My favourite subject to shoot

[djnine21]

Hi folks! This is my first attempt at posting photos here... critique welcome, but go easy on me, eh?

I could take a million photos of this little guy. Come to think of it, since I got my D90 in January, I probably have!


Attachment 11151

Attachment 11152

This one was shot by the light of the tv - trying to shoot with available light and not wake the baby!
Attachment 11150


Just as a note: I'll probably pull the attachments after a few days - I'm still not sure how I feel about having pics of my son floating around... even cute ones!

[Bambi]

I love the idea behind all of these photos. I do have a question for you though- are you shooting in RAW or Jpeg? and what program do you use for processing?

The first one is neat with his name, I just wish it was sharper.
The second shows his happy personality!
And the last is my favourite- it shows trust and love.

[Iguanasan]

You are not posting in the critique section so people should be aware of that and so comments will be lighter in nature. That being said, we're pretty nice when we analyze them to death in the critique section so don't be afraid to give it a try.

I know you'll never tire taking pictures of this little guy and I'm sure that regardless of the technical issues you love 'em all and I can totally understand that. You are missing some technical stuff to make images like these even better but I can see great potential in these shots -- I think you have a good eye for making photographs. Stick with us and you'll be shooting 1000% better in no time.

[djnine21]

Hi Bambi,

I'm currently shooting in jpeg. I would really like to make the switch to RAW - I have a basic understanding of some of the advantages, but I haven't actually tried it yet. I use Photoshop for processing, but these three shots are straight off the camera.

The first one is neat with his name, I just wish it was sharper.

I agree, I was using the 50mm 1.8 wide open to try for a narrow dof that focused on the blocks in the foreground. Unfortunately, the A/F thought I wanted to focus on the baby, and I suck at handheld manual focus so I missed the sweet spot. Definitely something I want to work on!

[djnine21]

Thanks Iguanasan,

Your comments are greatly appreciated! If you've got the time to share them, I wouldn't mind having the technical aspects critiqued - although I understand in the future to post on the critique board for that

I'm kind of at that point where I really love photography as a hobby, and - like you mentioned - it's easy for me to get shots, as a mom, that I love. I am interested though to see if I can progress to the point where I can take consistently good images that OTHER moms would love. IF I can get to that point with my photography I wouldn't mind taking a real shot at it when I'm ready to return to work. My marketing education from a previous, pre-baby life might serve me well if I can create art worth charging for.

But for now I'm really just a mom with a DSLR looking to learn more - and I think I might be ready to delve into the technical stuff!

[Iguanasan]

Absolutely, I'm happy to help if I can. Well, let's take shot #1 for example. First off, this is a great staged shot. I suspect you could easily go back and try it again and that's what I'm going to suggest but with a few changes.

First, turn him around so that the light from the window (upper right) is coming in towards him rather than being behind him. In this shot it's distracting as a big white blob in the upper right corner when it could have been a wonderful light source to brighten up his face.

Now that you have more light to work with, increase the f-stop. I'm thinking you shot this around f4 or maybe you were in an automatic mode and the camera chose for you, in either case the depth of field has put the blocks in focus but his face is way out of focus. By increasing the f-stop to say f9 or f11 you may be able to get both him and the blocks in focus. It all depends on distance. If you have to choose, put his face in focus and let the blocks be a bit blurry. He's the subject, not the toys.

And last is the composition. Your composition is pretty good, however, it would have been better had his left arm not gotten cut off.

Oh, and one last thing. I'm not sure what software you are using to upload photos to the forum or how computer technical you are but shoot for an 800pixel wide image that is as close to 250KB (without going over) as you can get it. All of these shots are either being resized by the board software or you are exporting them with very low quality as they are in the 50KB range which is making them very soft.

[Marko]

Good critique Iggy and welcome djnine21!