6-month portraits

anderiv

On Saturday I took a few 6-month portraits of my son, Toren. This was my first honest attempt at taking "real" portraits, so I'd love some good, honest CC if you don't mind.

Enjoy and Thanks!

#1 - B&W


#2 - A color version of #1


#3 - A more "moody" B&W


#4

WingsOfLovePhoto

Very cute baby! I will try to be gentle with the c/c....

If you are looking for "portraits" here are a few things that I notice....


As far as lighting I think that #4 is the best....

in the others the lighting seems to mask his eyes most spreading across

#3 looks a little noisy and generally a little under exposed except for the lit areas

The crops seem a little too close cutting off the wild hair. I would want to show that off!

I hope this is helpful and not hurtful. I do alot of babies if you want to check out my site for ideas. Keep trying, it's great you have a subject to photograph as often as you want!!

chubby baby body parts like arms and hands should generally be shown and not cut off especially at a joint.

And lastly...for my taste...there are too many distracting elements in the background. When doing portraiture for babies, simplicity is best to focus mostly on the expression of the subject. All the pillows take away from what would be "portraiture"

anderiv

Hey Sandy, no, not hurtful at all! This is the kind of CC I was hoping for. Thanks so much.

Regarding the crop, I totally agree, I was in too tight. We love his wild hair, and do want to show it off. Regarding the noise...yah, that's a problem. I'm shooting with a lowly D70, and due to lack of good ambient light, needed to bump things up to ISO400. On a more modern DSLR, that wouldn't be a problem, but the D70 is pretty noisy.

I'm hoping to do another session in the next few days, and I'll take these pointers to heart.

Thanks!
-Erik

ERue

What a cutie! You have really good catchlights. Maybe try moving him closer to the light so that you can avoid the grain.
Do you have your settings?