my mona lisa

[Brittainy]

i was thinking of the Mona Lisa when I was snapping these pics of my four year old. A family member said it reminded her of the Mona Lisa, (I hadn't mentioned it), thus it is what i affectionately call this picture. I think its the little smile on the corner of her lips, but I digress.
the only post processing I did here was a little dodge tool in her irises. try as i may i can not get the amy rose king eye effect that i love, even with the tutorial written by her. i just got some lights for christmas, and i don't know what they are called, just that they have a giant coiled flourescent bulb and they came with tripod stands and umbrellas. and i had just plugged them in an asked my kiddo to sit for two minutes so i could practice. i try to never use my flash, and so i'm having a real problem with getting my kids (2 and 4) in focus. 90 percent of the pics i take of them are out of focus with a lot of cool motion effects, but not what i am going for. i try to play around with aperature and shutter speed but the pics either come out black or blown out. but once again i digress.

my questions are, should this pic be lightened to draw her hair out of the background? do the eyes look fake? and are the shadows bothersome? and is there a magical formula that i need to know to preset my settings to capture my ever moving, (particularly jumping) children so i can get my stats up to at least 15% keepers?
thanks a lot!



Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi
Exposure: 0.1 sec (1/10)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 53 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire

[chele_arts_and_designs]

She is indeed adorable :-) I find the blurriness quite distracting, if you lite her a bit more, you'll be able to shoot her at a much faster shutter and maybe avoid the blurriness. with kids i also put my camera (i have the same as yours) on continuous shooting mode, that way, you'll have more chance at getting a clear one. the eyes do look real, they just need to be in focus, crisp and clearer...I love it when there's a bit of a ..what's the word, when the iris is so clear with detail, the eyes of a person suddenly tells a story. It's so beautiful. keep it up!!!

[natek313]

She is very adorable!

I agree with chele. Your shutter speed needs to be a lot faster, especially for children. You can use a tripod all you want, but that only stops camera shake; it doesn't freeze subject motion. You need to get more light into the scene. And, yes, getting a hair/rim light would definitely help. The eyes look very natural.

The photo seems a bit noisy in the shadow areas for ISO 200. Did you sharpen this photo in post-processing? Over-sharpening can cause that - just something to be aware of.

Is there a reason you don't use your flash? Is it a flash unit or the on-board flash on your camera? If it's the latter, then I understand why you don't use it - haha. But, if it's a Speedlite, then I would strongly recommend looking into off-camera lighting. The Strobist is a good place to start with a TON of information.

[Benji]

Cute girl but it is underexposed by nearly two stops. Niether film nor digital likes underexposure. Film could handle overexposure a lot better than digital does. This image will have some noise in it if you attempt to fix it in Photoshop. It is best to get it right in the camera when the capture is made.

Benji

[Brittainy]

thanks for all the feedback. i may have sharpened it to, (i have a few different versions of this pic that i have played with. though even when i don't sharpen and the ISO is low it still winds up grainy.) sadly, i have a ton of "almost keepers". i'm having a super hard time getting the shutter speed right. like i said its either black at a faster speed or slow and blown out. i'm not sure why this is happening, but it is really frustrating. practice makes perfect i guess.

[summeresque]

I was having the same problem taking pics of my kids. After reading through my manual and surfing the net I discovered a few things. One: the quicker the shutter speed, the less light enters the camera, hence your almost black pictures at fast speed. This especially happens with indoor pictures where the light is even lower. To help this you can increase the ISO on your camera (but don't make it to high or you'll get bad grain). You can also adjust (increase) your aperture. I now take pics of my kids on the lowest shutter speed I can manage near an open window with lots of light.

Your daughter has the most adorable chubby cheeks and pretty green eyes!

[Brittainy]

i get the concept of shutter speed, aperature, and ISO, but any combination i try is not working. there has to be a way to take decent pictures indoors without studio lighting. i think i'll go find the appropriate place to ask this question someone in the GREAT depths of this forum. thanks again.

[laura.wilkerson1333]

Focus, as everyone else said. And maybe a little more contrast?

[jax314]

If you like taking indoor shots without flash like I do....then it almost seems necessary to buy a fast prime lens. I just got a 35mm f/1.4. Something like that or a 55mm f/1.8 would allow much faster shutter speeds under the same lighting conditions. Mine was a well spent $200....much better pics of my kids....Here is an example...