Baby in a tub

[InskiP]

Here's a little cutie I photographed recently. As alway CC is welcome esp on conversion /exp/contrast, and whatever else you might see that I don't...thanks for looking.

[SweethomeAlabma]

what a little cuttie!!!

[MCB]

Yeah, a real cutie. Great shot. :)

[PEACHMAN]

Nice shot...the soft look with the monochrome really works well for the mood!

[photov]

Donna,

Great crop and eye contact. It's a wonderful photo and I really like the light tones of your conversion.

Kara

[dkenney]

You are still my hero! Awesome shot. The eyes are amazing. Natural light?

[fidelis]

Beautiful!

[In2Photos]

I love this shot. The conversion looks great and the lighting looks nice. My only small gripe is that the tub looks to be leaning to the right so I get the feeling that the baby is trying to jump out before it falls over/off.

[InskiP]

I love this shot. The conversion looks great and the lighting looks nice. My only small gripe is that the tub looks to be leaning to the right so I get the feeling that the baby is trying to jump out before it falls over/off.

I noticed that too, I had some padding under her just in case, which made it not quite level. I can straighten it out. These are natural light w/ a reflector. Here's one w/ her mama and another close-up. Serious little thing, but cute...Her big round eyes really dominate the pictures.

[dkenney]

OK for real, come shoot me and my daughter :) :) :) These are really beautiful.

[PEACHMAN]

Wow..that baby and mother shot is really something to behold...wonderful ,wonderful ,wonderful!!!

[kelvel]

:) I LOVE THEM!! :) :)

If you don't mind me asking....
Which lense did you use? and wich lense do you find you use more often in these types of shoots?
And do you shoot in studio or at their home?
This is great natural lighting...and again your framing is brilliant!
Thanks for posting, your work inspirers me....

[tfarias]

I would also like to know what kind of lense and reflector you use. I am not familiar with reflectors but since you said you shot this with natural light and a reflector I would like to learn more about it. I LOVE your photos. Your work inspires me also!!!

[tfarias]

I am assuming you use PS to edit???? If so, are you editing anything with the eyes??? Just beautiful!!!

[queenbee288]

Beautiful. I would like to know more about your conversion method. I love these soft tones but don't know how to achieve it.

[InskiP]

Thanks for all the compliments. To answer some questions:

I used the 50mm 1.8 for these because of the space issue-not enough room for the 85mm.

There was natural light to the right of the baby and a reflector on the left. I used a 36" stroboframe zebra reflector which is a mixture of white and gold. It sometimes makes the skin tones too warm even though it's not a full on gold reflector. With natural light I find I have to be careful not to blow out the side of the face closest to the light while having enough light on the shadow side. Can be challenging w/ a mobile subject. i will sometimes use the shadow/highlight option is CS2.

As far as the conversion, it depends, I will sometimes just duplicate the green channel, use a channel mixer layer, or action.I believe I used a channel mixer adjustment layer in these, and I generally use a higher percentage of the green channel. The reason for the soft tones is because there is not a lot of contrast in the images to begin with. The baby's eyes have the most contrast. I don't believe I did much PP, other than USM, on the eyes this baby because she has big beautiful blue eyes that are naturally dark rimmed. Here's a color shot to check out the eyes...and we got a smile out of her too...

[Maureen Souza]

Beautiful work, Donna. Love them all!

[MCStargirl]

These pictures are just SO beautiful!

[Saralonde]

I just found this thread. Beautiful pictures! I bet the mom is happy with them.

[KaplanMultimedia]

Wonderful work. Your style, especially on the bathtub picture, reminds me of the work of famous baby photographer Anne Geddes.