Opinion Wanted On Spring/Easter Set

Bryce Wilson · January 29, 2012

I know most of you aren't big into children's photography, but your two cents is welcomed just the same.

Every year I see people standing in line at various places waiting to have their children photographed (poorly) sitting on a guy in a rabbit suit. I thought to myself, self, why not try and capture some of that market with something nicer.

After a couple of hours and a 100.00 at Michael's, here is what I came up with. You'll have to imagine a child in the place of the teddy bear. This was done for testing purposes to get the high key lighting diagram down pat for this.

Thanks for any input.

BrettDeutsch · January 30, 2012

Nice concept. In practice, I think it'll be very hard to pull off. Even a newborn is going to cause havoc to this set unless it's very securely glued down. And once the baby gets to be even a month old and can start rolling over easily, I think it's going to be hard to keep the baby securely in the basket (and once the baby is old enough to sit up, he or she is going to destroy your set in no time).

Cowboydoug · January 31, 2012

Bryce... what's the distance between your subjects here and the background? Love the Hi-key... it's great with the kids... and there is a lot of quick easy things you can do with it... even with crazy kids... get yourself a little wooden footstool- if you don't already have one and paint that sucker white too... or maybe go with a lighter pastel look with it... Another idea i used to use was to put items further back behind the subjects still have things in the foreground...
Your lighting looks good to me here... but would you tell me what you have going as far as your lighting set-up... not the kind of lights or power but more of placement.
Have you put a kid into this setting yet? or have you done other Hi-key? and lastly... what is your floor & background made-up of? The reason I ask is... this look more like table-top than on the studio floor ... just curious...

Bryce Wilson · January 31, 2012

Hi Brett and Doug...

Gonna find out if this is practical or not tonight. Doing a test shoot with a one year old. I'm pretty used to dealing with small children and "sets" and will see if this one is more of a challenge than normal.

Doug...

This is shot on a white vinyl roll. (be warned, if you order one of these from the Background Outlet, you are going to get just a plain sheet of vinyl, you will have to attach it to something to make it useful.) It is indeed on the floor. Subject spot is about five and a half feet from the background. Lighting is a four light set up. One large softbox as a main subject right, large umbrella as a fill subject left and one silver umbrella on each side of the background behind the subject spot (two in total) throwing light onto the backdrop.

Bilsen · January 31, 2012

Bryce, I think the lighting on the subject(s) is spot on but I wonder if a bit flat. The concept is really strong although, as pointed out before, I wonder how you'll control the kid.

Of course, knowing my indoor limitations, you should have a whole box of salt for my comments.

Cowboydoug · January 31, 2012

I am anxious to see your shots... I always have more distance from my background... it's a nice looking set... show us your magic...

VayCayMom · January 31, 2012

waiting to see how it goes !

Bryce Wilson · January 31, 2012

JohnGalt_ny wrote: »

Bryce, I think the lighting on the subject(s) is spot on but I wonder if a bit flat. The concept is really strong although, as pointed out before, I wonder how you'll control the kid.

Of course, knowing my indoor limitations, you should have a whole box of salt for my comments.

I do mostly kids. It's the art of misdirection in many cases. Yeah, the flat lighting on the subject is a bit of a tradeoff when you want the foreground and sides to be bright white. I'm gonna play with it a bit and see if I can come up with a different diagram to add a bit more shape to the subject.

Cowboydoug wrote: »

I am anxious to see your shots... I always have more distance from my background... it's a nice looking set... show us your magic...

Oh how I wish I had more distance to work with. The room I'm using is 13 x 12. Five and a half feet was the most I could get.

VayCayMom wrote: »

waiting to see how it goes !

See next post.

Bryce Wilson · January 31, 2012

Well, the first test shoot with a live subject is in the bag and I've learned a few things.

1. SB 800's for the backdrop light just ain't gonna cut it. The five second recycle time is just too long to wait when doing baby's. I'm used to the 1 sec I get out of my Novatrons. I missed some great expressions because of this.

2. At least with this child, the set issue wasn't any different than normal. Get them focused on something that interests them and I had about 30 seconds or so of shoot time before she started exploring the "set:. That's about normal. When she began "exploring" I just introduced something new to re capture her interest. Unfortunately again, I lost quite a few shots because of the recycle time.

Here is one of the shots in the "set". I have several cute smiles, but this expression just does something for me.

Baby Spring And Easter Scene by Bryce Wilson, on Flickr

For the heck of it, being as I had that roll of vinyl up, figured I'd try a few other high key shots. Here is one with mom. i Title this, "I Wonder What It's Going To Be?"

I Wonder What It's Going To Be? by Bryce Wilson, on Flickr

BrettDeutsch · February 1, 2012

Links aren't working. I'm eager to see.

Bryce Wilson · February 1, 2012

BrettDeutsch wrote: »

Links aren't working. I'm eager to see.

Not sure why that happened....Should work now..

Cowboydoug · February 2, 2012

Really love the shot of the kiddo... love your set... you should be up to your elbows in busy with kids...
Years ago, right after I got out of the Navy I set a studio up for a gal & we started shooting kids... People went nuttso over our high-key... I sure miss shooting in a studio...

Opinion Wanted On Spring/Easter Set

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