Maternity

[Stouthearted]

Trying to get better so please be honest.

[smc1377]

The rules suggest that you provide EXIF info and more guidance as to what type of critique you're looking for.

As to the photo, my monitor at work here isn't all that accurate, but it looks like the most important part of the photo, her belly, is blown out.

[KodiakStar]

Need more light reflected on her left side of her face. Shadows are a bit dark there.
As mentioned belly looks a little overexposed.
Blurry thing on the bottom? Table? Hand? Finger?
Cuts her off at the knees, slightly unhappy about that.
Looks like a nice wall color, but is distracting with the slanted lines of the door.
Horizontal would be a bit nicer for the lines, or better yet, no distracting lines behind..

[Stouthearted]

Thanks for the imput. Here are the numbers:

Nikon D80
50mm f/1.8
1/30s at f/2.0
ISO 200
Cloudy WB
Apeture Priority

The shot is clearly soft (oxymoron??) I guess I should have bumped up the ISO. I'm really working on composition so sometimes I lose track of my shutter speed and other important variables. Truly a challenging thing taking a great photo!

[Tiddleywinks and More]

I like the angel of the photo. And the model did a great job; she looks very natural. Too bad about the blurry thing at the bottom of the image.

[Loose_Canon]

I like the pose and the mom's expression - proud of her baby. She does look like she's sliding off the chair, though. The tilted camera effect is generally cool but must be used w/ discretion.

Regarding image quality, one serious problem - the highlights are overexposed - blown out. If you shot the original in RAW you may be able to go back and convert again to salvage the highlights. Overall the contrast is too high due to the lighting. bright side is too bright - dark side is too dark. need to fill in the dark side either w/ fill flash or a white card.

As for sharpness, a higher ISO won't help that but a smaller aperture would (higher number). I'd suggest shooting in aperture priority mode w/ a tripod. Choose f/5.6 or f/6.3 and focus on the nearest eye.

For something maybe a little more creative, put the tummy and the nearest eye the same distance from the camera and use a larger aperture (smaller number) like f/3.5 for shallow depth of field and throw everything else into soft focus. And try a B&W conversion.

Lastly the fuzzy thin gat the bottom is annoying. Soften everything but the mom's eyes and tummy and you'll be set.

[Stouthearted]

Thanks for taking time to critique this photo...like I said I'm really committed to this...it's our first child and we both want the best pictures for us and our new baby.

I'm really trying to get that nice shallow depth of field look like you suggest loose_cannon, I was shooting at f/2 but not getting that effect to my liking. Any thoughts on why?

I see now how a fill flash or reflector would really help...I guess I thought I had more light than I did.

Also I did shoot these in RAW and I'm going to play around with them tonight. Overall I'm happy with our first attempt at these kind of photos, but they're not where I want them to be yet.

Thanks again for taking time,

Brian

[KodiakStar]

Don't know if you saw, but they just posted up a tutorial on the Blog:
http://digital-photography-school.co...ernity-session

[Stouthearted]

Originally Posted by KodiakStar

Don't know if you saw, but they just posted up a tutorial on the Blog:
http://digital-photography-school.co...ernity-session

I did notice that...how thoughtful of them to respond to my needs so promptly ha ha! Great tutorial, I see some paper backgrounds in my future. Love the seamless look.