Decided to take some portraits of my little boy, and since his arrival we no longer have a spare room for me to set up any lighting. So I had to turn our bedroom upside down to get these shots.
Simple set up of soft box to camera life with reflector to the right. I've attached a setup shot below (excuse the mess) really is a pain getting the lights out of the loft and at times I can barely be bothered with the hassle and upheaval but when I see the results it makes it worth the effort.
Hope this helps inspire others who make the excuse of lack of equipment or space put them off trying to get good shots.
Lighting wise, looks like you did everything right to me. Feathering the flash so it wasn't aimed directly at your boy was a good choice, and I like the monochromatic effect between the skin, the clothes, and the backdrop. I guess my only major criticism is that I think using something that isn't textured as the background would have had a better effect in my opinion rather than the textured blanket. I personally think it disrupts the overall softness of the photo, and to me with baby photos I think the softer the better for shots like this. Just my opinions though, not to be taken too seriously.
1- Backdrop
Selecting a Back Drop is a subjective comment and not a tecnical one.
2- Lighting
The colour of the baby's beautiful big eyes should be the hero. The lighting should resolve that.
3- Lens and parallax
In general, babies head are larger than the torso. It is important to either use a perspective lens to correct or balance the head/torso by positioning the camera at low level and tilt the lens/camera upward.Shooting with a long lens is not possible due to space constraint and the cost of a PC lens might be too onerous.
The alternative in post is to "gently" correct the verticals with a judicious stretching.
4- My main concern is why crop the lovely baby hands?
I am sure you have such a picture showing his/her hands you can post.
Almass wrote:
Selecting a Back Drop is a subjective comment and not a tecnical one.
I don't see why you need to point out that my comment was subjective and not technical. You make subjective observations all the time in this forum. Why does it matter to you if my opinion is subjective when I already made that clear?
1- Backdrop
Selecting a Back Drop is a subjective comment and not a tecnical one.
2- Lighting
The colour of the baby's beautiful big eyes should be the hero. The lighting should resolve that.
3- Lens and parallax
In general, babies head are larger than the torso. It is important to either use a perspective lens to correct or balance the head/torso by positioning the camera at low level and tilt the lens/camera upward.Shooting with a long lens is not possible due to space constraint and the cost of a PC lens might be too onerous.
The alternative in post is to "gently" correct the verticals with a judicious stretching.
4- My main concern is why crop the lovely baby hands?
I am sure you have such a picture showing his/her hands you can post.
Thanks for the feedback. With regards to cropping the hands off I had to do a small crop to cut off mums hands show was holding my son as he’s too young to sit up unaided. Also I was really limited for space and I didn’t want to use a wider lens to minimise distortion.
DanielScott wrote:
Lighting wise, looks like you did everything right to me. Feathering the flash so it wasn't aimed directly at your boy was a good choice, and I like the monochromatic effect between the skin, the clothes, and the backdrop. I guess my only major criticism is that I think using something that isn't textured as the background would have had a better effect in my opinion rather than the textured blanket. I personally think it disrupts the overall softness of the photo, and to me with baby photos I think the softer the better for shots like this. Just my opinions though, not to be taken too seriously. ...Show more →
Hi Daniel, I had another go with a softer backdrop (see pics above) Think the results are pleasing
redmonkee wrote:
Hi Daniel, I had another go with a softer backdrop (see pics above) Think the results are pleasing
They look amazing! I think the softer backdrop really suits these photos. I really love the second one a lot! Maybe to improve it a little I might dodge the dark spot on the right side of the frame next to the corner of the pillow to lighten it, but otherwise it's really an excellent shot. That's definitely one to frame and put on the wall.
Phil, You got wonderful results with your giant octo-box, and reflector crammed into such tight quarters. Congratulations on your son, and these photos.
Jim
Totally agree on the backdrop. Good spot regarding the darker spot on the right hand side. May have to bring it into PS and sort that. Think next time i'll get a darker background and go for some BW portraits
James Markus wrote:
Phil, You got wonderful results with your giant octo-box, and reflector crammed into such tight quarters. Congratulations on your son, and these photos.
Jim
Thanks James. I think they've com out ok considering the limited space I have to work with. Just wish i could leave the setup and didn't have to turn the room upside down every time I want to experiment with the soft box
)
