New Flash Gun/First Portrait C&C

TheNorthBank

My girlfreinds sister asked me to take a picture of their 1 year old baby over Christmas, so this is the first shot I took with my new Canon Speedlite 430EX that Santa brought me.
Would love your C&C, Thank You.

Balfey1972

lovely photo, i love the innocent of the child. Hmmmm what are you doing !!

MagicMarker

What kind of PP was done on this?

Tis just a little too red for my liking.

smelltheglove

Ok its a good snap but I mean in no bad way calling it a snap only I wouldnt exactly term it as a portrait. The sharpness is good and the lighting is good but it doesnt seem to be thought out to me at all. Again not in a bad way at all only meaning to encourage you more, for a baby shot as a parent, I have never ever put a picture on display in my house where the child has had a soother in their mouth! That may be what is giving me the snap feel about it. The child looks quite photogenic and I would look forward to seeing a shot of her without the shoother and not so close to the camera.

I hope this helps and doesnt put you down in anyway, technicalities are all ok imo.

Ricky91t

I agree with what smelltheglove said,the photo isn't exactly great(photographically speaking)It seems quite soft and the flash causes the face to look very pale and then gets very dark at the bottom,did you bounce the flash or just point it straight at her,as if it was possible to bounce the photo would of looked better,i find bouncing the flash leaves the skin colours more natural and doesn't make the face "glow" as much like it is here..

Saying that,I'm sure your sister will be delighted with it,but i would sharpen it abit first

As it is far better quality than a p&s camera

AnCatDubh

Its nice in an ok kinda way. I think the parent(s) will be pleased but that may be more that they oogling over their babs rather than the resulting image.

How did you process the background??? There is a part middle bottom on left hand side which looks roughly cut but that may be hair fuzz perhaps?

The soother should go but that may be the parent(s) decision.

The face looks a little red and blotchy - that may be the physical state of the child's face at the time having run around wildly prior to being photographed?

I'd suggest that the composition is very flat - its centered very well but that doesn't necessarily make for an interesting take. The face is obviously positioned very flat on.

I think photographing children can be very demanding and difficult to do.

I'd suggest to plan a shoot. Check on pix or flickr for portraits of children and find poses that you like. Then plan as to how to achieve it. You might shoot 100 images and only get 5 good ones of which 1 or 2 may be outstanding - thats assuming the lighting environment is up to it too.

Good luck with it.

TheNorthBank

THANKS TO ALL FOR TAKING THE TIME TO C&C THIS, THE ADVICE AND CRITIQUE IS MUCH APPRECIATED. (And needed)

MagicMarker wrote: »

What kind of PP was done on this?

Tis just a little too red for my liking.

Hi Magicmarker, Thank you for your comment. It does look a tad red alright but I don't think thats down to the PP, her face was a bit hot or something when I took the picture.
I didn't do much PP on this, just a Soft Focus filter in Lightroom.

smelltheglove wrote: »

Ok its a good snap but I mean in no bad way calling it a snap only I wouldnt exactly term it as a portrait. The sharpness is good and the lighting is good but it doesnt seem to be thought out to me at all. Again not in a bad way at all only meaning to encourage you more, for a baby shot as a parent, I have never ever put a picture on display in my house where the child has had a soother in their mouth! That may be what is giving me the snap feel about it. The child looks quite photogenic and I would look forward to seeing a shot of her without the shoother and not so close to the camera.

I hope this helps and doesnt put you down in anyway, technicalities are all ok imo.

Thanks Smelltheglove, I appreciate the honest critisism as its the best way to learn. Your right too btw, It was actually more of a snap than anything else really. I guess putting "Portrait" in the thread title was a bit optimistic, perhaps "First baby pic" would have been better.

Ricky91t wrote: »

I agree with what smelltheglove said,the photo isn't exactly great(photographically speaking)It seems quite soft and the flash causes the face to look very pale and then gets very dark at the bottom,did you bounce the flash or just point it straight at her,as if it was possible to bounce the photo would of looked better,i find bouncing the flash leaves the skin colours more natural and doesn't make the face "glow" as much like it is here..

Saying that,I'm sure your sister will be delighted with it,but i would sharpen it abit first

As it is far better quality than a p&s camera

Thanks Ricky, well spotted, I didn't bounce the flash, in fact the poor child was nearly blinded by the direct flash. Also well spotted on the "Softness" of the shot. As I said above this was actually done intentionally in Lightroom using a soft focus filter. The origonal picture is a great deal sharper. I liked the effect the filter had on this but thats just down to personnal taste I guess.

AnCatDubh wrote: »

Its nice in an ok kinda way. I think the parent(s) will be pleased but that may be more that they oogling over their babs rather than the resulting image.

How did you process the background??? There is a part middle bottom on left hand side which looks roughly cut but that may be hair fuzz perhaps?

The soother should go but that may be the parent(s) decision.

The face looks a little red and blotchy - that may be the physical state of the child's face at the time having run around wildly prior to being photographed?

I'd suggest that the composition is very flat - its centered very well but that doesn't necessarily make for an interesting take. The face is obviously positioned very flat on.

I think photographing children can be very demanding and difficult to do.

I'd suggest to plan a shoot. Check on pix or flickr for portraits of children and find poses that you like. Then plan as to how to achieve it. You might shoot 100 images and only get 5 good ones of which 1 or 2 may be outstanding - thats assuming the lighting environment is up to it too.

Good luck with it.

Hi AnCatDubh, thank you as always for your detailed and educated critique and advice. I take it all on board.
How did you process the background??? There is a part middle bottom on left hand side which looks roughly cut but that may be hair fuzz perhaps?
I have absolutely no idea what this is, I'm assuming its just something on the babygrow.
I didn't know for definate that Santa was bringing me a Flash and I got kinda caught on the hop to take the picture. I'll do what you said about checking out portraits on Pix or Flickr and try again in the near future.
Thank you.

smelltheglove

Hi North, glad you are accepting the criticism, I have a ready supply of kids to photograph. The more you photograph them the more they enhoy getting their pictures taken. I have 2 girls, the eldest at 6 does not ever take a bad picture as she now knows her best side, smile etc etc etc, the 2 yr old also already knows how to pose but still gets some off shots.

Kids are the best practice subject as they make you work harder to keep their attention. Photograph this little girl often and you will not only see the difference in her as a subject it will also be easier to compare your imnprovements with the same subject.

AnimalRights

Good to see OP's reply.

BTW OP are you an Arsenal fan with a name like that? :cool:

TheNorthBank

AnimalRights wrote: »

Good to see OP's reply.

BTW OP are you an Arsenal fan with a name like that? :cool:

I sure am, I occasionally post/rant on the Arsenal page here on Boards also!

AnimalRights

Fellow Gooner here but don't post on the footy forums here as you have to erm.... I forget what it is but it was ridiculous.
You just can't post like on a normal forum...so I use Thumped's footy forum instead.
http://www.thumped.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=46616

Hugh_C

too close, soother a problem,too red, and too central. try offsetting a little and move away from your subject, use a longer lens, somewhere between 50 and 85 would be ideal and finally try an aperture around f/2.2 to f/3.5 to blur out the background.

Musashi

The eyes are great! No red eye from the flash or was that done post?

I'd like to see a little more distance and definitely no soother. Get someone to make her laugh as well! I'd like a lighter background, feels like this was done as you were over to theirs of an evening?

Head over about tenish in the morning and take some pics outside in good natural light. Use fill flash by all means, but have the child engaged and having a laugh and the photo should come alive. Who doesn't like happy baby pics?

I love 'em as it makes a change from the crying and trying to kill each other mine get up to!