Meet Jack

[dche5390]

A friend was in town and I took the opportunity to get some snaps for mum. Overall, a fun experience, great to catch up with a close friend, but another reminder of how much I still have yet to learn.

• I struggled to get focus right since bubz was constanting moving and protesting!
• Didn't like the effect bounced flash was giving so I ditched the flash and relied on ambient lighting. A few shots were pushing the ISO but nothing LR couldn't get rid of.
• Focusing ... haven't quite figured out how to track with centre-AF yet so was using single-mode only.
• Metering was either spot or evaluative.
• Most were shot with the D700 with AFD 50 1.4. Some were from the D200 but I seem to have deleted everything from that particular CF card. Oops!
• The usual contrast, tone curve, and exposure adjustments made in LR2.7.

Critique away!

Cheers,
Dan

 

[pokiemon]

hi dan,

composition -
1) this may come out wrongly but the mom's legs are pretty distracting esp the jeans against a lighter contrast.
2) secondly child's pose can be improved (what i like is the eye contact).
3) the level - i would have taken at the same level as the baby instead of from the top. this makes the photo very flat. make full use of your 50mm 1.4 to give it a nice DOF. wait for the right moment when the baby is smiling and fire away. off my head, one possible pose is when the baby is lying on his tummy and looking at you.
4) play around with lighting to give more contrast.

my 2 cents!

 

[dche5390]

Thanks for your comments!

Unfortunately, at 7 weeks of age, babies have no head control still. I'd love to have placed Jack on his stomach and have him looking at me but Jack is not at the developmental stage where he can support the weight of his enormous head yet.

The problem with shooting wide open is focusing. Babies move. Quickly. There are a lot of shots in the set where the eyes are OOF. Shame really.

Posing is probably something to do when they're at least 6 months old and have better motor control.

Smiling? Baby? Ha! I remember getting a few smiles but must have been on the CF card I formated. Grrrr.

Jack's skin is still very translucent. Adding more contrast made him look really creepy. I already desaturated the red channel without making him look like a zombie.

 

[aprilmoon92]

Hmm the odd angle of the head + body + the diagonal lines of the kneeling person's knees makes the picture look lopsided from all directions... Perhaps a tighter crop on the baby would have removed some disconcerting angles from the shot.

 

[schmuak]

Nice composition. Technically good and sharp, and blur is right. Nice skin tone.