfully harsh!), an overhead light/ceiling fan, and a lamp that I could move around. I tried to pay attention to shadows and what-not, but I'm not always certain what looks best. Any tips on how to improve the lighting on this one (for future reference, of course), would be greatly appreciated.

I'm open to any other constructive criticism, if you have it to offer. Thanks in advance!



Camera Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS
Exposure 0.02 sec (1/50)
Aperture f/5.6
Focal Length 55 mm
ISO Speed 800
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire

[ccting]

Wow.. nice ;D

What do you think of the composition?

a) Excellent composition (arrangement of edge), except the background

b) Nice catch light

c) Nice DOF, but other experts may say something about it. I am still able to see the lips.. well in this closeup, I think DOF is relevant.

d) B&W?


e) I am not sure what other people said about the hidden eyes..and another side of face.. (camera angle)

Try to get Susan for the comment. She is the expert of baby portrait.
Sry, i am still training my eyes..

[AesBreCov]

Thank you for the feedback! I know the background is a little....um....crazy? She was just surrounded by blankets, and I caught this soft expression as her momma was talking to her. I did one B/W conversion, and I liked it, but I'm not too fond of the selective coloring (there are honestly very few pictures with selective color that I like, personally). I don't know who Susan is, but I hope she sees this post, so I can get her input, as well! Thanks, again!

[ccting]

Don't take my comment too seriously as I am still noob. Wait for experts for comments, especially SusanH1970. Perhaps you could MM her .. ;D. She does not know me but we know her.

Look at her website

As far as I observed :
a) Human has multiple simple and complex parts.
COmplex parts : Face, hand, leg, body
SImple parts can be found in a complex part. For instance, Face has a nose, 2 eyes, 2 ears, hair and so on.

b) So, you focus may be a simple or complex part or even the whole part. So you can take so many kind of photos out of the parts. Some experts suggest using macro lens for smaller part like finger.. (but i don't have real macro lens..).

Well, that's my observation and self-analysis that are unvalidated and unverified. I just love your close-up that focus on an eye. Well, for me, one eye is sufficient to show how the baby's eye look, and there is needless to show both eye but it seems you need to include a bit of other side. That is the reason why i love your shot. Perhaps you can shot even nearer ;D.

er.. just notice the shadow near the nose (negative) but it is a triangle (positive)...... try to shoot from opposite?

Just noob view..and you will see many experts will critique what i am thinking..

[AesBreCov]

Thanks, I'm new to it all, too.....and I've learned I need to apply things, and then get some feedback, before I completely understand. I'm "self-taught," I suppose....and I'm constantly trying to read and look stuff up, but it never really sinks in until I can try to apply it to my own work...and then hope I did it right, or get some opinions! White balance is my nemesis, at the moment, so I am trying to limit my editing until I can get that right without any problems.

Anyone else have any opinions, criticism, or feedback?

[ccting]

Is the face symmetric? I am asking because you take an oblique camera angle..

[AesBreCov]

She really is a beautiful baby, in my opinion. Are you asking my reasoning for this angle? I did get a few straight-on, and caught some beautiful smiles, but I wanted to try a few different angles...just to try something different and get an idea of the styles I like, I suppose. My favorites were this profile, one showing her little lips puckered from a similar angle, and a few from slightly above, with a very shallow DOF.

[graciousness]

You know, I actually don't mind all that redness/pink around her. The blur really helped with this and I kinda like the tone that it brought to the image. However, in saying that, the image also kinda reminds me of in-utero - baby surrounded with the 'natural environment' inside mama's tummy. So don't know, I'm in two minds now.

With colourcast on skin, though, yes, you would want to do 2 separate layers and remove the colour cast on her skin/face.

I like the image enough and it's fine, but I'm not loving it am afraid. I think I would have wanted to see more of the baby (the crop is just too tight).

The eye is a little underexposed for me. Would like to see more balanced exposure on her face as a whole, but more so on her eye. Since the crop is too tight, it was important to really highlight the eye and more exposure will help. You can bring this up in post processing.

Be careful with shutter speeds. With babies and children, or people in general, that 1/50 is just way too slow. The very minimum I would use on a posed subject is 1/60. With babies and children, it would be 1/90. Ideal is 1/125. Of course, however, faster shutter speed means less ambient light. So you have to compensate by using wider aperture or more ISO to bring in more light to the lens.

When framing your shots, it is better to shoot wider and you can always crop later. With this photo, it is so tight that you really don't have anymore room to crop. A different angle altogether would be better, I think. But if you love this shot, just bring in more exposure on her eye and it will improve.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Grace

[AesBreCov]

Thank you, Grace! That was very helpful. I was working in aperture priority with it as wide as it would go at the time....so I guess I needed to bring more light in to be able to use a quicker shutter speed. I will remember that for next time!

Most of my other shots were much wider....this is the only one that I really got that close up for. I will definitely remember to still keep a little more room, so I can adjust the crop.

I wondered if it looked a little underexposed....thank you for pointing that out - I'm still trying to learn to be able to see it without question....sometimes I try to bring up the exposure, and I'm afraid I usually go too far....and sometimes not far enough, so I just didn't mess with it here. I will mess with it some more with the exposure and skin tone and see if I like it better!

Thanks, again!