Baptism Photos

anonymouscuban

My wife and I went up to the Bay Area this past weekend for my nephew's baptism. She asked that I take a few photos to document the event. I was a bit nervous since I am kind of new to this type of shooting and using strobes. I didn't know what to expect as far as lighting in the church or good vantage points. As I kind of expected, lighting wasn't great but I cranked up the ISO a bit, set to manual and used my trusty little SB-600 speedlight for light. I shot most wide open at f/2.8.

I'm pretty happy with the results. I wasn't to thrilled with the only spot I could find to get a clear shot of the actual baptism; there was a large nativity scene right next to where everything was happening. I had to do a little bit of cloning on some. I haven't showed my sister-in-law the pictures yet because I wanted to get some feedback from you all. Mostly the WB and skin tones. I am having trouble with my monitors at home, I think they're off a bit so I tried my best to get the skin tones right. The venue was a bit "warm" as far as ambient so I tried to keep some of that warmth in the pictures. Hopefully it's not overboard though.

BTW, I processed these with the sort of "dreamy" look. I noticed all of the professionally done photos my sister-in-law has had done has this type of post work so I kind of did the same since apparently she likes it. Feedback on this would also be appreciated as far as my execution of it.

Well, nuff talk...

#1 - My sister-in-law and Marcus just before we left for the church


#2 - Marcus and proud papa at home (shot with just window light)


#3 - Marcus being blessed


#4 - Mom is blessed by the congregation


#5 - The Christening


#6 - Celebration


These last set of portraits were a bit hurried as there were a lot of other cameras going off and we were kind of being "pushed" to leave the church. They actually turned off the lights at one point so we'd get the hint :dunno

#7 - Great aunt & uncle


#8 - Dad with mom & siblings


#9 - Grandma & brother


#10 - Brother & friend

divamum

That is one seriously cute baby

Alex, I'd say you're nailing it these days - these look great! I really love the softness of #1, plus such a nice expression from both of them. I'd say the "dreamy look" works a treat. And #10 - well, what can you say other than "CUUUUUUTTTTEEE!!!".

Sure, there are things here and there you might have done differently, but I think overall you should be very pleased - nice subjects, good "event" candid comps, well lit and pleasing - I'm sure the family are thrilled to have your shots!

adbsgicom

Nice shots, and congratulations on the christening! Many more happy moments. Overall, they are a really nice set.

Couple of nits:
#1. Clone out the white in the lower left to not be distracting. Sweet shot.
#2. Wish you had a better location and backdrop than the microwave here.
3-6: Nice capturing of the ceremony.
7-10: Looks like you were shooting the stobe forward here and you had more than just fill levels. Nice images and all, but if you bounce the flash (or hold the flash on a cord off to the side) you can get more directional light. Still nice captures of a special day.

10 is just the best!!! She's already making sure he eats enough....

anonymouscuban

divamum wrote:

That is one seriously cute baby

Alex, I'd say you're nailing it these days - these look great! I really love the softness of #1, plus such a nice expression from both of them. I'd say the "dreamy look" works a treat. And #10 - well, what can you say other than "CUUUUUUTTTTEEE!!!".

Sure, there are things here and there you might have done differently, but I think overall you should be very pleased - nice subjects, good "event" candid comps, well lit and pleasing - I'm sure the family are thrilled to have your shots!

Thanks Diva. Very encouraging feedback. I tend to be a little critical of myself so it's good to hear that you think I did a good job. BTW, Marcus is really cute. One of the happiest babies I've ever met. He's always smiling and laughing.

anonymouscuban

adbsgicom wrote:

Nice shots, and congratulations on the christening! Many more happy moments. Overall, they are a really nice set.

#1. Clone out the white in the lower left to not be distracting. Sweet shot.

Agreed and easy enough to do.

#2. Wish you had a better location and backdrop than the microwave here.

Yes. This was a very impromptu shot. He was standing in the kitchen, next to the window and I decided to grab a shot. Maybe I can blur the BG out a bit, make it less noticeable.

3-6: Nice capturing of the ceremony.

Thanks!

7-10: Looks like you were shooting the stobe forward here and you had more than just fill levels. Nice images and all, but if you bounce the flash (or hold the flash on a cord off to the side) you can get more directional light. Still nice captures of a special day.

Agreed. Ceiling were just too high to get adequate light when bounced and there were really no walls to bounce from. I had the diffuser on the flash but still kind of hot. I thought of having my wife hold the flash off camera but there was just so much commotion going on. We weren't the only family Christening a child that day.

10 is just the best!!! She's already making sure he eats enough....

Yes... they learn to train us boys young.

anonymouscuban

A couple more of Marcus...

One with mommy:



And one with Auntie Flo:

Qarik

these overall very nice. well lit, composed and processed. A few shots suffer from touch of harsh lighting due to unbounced flash but no one but a photographer would care.

Already Famous

I really love # 6 - to see all the people who love this child, and who are there to support him, that's pretty touching.

anonymouscuban

Qarik wrote:

these overall very nice. well lit, composed and processed. A few shots suffer from touch of harsh lighting due to unbounced flash but no one but a photographer would care.

Thanks Qarik. I wish I had been able to bounce. Tried but just not enough power from my SB-600; ceilings were way too high.

anonymouscuban

Already Famous wrote:

I really love # 6 - to see all the people who love this child, and who are there to support him, that's pretty touching.

Yes... he is very loved and you're only seeing about half of the people that were there for him in the pics. I come from a Cuban Catholic family so it seemed pretty normal to have this many people attend a baptism. However, there were two other children being baptized and both only had the parents and god-parents attend. Seemed odd to me but it maybe the norm.

JayClark79

I think you did an excellent job man!