3-Year Old Portrait Advice (3 photos, each<80KB))

[TSORoanoke]

I was lucky enough to have a short photo shoot with my 3-year-old daughter today and would like some suggestions for improvement. Understand that I'm not a pro, but I am trying to get better as I go along. All shot with D60, 70-200L, 420EX flash bounced against ceiling, RAW mode. Any help you could provide would be much appreciated.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v423/TSORoanoke/Canon%20Photography%20Forum/CRW_7055.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v423/TSORoanoke/Canon%20Photography%20Forum/CRW_7043.jpg
This one is, of course, heavily cropped, changed to greyscale, and gaussian blur. Opinions on the blur effect? I didn't get the eyes sharp, so I blurred the entire image.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v423/TSORoanoke/Canon%20Photography%20Forum/CRW_7041.jpg

[JX]

They are nice portraits. Try and sharphen the eyes in photoshop. I was able to bring them out a little.

[TSORoanoke]

Thanks JX. Getting and keeping the eyes in focus has been a constant problem for me - with kids or dogs (the two that I try the most with). I'll try a little PS to see if I can improve upon the originals that way.

[sameerb]

Second Portrait is great
what i like :
1.Candid smile :D
2.Good posture

you can corp image from right side (there is some empty space)

[chrishoggy]

If eyes are your problem, just ust lasso tool in photoshop and draw round them and run sharpen filter. Done it on eyes n mouth on this pic

[c0ntr0lz]

well the only probably i see that everything is really really bright.
if you take thses again, have her dress in darker clothes on the white backdrop or get a black/dark backdrop and i think the pix will turn out not so bright.
looks like you have no trouble getting her to pose.
keep up the good work

[shawnee_rebel]

I know one thing........that little girl is a born model.........mark my words,,,at 3 years old,,,she's already got her own sparkle! :)

[MilesG]

i ove all of them but i feel the 3rd is a let down it seems to be a bit shaky?

[toddb]

Ah, cute kid. I'm on the same quest you are to get better pictures of my kids. They grow up so fast. My oldest is almost 3 years old. Check out a couple of these other forum posts that I participated in that might help you out. I recently got one studio light that made a big difference. The first link might help you out in the soft eyes. Once I stopped using "P" mode and went to full manual and stopped down I started getting way sharper images but you have a better lens then me but you probably still in shallow DOF if you are shooting wide open with your lens and that's what it does when you shoot auto with the flash unfortunately.

Stopping down (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=38424)

My new studio light (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=51658)

For black and white, give this one a try. Tutorial included. (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=51231)

One other suggestion is to make the photo more contrasty by not using color in her clothing to be to similar to the background. When converting to black and white it will pop much easier if you have this contrast to begin with.

[TSORoanoke]

Thank you all for your help and comments! Toddb you certainly have the DOF & Eyes issue handled. I'll try your advice! The links to the other threads you shared were very helpful.

I have black & white backgrounds currently and will try those with some different outfits to see what looks best. Great advice on that one too.

I learn a little something new every time I'm on here.

Thanks again!