One year shots of Baby Ben...C&C appreciated.

Memories by Melinda

I was asked by a friend to photograph their 1 yr. old son. They didn't want any trendy number one's anywhere. Mom knew exactly what she wanted when it came to locations and props. They are very happy with the results:clap . The hardest part for me was that she wanted some B&W conversions. I hope you enjoy looking.

1.


2.


3.


4. I tried out a nostalgic preset from LR


5. Dad is the soccer coach at VMI and this is his favorite.


6. This was near the end.


7. Vintage preset with LR.


8.


Thanks for looking!

You can see the rest of the pictures here.

adbsgicom

Very nice! I love the angle in the last one The second one looks like the light was a little bright, but still a sweet picture.

Elaine

I think these are super sweet! My faves are 1, 3, 6. They are all sharp and well lit and there is great variety. Well done!

Memories by Melinda

adbsgicom wrote:

Very nice! I love the angle in the last one The second one looks like the light was a little bright, but still a sweet picture.

Thanks. I agree about the second one. I went back in PS and played with it but I ended up leaving it as is...kind of like it.

The last one was one of those lucky shots. I was putting stuff away and looked up in time to see dad playing with him. Good thing the camera was still on. :whew

Memories by Melinda

Elaine wrote:

I think these are super sweet! My faves are 1, 3, 6. They are all sharp and well lit and there is great variety. Well done!

Thank you Elaine. I sent my Canon in a couple of months ago due to some focus issues. It's nice to see it working even better now. Baby Ben was a trooper for the 2 hours we shot.

Ed911

Here's my two pennies...

One, two, and three...nice.

One and two are my favorites. I think both one and two are a coin flip as far as artistic concept. I really like what you have done here.

I keep looking at two...I really like the light on his face against the back of the couch. Yes there is a lot of dead space, but for me, it works here.


But that's just me. Have you tried some different crops, just to see what you can come up with. Oh, and I like your lighting...off camera. Way cool.

Good work, thanks for sharing.

afev0602

I like 1 a lot, but think you can cut off some of the shot to the right...you have dead flowers over there that can get cut and don't add anything to the shot.

5 would be great no matter what dad did...the colors are beautiful. You can feel the sun and sand...really really nice.

Memories by Melinda

afev0602 wrote:

I like 1 a lot, but think you can cut off some of the shot to the right...you have dead flowers over there that can get cut and don't add anything to the shot.

5 would be great no matter what dad did...the colors are beautiful. You can feel the sun and sand...really really nice.

Thanks for the comments. For some reason I didn't even notice the droopy flowers before and now I can't stop looking at them. I will fix that.

Memories by Melinda

Ed911 wrote:

Here's my two pennies...

One, two, and three...nice.

One and two are my favorites. I think both one and two are a coin flip as far as artistic concept. I really like what you have done here.

I keep looking at two...I really like the light on his face against the back of the couch. Yes there is a lot of dead space, but for me, it works here.


But that's just me. Have you tried some different crops, just to see what you can come up with. Oh, and I like your lighting...off camera. Way cool.

Good work, thanks for sharing.

Composition and cropping are my biggest challenges. I did several different crops and this one worked best. His parents said it looked "presidential" because of the eagle in the background which is why I kept going back to this crop. It was the best way to keep the look they liked.

As for the lighting, that is a work in progress.

Thanks!

rainbow

I can see why the parents are happy with the results. You did a great job capturing him.

#8 is my favorite, followed by 1, 2, & 3.

Memories by Melinda

rainbow wrote:

I can see why the parents are happy with the results. You did a great job capturing him.

#8 is my favorite, followed by 1, 2, & 3.

Thank you.:D

Scott_Quier

1. Cute and well executed. The bush in the foreground is a bit distracting as is whatever it is in the lower-left corner.

2. I like this one. The flash was a bit close to the baby and light-fall off caused the baby to be a bit bright while the rest of the room to be a bit under-exposed. A simple levels adjustment layer with an appropriate mask could be used to better balance the brightness. I also think I would crop a bit from the bottom and left side and apply a mild vignette.

3, 4 - This works well, not sure about the expression. #4 needs a vignette to finish off the effect.

6 - Not having been there, not sure if this is a keeper or not. It looks like little Ben is more than just a bit tired of the whole thing.

8 - This is my favorite of the entire series here. Perspective is great. Ben's happy and smiling. And, there's a sense of a father's pride in his son about the shot. This would, I think, work much better as a square crop - there's just too much space on the left side of the frame.

sweet caroline

Scott_Quier wrote:

1. Cute and well executed. The bush in the foreground is a bit distracting as is whatever it is in the lower-left corner.

2. I like this one. The flash was a bit close to the baby and light-fall off caused the baby to be a bit bright while the rest of the room to be a bit under-exposed. A simple levels adjustment layer with an appropriate mask could be used to better balance the brightness. I also think I would crop a bit from the bottom and left side and apply a mild vignette.

3, 4 - This works well, not sure about the expression. #4 needs a vignette to finish off the effect.

6 - Not having been there, not sure if this is a keeper or not. It looks like little Ben is more than just a bit tired of the whole thing.

8 - This is my favorite of the entire series here. Perspective is great. Ben's happy and smiling. And, there's a sense of a father's pride in his son about the shot. This would, I think, work much better as a square crop - there's just too much space on the left side of the frame.

#6 is totally a keeper! Look at that expression- it's like a painting of a small child. Anyway, It's a great set with good variety.

Hackbone

1-6 & 8 are really cute. Love the lighting. Got to do something with the farmers tan in #7.

Memories by Melinda

Originally Posted by Scott_Quier
1. Cute and well executed. The bush in the foreground is a bit distracting as is whatever it is in the lower-left corner.

2. I like this one. The flash was a bit close to the baby and light-fall off caused the baby to be a bit bright while the rest of the room to be a bit under-exposed. A simple levels adjustment layer with an appropriate mask could be used to better balance the brightness. I also think I would crop a bit from the bottom and left side and apply a mild vignette.

3, 4 - This works well, not sure about the expression. #4 needs a vignette to finish off the effect.

6 - Not having been there, not sure if this is a keeper or not. It looks like little Ben is more than just a bit tired of the whole thing.

8 - This is my favorite of the entire series here. Perspective is great. Ben's happy and smiling. And, there's a sense of a father's pride in his son about the shot. This would, I think, work much better as a square crop - there's just too much space on the left side of the frame.

As always thanks for your input. I cropped all of these with enough room for print size options. They discussed various sizes with me. I am going to play with #2 and see what I get.

Originally Posted by sweet caroline
#6 is totally a keeper! Look at that expression- it's like a painting of a small child. Anyway, It's a great set with good variety.

I love #6 too. He cried and did the baby arch the entire time that his dad and marmie (grandmother) were changing his outfit. I was just getting what I could and don't remember getting this shot. I was pleasantly surprised when I got home and went through the shots.
Thank you for your comments.

1-6 & 8 are really cute. Love the lighting. Got to do something with the farmers tan in #7.

I have no idea how I missed the tan on his legs. Any ideas on how to remedy this issue? Thanks.

brvheart

Melinda - these are awesome! I really love the BW with the couch - what did you use to convert that image?

bendruckerphoto

Clone out the brown patch in the bottom left of #1. Otherwise, great set. Love the last one.

Memories by Melinda

brvheart wrote:

Melinda - these are awesome! I really love the BW with the couch - what did you use to convert that image?

Thank you. I used a LR preset that I found on the internet then tweaked some of the settings.

bendruckerphoto wrote:

Clone out the brown patch in the bottom left of #1. Otherwise, great set. Love the last one.

Thanks. I am going to work on the patch. It was a decorative bee hive like thing that was in the garden. The last one was one of those great opportunities...just glad my camera was still on me.

Memories by Melinda

#1 Edited
I have removed the blurred blob from the bottom corner and the dead flowers from the far side.

Thank you all for your advice and input.:D

Karrie McD

Hey, we are neighbors

I really liked this set! 1, especially the last version, and 6 are my favorites. Good job and it looks like you had a lot of fun.

Scott_Quier

Karrie McD wrote:

Hey, we are neighbors

I really liked this set! 1, especially the last version, and 6 are my favorites. Good job and it looks like you had a lot of fun.

I agree - that clone job is nice!!

Karrie, not only are we all three neighbors, but we all belong to the same local photo club

Karrie McD

Scott_Quier wrote:

Karrie, not only are we all three neighbors, but we all belong to the same local photo club

That's what I get for leaving for 6 weeks... I don't know who I'm talking to anymore