First attempt at portrait of my babygirl - Feedback appreciated!

[sheye]

Hi to all
I bought my first dslr camera yesterday, a Canon 300d and am very excited about the idea of learning photography and hopefully taking some great pics of my three young children. I took this candid shot of Ava today and would love some feedback. Many thanks to Toddb for sharing the b&w technique used here.
Sheye

[poke]

You could get lost in those eyes...

[toddb]

I really think photographers with cute kids have a real leg up. The motivation is unreal. I like it. That's a pretty good start for just getting your dslr yesterday!

Let me tell you the things that I stumbled upon about a year after I got my camera and wish I knew on day one. The first is that DOF gets narrower the closer you get to your subject (also factoring focal length and all that jazz, try running some DOF calculators on the web to see what I mean). When you shooting kids you move around allot and tend to get in close. This especially is a concern in low lighting and flash. When you use flash, onboard or one of the Canon's flash guns like the 550EX, and you use "P" or one of the auto modes, notice that it's always has a pretty wide open aperture. My first year I got allot of soft photos just because of a couple things. One I don't have L glass and allot of the normal lens are not as sharp wide open and two, DOF is very important when you get up close, breathing could cause you to miss the shot. Check out this post:

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

Seems like I've been seeing F8 is more the sweet spot on allot of lens but it's hard to get light indoors for that unless you have an external flash. Oh ya, and the $75 50mm F1.8 is great for portraits and is one of the sharper lens. Though I tend to use my 28-135IS more just because when I'm inside I need the flexibility of the zoom because I can't get back far enough sometimes (50mm x 1.6 = 80mm).

I don't mean this shot has that problem, in fact it looks really good the way you have it, I'm just saying too look out for that problem. It's easier to blur the background if need in PS then try to recover sharpness in my opinion.

[toddb]

Hey Poke, your not on the Canopus forum are you...that avatar looks real familiar, lol.

[LAWSON McCULLOCH]

What fabulous eyes, lovely shot.

[sheye]

Thanks a lot for the nice feedback and great advice there...While I at least recognise all of the terms used in your post toddb, I have a way to go before it makes perfect sense! If only you could transplant what you learnt in a year into my very green mind! I will use the dof calculator and try and get a grasp of it. BTW, I actually ordered the 50mm 1.8 lens yesterday!! I had been told it was worth getting and what a bargain! (We actually pay $175 here in Australia but still a great price). I think this image was a little sharper before I played around with it in ps. I ended up adding the diffuse glow filter and it softened it...Am I best not to do that?
S

[MilesG]

well done, this is a good portrait picture, and i have to agree with poke " you could get lost in those eyes"

well done

[poke]

Todd, not from Canopus. I just found that pic on a site for downloading msn avatars... and it truely depicts the inner child in me :D

[Jyoti]

That's a first attempt? I've seen a lot worse baby pics from alleged pros!

Good work! :D

[schmoelzel]

Hello from Canada:

I know you will enjoy your new camera! I have had my DRebel since May 2004 and I have taken almost 10 000 pics of my 9 month old daughter Julia!! A little extreme but it is great fun and I can practice all the different techniques that you read about from the pros.........the 50f1.8 is a good starting lens but it is slow to focus and for a close-up like you have displayed, the DOF is narrow. This means that you might only get one eye in focus!!! But you can stop it down (higher F #) and increase your DOF. I highly recommend the 135F2 lens; while expensive, it does a great job....I don't think there is a sharper lens. When taking portraits of your daughter, try and set the focus point at the eyes. I sometimes try and get the eyes on the same focal plane but this takes practice. Here is a shot of my daughter Julia taken just a few hours ago........notice how the eyes are in focus and it draws the eye into the photo.

oh yeah.......install the 'hack' to you DRebel!! It has a few bonuses that help a lot with portraiture shooting!


Shutter speed: 1/100 sec
Aperture: 8.0
Exposure mode: Manual
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Center-weighted average
Drive mode: Single frame shooting
ISO: 100
Lens: 135.0 mm
Focal length: 135.0mm
Subject distance: 1.87 m
AF mode: One-shot AF

Notice how I stopped down the lens to F8........more of the subject will be in focus but you better have a fast lens. This was hand-held..........and it was the only 'good' shot in a series of about 25!!! Good luck with the camera and enjoy your beautiful daughter and the many pictures you will have of her!!



http://theteahaus.netfirms.com/Canon/nfpicturepro/albums/userpics/10001/Julia135F.jpg

[sheye]

What an absolutely gorgeous photo of a gorgeous baby!! I want to move to Canada just to be able to dress Ava like that!! Thankyou so much for your helpful hints...I will no doubt move on to better (and more expensive!) lenses once I have a better understanding - right now it's all still quite overwhelming. Also, I'm not sure what the "hack" is...please excuse my ignorance..
S

[sheye]

Also, where can I find the information about the photo - ie the settings like you have put above? I seem to remember I had the shutter speed as 1/50th and the aperture as 5.0 but I'd like to check for sure...
S

[schmoelzel]

Hello again!!

Thanks for the compliment! We are enjoying our Canadian winter right now......I guess you folks in Australia are in the middle of summer!! Just put a hat on Ava and I am sure she will look cute!! I didn't mean to sound like you should buy a more expensive lens!! The 50f1.8 will take some great pictures........you just have to be a little more diligent as far as focusing goes. I would also recommend an external flash unit for portraits.

As far as the hack is concerned.......check this link......

http://www.bahneman.com/liem/photos/tricks/digital-rebel-tricks.html

Lot's of good info that really works.

Happy Holidays!

[sheye]

Oh no, and I didn't mean to sound like I thought you meant I should buy a better lens...lololol !!
Thankyou for the link, I will check it out now!
S

[schmoelzel]

oops.....didn't see your follow-up question.........the info about the picture is called EXIF data........I use a program called BreezeBrowser to pick out the shots. This program has all of this info displayed with the photo on the screen. I think the Canon program (ZoomBrowser) will display this info as well......hope this helps!! Oh yes, make sure you use some USM in Photoshop on your pictures.........they come out of the camera fairly soft!

[sheye]

Oh no, and I didn't mean to sound like I thought you meant I should buy a better lens...lololol !!
Thankyou for the link, I will check it out now!
S