Baby Abrielle - 10hrs Old (lots of pics)

PhilD41

So, my wife and I had our fifth on the 16th. The next morning the phone rang and a photographer asked if we would like baby photos done while we were in the hospital. I politely turned her down and grabbed my camera. What else would a good father do?

Anyway, I realize there are a lot of pictures here. I just wanted to share them. I am also looking for critique on posing, processing, and lighting. Most of these are done with natural light from a near by window, but some have some added flash for fill. I processed them on my work laptop rather than my home PC and am not sure I have the colors quite right either. It is hard as most of the light on my wife is reflecting off a solid wood wall (background) which has a heavy red cast to it. The skin tone on the baby looked okay, at least on my monitor.

So, any feed back would be great! I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

#1 - 50mm @ f/2.0; 1/100s; ISO 320


#2 - 50mm @ f/2.0; 1/100s; ISO 100


#3 - 50mm @ f/2.5; 1/100s; ISO 1000


#4 - 50mm @ f/2.5; 1/100s; ISO 1000


#5 - 50mm @ f/2.5; 1/125s; ISO 1000


#6 - 50mm @ f/2.5; 1/125s; ISO 1000


#7 - 50mm @ f/2.2; 1/160s; ISO 640


#8 - 50mm @ f/2.2; 1/160s; ISO 640


#9 - 50mm @ f/1.4; 1/400s; ISO 640

denisegoldberg

Congratulations!

You have some beautiful shots here. My favorites are #4 & #5.

--- Denise

Sam

5 kids and you still own a camera and a computer!!

My favorite is #9. It says everything.

Sam

Gary752

PhilD41 wrote: »

So, my wife and I had our fifth on the 16th. The next morning the phone rang and a photographer asked if we would like baby photos done while we were in the hospital. I politely turned her down and grabbed my camera. What else would a good father do?

Anyway, I realize there are a lot of pictures here. I just wanted to share them. I am also looking for critique on posing, processing, and lighting. Most of these are done with natural light from a near by window, but some have some added flash for fill. I processed them on my work laptop rather than my home PC and am not sure I have the colors quite right either. It is hard as most of the light on my wife is reflecting off a solid wood wall (background) which has a heavy red cast to it. The skin tone on the baby looked okay, at least on my monitor.

So, any feed back would be great! I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Wow! Look at all that hair for only being 10 hours old! They all look great, and can't wait to see more pics as she grows up!

GaryB

Qarik

haha so hairy and wrinkly! technically they have ways to go but don't really care

Mitchell

Congrats!!!

PhilD41

Thanks everyone. We are very happy. Sam, I thought that pretty much summed it up. Qarik, I realize the techniques don't matter for what these are (for me), but would love to hear your take on them. After all, I am trying to get better and would love, at some point, to do these for others. For them, it would matter.

Qarik

okay here goes..

1) can't see baby or mom face very well, under exposed overall
2) mom is shot out of context..what is she doing where is baby? no eye contact though the light is decent
3) baby is lit ok but not mom
4) same as 3 but mom's head is cut off too much
6) best of the bunch for mom and baby but need to turn mom more towards the window..the light falloff on her face is not pleasing
7) best baby pic
8) too close and oof
9) funny but out of context

Overall you need to find better quality window light..the light still too harsh. find a bright window with some neutral shears or roman shades that diffuse the light! Also the rest of the room was pretty dark so you get all this light fall off that is obscuring the baby or moms face, etc. If you are going to use fill flash..you need to bounce it pointing in the opposite direction of the window (assuming white walls or some large reflector) so it fills in all the dark crannies. You could fix some of these issue i bring up with processing fyi

PhilD41

Thanks Qarik! That is helpful. I may practice with some of my post abilities and see what I can do. I didn't bring my reflector with me and kicked myself for it when I couldn't get anything with a flash to work. I didn't take my stands and umbrellas so it was hard to blend the flash and natural light without causing harshish shadows... so I kept with the natural light although not the best. I expect someone with more experience could have done better with what was there, but that is how we learn. I do appreciate your input!