First studio shoot!!!

nicki2414 · January 28, 2009

ok so tomorrow is the big day and i'm getting a little nervous. This is my first studio shoot and I believe I have done the research for it but still looking for tips and ideas. It is very informal, done at the people's house. It is for thier 2 year old's birthday pics.

I am using my canon xti (im comfortable with it) and probably my 50mm 1.8 prime i just purchased. I also will be using my speedlite 420ex and a gary fong light diffuser. I do have another slave flash that I might bring along but I haven't had the time to try them togther yet.

I will be doing some with backgrounds mostly black and white, but the people want to capture him in his natural environment (he tends to clam up in a studio atmosphere so we are trying to avoid this).

basically, whatever advice or ideas for shots you have I would greatly appreciate it.

Since this is the first one I am doing I am only charging for prints ordered. I figured if they will take a chance with me then I will give them a break. I normally do wedding photography and actually did the mommy and daddy's wedding this year so that is why they decided to hire me for this.

I'm just worried about being creative with a child. Adult are easy...lol... well sometimes. I do have a 2 year old myself so I know this is going to be difficult to say the least. hahaha....

thanks in advance!!!
Nicki

gmonkeh · January 28, 2009

I've done my share of kids photography especially over the christmas season, and it's honestly my least favorite thing to do. My suggestion is plan to take a lot of shots. It all depends on how cooperative the child is feeling, but just keep shooting and hope you have more keepers than garbage.

NateW · January 29, 2009

Experience with my own kids is my main thing, but I've got a little with others as well.

Key things:
1) Little kids get more nervous than older ones, and then get even less responsive. Make it fun! (I hope you're a silly person around kids, 'cuz that'll help)
2) Ask them what they want to do for the shots; do they want a specific prop, etc.? Do they have any ideas about what they'd like to see later?

It's kind of like cooking with kids, if you give them a sense of ownership, they can get into it much more and both of you will enjoy it more!

Have fun and good luck!:ivar
(And I can't wait to see the results!

)

nicki2414 · January 29, 2009

This is a little practice...
I know its a little soft around the bottom of the pictures but I was trying to focus in on the eyes...

What do you think???

Would you be happy with shots like this??

(This was just of my little girl playing around the house today... I know I hate the hair in her eyes too.... but its just practice!...lol)

gmonkeh · January 29, 2009

Seems to be a lot of noise, did you shoot high ISO on this?

nicki2414 · January 29, 2009

yah it was really just me playing around a little bit... more concepts rather than right settings.... I was playing with a little bit of natural lighting and had the iso set high...

I have been shooting alot of indoor basketball and was practicing for that when i got this picture... I just loved the eyes, so while playing around with some stuff today getting ready for the birthday shoot I did this...

Probably not the best picture to do it to but I just loved her expression.

Scott_Quier · January 30, 2009

First - who really cares about a little noise, especially in a B&W shot.

Second - this is a monster shot - just too cool for words! Love the eyes. The "softness at the bottom" doesn't worry me in the slightest. It's something that's going to happen when you are close to your subject and shooting with a wide aperture. You absolutely nailed the eyes and that's got to by your primary emphasis (was going to say "focus" but ...

).

Hair in the eyes - on a kid this age that's then norm I think and it actually adds something to the image.

So, do you get the gist of what I'm trying to say? Just in case it's not clear - love the shot! Composition, content, post, PP, lighting. For me, everything seems to be spot on

, even the water/drool on her chin

Ed911 · January 30, 2009

Scott_Quier wrote:

First - who really cares about a little noise, especially in a B&W shot.

Second - this is a monster shot - just too cool for words! Love the eyes. The "softness at the bottom" doesn't worry me in the slightest. It's something that's going to happen when you are close to your subject and shooting with a wide aperture. You absolutely nailed the eyes and that's got to by your primary emphasis (was going to say "focus" but ... ).

Hair in the eyes - on a kid this age that's then norm I think and it actually adds something to the image.

So, do you get the gist of what I'm trying to say? Just in case it's not clear - love the shot! Composition, content, post, PP, lighting. For me, everything seems to be spot on, even the water/drool on her chin :rolf

I agree with Scott.

unclemu · January 30, 2009

I love that shot!!! I don't if I would want it for a "portrait" but the emotion of it is amazing! The eyes, the hair covering part of the face all just add to it!

My advice is to spend a ton of time playing with the kid before even touching your camera and when you pull it out let them look at it before pointing it at them...you don't have to have them hold it but let them get used to a new object being around...then start snapping.

But don't wait too long either as kids' attention span can be way too short as well!

nicki2414 · January 30, 2009

Well everything went really well. I was very surprised with how well this little guy listened. He would pretty much do whatever we asked of him for at least a couple of shots. These are some of my favorites so far. The mom love black and white photos so I probably over killed this session with them, but hey that is what she like...lol

I pretty much just let him play. I ended up shooting for over 2 hours! He was such a ham and was loving the camera so I just kept going. I would take a picture and he would run over to the camera and ask to see. lol

Let me know what you guys think. C and C is defiantly welcome!

1
His daddy love the guitar and this is the one that he like to play with daddy. I still have to get rid of the shadow in the background.

2
This isn't really part of the photos, but just too cute. he kept jumping off the couch and I caught him one time.

3
This is his birthday shirt. I saw the balls in the toy box and decided to have some fun!

4
He was playing peak a boo with me!

5
Playing with daddy's shoes

6
This is another one where he was just messing around. He was putting the bag for the balls on his head and running around....lol

7
(Shadow in background again needs to go)

8

9

10

11
im not sure if this one works or not but I love the expression on his face!

Now my 3 favs
12

13
Mom was dumping the balls over his head and boy was he loving it

14

The last one is my fav by far. I love the eyes.
Obviously we had some fun.....

Thanks for the complements on the last post too. The more I look at that picture the more I like it. It shows so much of her personality. I think it will end up on the wall...lol

nicki2414 · February 2, 2009

sorry guys, but I wanted to bump this up. I'm really looking for some responses to these. Im pretty proud of them but Im sure I did some things wrong..... so what do you got for me

gmonkeh · February 2, 2009

11, 10, 5, and 4 are winners for me. 11 could use a recrop to remove the distractions on the lower left but aside from that it's a great shot.

What kind of lighting did you use for these aside from the ambient? You got a lot of the kid's personality, you should be proud.

Speaking of black and white, give this conversion a try:

BW Desaturate method.

- Start by duplicating original layer.
- SHIFT+CTRL+U to desaturate the layer.
- Go to Edit > Fade Desaturate.
(use 100% opacity and blending mode Color)
- Next add some contrast by switching to lab mode.
Image > Mode ? LAB
- Press CTRL+M to open a curves adjustment layer.
- go to the lightness channel and create an S-Curve.
- Switch back to RGB and voila.

Let me know if you like the conversion.

nicki2414 · February 2, 2009

Thanks,
I will try that method tomorrow...

I used my 420ex and a gary fong light diffuser. Thats it!
Now I did use a really bright lamp that they had in their house directed right at the wall I was using as a backdrop to try to eliminate the look of a wall. Other than that I put a sheet on the floor and let him play.

I will recrop that one too. Didn't even see that before, but your right.

First studio shoot!!!

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