First shots of my boys with my new toys

[plant_prof]

After doing film Nikon SLR back in the 80s and 90s and Nikon coolpix since 2002, I decided to jump into the DSLR game with the Canon Xsi. I'm interested in improving all areas of my photography, but family shots will be especially important. I just have the kit lens and 430EXII so far.

Here some shots taken last week about 4 days after the camera arrived. I'm also new to the digital photo sharing and posting. I hope this works after reading the tutorials on these forums.


http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww309/plant_prof/Braedencloseup.jpg

This shot of my older son is taken using the 430EXII bounced off the ceiling.

http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww309/plant_prof/Lodencloseup.jpg

This shot is of my younger son using the 430EXII directly. I like the sparkle in his eyes but he appears a bit overexposed. I did Av mode on the shot to get maximum bokeh but let the flash go on automatic. I still need to read the manual on how to do custom flash settings and compensation.

Any comments are appreciated.

[curious_sher]

Very cute kids and great shots but to me it looks like your white balance is off.

[shaftmaster]

I agree that the white balance looks off, especially in the first shot. The second shot looks like the focus is on the tip of his nose, but you should focus on the nearest eye (either one in this case).

The compositions need a little work too -- it's ok to crop a little off the top of the head but cropping off the chin looks odd. I think both shots would've probably looked better if they were shot vertically like a portrait instead of horizontally.

You might want to think about a cheap prime lens (50mm f/1.8 or 35mm f/2) for taking indoor shots of your kids. Your 430ex will be very useful for photographing kids indoors, but a nice sharp prime lens will help for natural light shots.

Hope that helps.

[polkad0t]

Very cute boys :D I agree with the others--the white balance is a bit off [thought that can be fixed easily with photoshop]... was tungsten on? I also have the Xsi and am wondering if you manually focused or auto? To me, the autofocus doesn't do too well for focusing eyes, so I just autofocus and then switch it to manual to get it exactly how I want.

[plant_prof]

Here's another attempt at shooting my younger one.

http://i730.photobucket.com/albums/ww309/plant_prof/Lodencurtain.jpg

I tried to focus on the eye nearest me and worked on improving my processing in DPP. The background is better, but the curtain didn't quite cover the whole background.

Any suggestions appreciated.

[shaftmaster]

This new shot is a huge improvement! If you have photoshop or some other editing software you should be able to "clone" the background and "heal" the scab on his forehead.

A couple things to work on:
1) the lighting looks like you bounced a flash off the ceiling, which is generally a good technique but in this case it looks like it bounced straight down and highlighted the hair, eyebrow ridges, nose, and upper part of the cheeks. This left the eyes in shadow without any catch-light. Basically the lighting is not very flattering. You might experiment with side-lighting by bouncing the flash from from other angles.

2) the composition is much better than before, but I'd work on taking some candid shots where the expression doesn't look like you asked him to "say cheese". The best part of photographing children is capturing all of their wonderful expressions. Some kids are much more expressive than others though.

Hope that helps!

[plant_prof]

Thanks for the feedback, Paul. I'll probably try using some white paper to side bounce.

I find that the candid shots are still troublesome because while I am fiddling with the settings they have moved on to something else. However, the technical aspects are getting better so it will just take more practice and I'll have the shot right.

[oldvultureface]

Adjusted the white balance in an old version of Elements. Also, for more pleasing flash photos, I use a variation of this:
http://abetterbouncecard.com/

http://i735.photobucket.com/albums/ww357/oldvultureface/Braedencloseup.jpg