The look of innocence’s

[Melissa Miller]

Hi Everyone,

I am new here and love this site.

Looking for thoughts on exposure and composition.. Thank you in advance..

Canon T1I, Sutter speed 1/60, AV 5.6, ISO 400, Focal Length 55.0, Lens EF 18-55 mm f/3.5 -5.6 IS. Anything else I should include?

[Preacherman]

Hi Mellisa. I'm not into portraits, and there are people more capable than me who can help, but just wanted to say welcome to our great community of like minded people. Hope you enjoy yourself here. Have a great Christmas and keep posting. PAUL

[Melissa Miller]

Thank You!

[mrdale]

Hi Melissa,

Welcome to the forum. Your lighting, exposure, focus, skin tones are fine but the crop/composition doesn't work for me. Why only half of her face ? She is a cutie. Is this cropped ? What does the full image look like ? And get rid of that brown thing upper right, it competes with the face too much.

Keep shooting and share some more.

dale

[denja]

Hi Melissa, and welcome to the DPS forum. I can see what you where going for, but I'm afraid it didn't quite work here. The pillow or whatever in the upper right corner is just totally out of place, and is very distracting. I'm not sure about the idea of the crop, to me it doesn't quite work , especially with such a young subject. I did some PP on the eye to try and make it pop a little to compensate for the distraction of the pillow. All of that said, don't ever let someone talk you out of a pose or picture that you like. You took it to please you! If you want me to take this down let me know, otherwise let me know what you think.

Jim

[SusanH1970]

Hi Melissa,

I have to disagree with the previous posters on exposure and skin tones. It looks underexposed to me, and also the skin looks quite cool, with too much magenta and perhaps blue. Not wild about the pinpoint catchlights, either, which is very common with pop-up flash. Pop-up flash is generally not great to use unless you can at least try to diffuse it somehow - even taping a tissue over it can help.

I do agree with the PP's about the composition. I've seen half-face portraits that have been done brilliantly, and I do see what you were going for - I've even tried it myself, but it seems to be an art form of its own and not easy to accomplish!

I'm seeing by your EXIF on Flickr that you shot this in P mode, which is fine for first learning on a DSLR, that's how I started! Did you make any adjustments, such as ISO? If you'd bumped your ISO higher in P mode, you might not have needed the flash, but it would have been noisier. I'm also guessing that you used the kit lens (18-55) by your EXIF. I have the same, came with my 450D, and it does have its use, but it's quite limiting when it comes to indoor portraits.

Keep shooting more and more, read as much as you can here and anywhere else you can find good tips, and most of all, enjoy it.

Oh by the way, from what I can see, that baby is absolutely gorgeous!

Looking forward to seeing more from you. Welcome to DPS!

[Melissa Miller]

Thanks to all that responded. I fell in love with the eye in this image but I only got one eye so I was trying to make something out of nothing.. I see now how the pillow next to the head is competing with the baby. I will study more on exposure and catchlights. And thanks for the tip on how to diffuse the pop up flash.
Melissa ☺

[daddyoproductions]

Listen to Susan..she knows kid portraits, and check out Ruthie May's stream too! They are both awesome!

[kgb224]

Welcome To DPS.
I like the composition.Focus is superb.Nice even lighting.Exposure spot on.Composition superb.

[SusanH1970]

Originally Posted by daddyoproductions

Listen to Susan..she knows kid portraits, and check out Ruthie May's stream too! They are both awesome!

Wow, thank you! You made me blush!!!

By the way, I wanna be Ruthie when I grow up.