Precious Newborn... it's been a while.

[Kristy]

Hi there, I haven't posted many photos lately, but here is an
absolute angel from a recent shoot. She was barely 5 pounds... Teensy.

I'm still leaning my strobe and don't quite have it nailed yet, but it's getting
better.

CC always welcome, and be tough on me so I can learn.... :)

Happy Day!

[lmelendez]

I really like it.... !

and I gotta tell you, there are not many B/W pictures that I like... but that one, I think it is really good.

Leo.

[henry_b]

awsome shot! she is sooo small and so cute!

[Scarlett Nic]

That is just PRECIOUS!

[talat]

Excellent.

[Maureen Souza]

Ohhhh, so teeny, tiny and precious, Kristy. Nice shot.

[KaplanMultimedia]

"Be tough on me". You gotta be kidding. :rolleyes:

This picture is absolutely beautiful. The single, soft light source is perfect for this shot and the simple, black background draws your eye to exactly where it should be. It also makes the image perfect for B&W.

Very well done indeed! :D

[AlexisG]

I love it! What settings did you take it at?

[rrljk]

That is a terrific shot!!

[Titus213]

Beautiful image. I even like the B&W conversion. Precious child. There's not anything I can think of too improve on this one...

[Kristy]

I really like it.... !

and I gotta tell you, there are not many B/W pictures that I like... but that one, I think it is really good.

Leo.

Thanks Leo! I love this conversion.. has just a touch of a warm tone which isn't quite sepia, but sure brings out a certain richness... :)

[Kristy]

THanks for the compliments Henry, Scarlet and Talat... I really loved this one quite a bit. It's nice of you to take a minute to comment. :)

[Kristy]

Ohhhh, so teeny, tiny and precious, Kristy. Nice shot.

Thanks Maureen! Absolutely precious... my favorite kind of subject (as you may know). I've been so behind on everything lately that I was just itching to share a sweet baby with you. I appreciate your comments. :)

[Kristy]

"Be tough on me". You gotta be kidding. :rolleyes:

This picture is absolutely beautiful. The single, soft light source is perfect for this shot and the simple, black background draws your eye to exactly where it should be. It also makes the image perfect for B&W.

Very well done indeed! :D

OH gosh, thanks for this.... I have sooo been struggling with using a strobe. Natural light is so much easier to "see". The strobe makes shadows and the reflector bounce back continues to be a mystery.....

I so need to hear this positive feedback as I see dark shadows behind her head, and I'm just not sure if that's okay or not....

THank you! :)

[Kristy]

I love it! What settings did you take it at?

Honestly, I can't remember and I don't have that EXIF software that tells me... (sorry)... Does photoshop tell you somewhere?

Anyway, I'm guessing that with the strobe I had aperature set somewhere around f/11 and shutter would have been 160 - 250. Light was to camera left, unless I moved them around more than I can remember, and I set the strobe to about 1/4 power... I'm so afraid of blowing out highlights...

Thanks for the nice comments :) I always love to hear it.

[Kristy]

Beautiful image. I even like the B&W conversion. Precious child. There's not anything I can think of too improve on this one...


Yes Dave, Simply precious.. Life doesn't get any sweeter than a newborn baby.... Thank you so much. I am flattered that everyone likes it so much!

Are you not usually a fan of B&W? Honestly I like to see babies in their pink skin most often, but sometimes it just screams for a nice B&W conversion.

RRLJK, thanks for commenting. If you hang around the forum a while, you'll find that newborns are where my passion lies... I love so many things but tiny sweet babies just simply take my breath away. :) If only we could capture their sweet smell....

This was taken at just 9-days old....so sweet. Surely someone has a little improvemet that could be made????

[mycelestialdream]

I Love your picture. I tried acheiving the same look and it was difficult for me. How do you get your background so black? I made the mistake of using 2 lights during my shoot! Too bright in my opinion. I'll post my unedited pic of how my background came out! Mind sharing your technique?

[Grain]

This is exactly the kind of inspirational shot I have been looking for. Thanks. I love it.

[kpiela]

Kristy, beautiful as always! Btw, I like your new avatar... looks like a tutu on the little one! :)

[Kristy]

Thank you Christine, Celestial and Grain. I'm still learng how to use the lighting, but who can resist a sweet baby.

For the backdrop, I had the baby about 4 or 5 feet forward and the softbox was really close to the baby.... When it turns out too bright, I just fix it in PS, but using the burn tool... Use a large soft brush and put the opacity around 18 and burn down the shadows a bit more... works like a charm and it's an easy fix. You can also choos an adjustment layer, selective color, black, and increase the blacks until it looks better. If you do this, you may want to mask out the baby, Sometimes it messes up their hair..

Here's a quick edit to show you... I bumped up brightness and contrast, burned down the backdrop, and added a color adjustment layer to give the warm tone that I love. :)

Can you re-crop this so the baby's hand isn't cut off?? Just wondering.

[monter]

Beautiful Kristy! I think there is only one thing that distracts me (nothing about the technique). her right elbow. It looks out of place to me. I think I would have liked to see either the whole arm or none. And yes I know I'm being picky, but you wanted to know if there was anything that could be inproved. :) And that's only a MINOR point!

[Kristy]

Beautiful Kristy! I think there is only one thing that distracts me (nothing about the technique). her right elbow. It looks out of place to me. I think I would have liked to see either the whole arm or none. And yes I know I'm being picky, but you wanted to know if there was anything that could be inproved. :) And that's only a MINOR point!

Ah... thanks for this.. yes, I see what you are saying....

This is such a hard shot to get.... Babies never like this position. I think they feel like they are going to fall or something... I do love the way she curled towards the camera, but maybe if we could have gotten that hand towards her face it would have been better... :) Thanks for your honesty... I can only learn more through the eyes of another.

[damansidhu]

Absolutely fantastic shot Kristy :) Well done!!

[Kristy]

Absolutely fantastic shot Kristy :) Well done!!

Thank you so much! (Grinning from ear to ear). I love all this positive feedback.. works wonders for my ego. :)

[Radtech1]

Very nice shot.

Wonderful conversion.

You know, I am sensing a theme here - are you position yourself as a baby photographer? If not, you should think of it, as you really have a knack. If I remember correctly, aren't you the one that asked for help on how to do a baby announcement? Couldn't get the black of the announcement to match the black of the photo? How did that ever turn out?

Is this another baby to the same parents?

Either way, lovely shot.

Rad

[Familia]

aawww. what a beatuiful baby! makes me wish i had another....


ok not really. lol great shot.

[ninoe]

you want it tough, well here it goes, "THAT'S A NICE SHOT!"
is that the original background?

[Shutter22]

Tough? Hah!

TAKE MORE LIKE THIS!

This is fabulous.

[Jim G]

Top shot is fantastic, the pose is just right and the child just looks so precious...

[photojag]

I like this so much that I didnt even read the other comments.. I had to skip to here to let you know how sweet and innocent this is.. perfect, hands down

[TSEE]

Very nice. Love it. =o)

[Barb42]

What is so perfect, the light notwithstanding, is the fact that you so perfectly captured the sense of 'new born'. The infant looks as if she were still in the womb, the curled limbs, the arc of arm tucked in so tightly. Its an amazing image.

[ashleymcnamara]

Fantastic!

[Kristy]

Hi there... WOW! I return from vacation to find all these super nice comments about my photo. So good to hear... I doubt myself more often than not, and sometime wonder if I'm just kidding myself. You are soooo good for my little ego. :)

Thanks a bunch!

Rad, yes, I think I may have been the person who asked about the birth announcement. I have learned many tricks since then and my PS skills are getting better. It's been about 9 months.... so I still have a lot to learn but am enjoying every second of it. :)
For now I am doing work for pay, mostly newborns that are between 2 and 3 weeks old, and maternity photos. Loving it. I need to figure out what to do with an older baby because my newborns are wanting 3, 6, 9, and 12 month photos... Oh where to start!
I just find newborns to be so artistically fufilling...

Thanks again for the comments. You make me smile each time. :)

[Lord_Malone]

Simply amazing. Great work.