Need help with a title! Roar?

[D Boone]

My wife took this of me and our 4 week old daughter who was clearly not happy being naked at the time. Its not what I wanted, but she was not co-operating as you can see. I liked the end result though. Let me know what you think. Getting quality art photos of her has been a real challenge. Also posting a pick I took a few minutes earlier, when she was just outta the bath and a little more calm.

[D Boone]

From a few minutes earlier..

[flyfishnj]

No milk

[Danny Boy]

Maybe she didn't like your tatoo. :)

[D Boone]

Well... maybe bad title to thread. I just couldn't think of anything to call it. I liked how she looked beside my tattoo and seemed to have the same facial expression.

[smittymike19]

Ok, my pictures are not perfect, not even close, but I am good at seeing things in other people’s pictures.. so here it is. I hope I dont sound mean, but I would probably say theses pics are not very good. In the first picture you need to get rid of the nipple with the hair coming from it. eesh. The second picture the lighting is pretty bad. There is no detail in her eyes. What you need to do is get her by a window during the daytime and use the sun (not direct sun) to light her face, you will be much more impressed with the results. She is beautiful btw. Sorry for the criticism, but hopefully it will help :)

[D Boone]

I can take it... I cropped it up, but for those of you who didn't see, it wasn't like the nipple was crawling with hair! I do think I like it better cropped like this. As far as the second picture, it was taken in the bathroom, after her first real bath. The lighting wasn't supposed to be good. If I had staged it, it wouldn't have been the same. I have put her into some staged shots, but so far haven't been happy with any of them.

[smittymike19]

hey i know exactly what you mean. i have been fiddling with getting soem good shots of my son,a nd it is tough. i read this book called how to photograph your baby, by nick kelsh. its an easy read but it will give you a whole new perspective on getting good shots. the main thing to do is get good lighting. its what the whole thing is about. take a look at all artsy pics, and you will see, the use of light is paramount to all other aspects. if you can get teh lighting down, you are halfway there. the absolute best light is indirect sunlight. here is what you need to do.

1. pick a time (during the day) when the baby, mom and dad are all well rested.
2. get near a nicely lit window.
3. Take a hundred pictures. literally, a hundred. snap away, its digital.
4. Get high, get low, zoom in, zoom in some more, take a shot with her entire face filling the whole screen. turn her to the side so the sunlight is hitting her in different ways.
i set up the area witha nice pure white featherbed we have, you can use a sheet to get rid of the background if you dont have one. Tke your 50/1.8 and set the aperture low (1.8) and take pics of your hands holding each other, gte pic of her feet only, but mainly, snap away. i guarantee that you will like at least 5 out of teh hundred. GUARANTEE it. the other 95 you can delete, or do what i do, keep everything .lol. give it a shot and let me know how you make out.

[smittymike19]

Ok, so the last time my nephew was over (near the age of your daughter) I decided to do all of the steps I just told you. I set it up just like I said, except I didn’t have sunlight that day as it was raining. So I got a lamp, with one of those reveal (ge) light bulbs (100W) and had my bro in law hold it above the baby’s head. I had planned on getting some good artsy shots (like the ones you want). Problem is after about 10 shots (just when I was ready to start) the baby got hungry and started crying hysterically. But I did manage a few decent shots, though I lost some detail in the post processing (in the eyes). But they still are much better than the crappy sears portraits my sis in law had done. I will be seeing them again this weekend and I just got my 50/1.8, so I am hoping for some cooler shots. But any way here is an example of what came out.

[D Boone]

[QUOTE=smittymike19]
1. pick a time (during the day) when the baby, mom and dad are all well rested.
[QUOTE]

Well, that'll never happen... At least not for a couple more months. As far as protraits go... I hate photographing people, but I am getting better, and I think I know my limitations. I havn't had time to set up anything yet, and its just starting to get warm enough to take her outside. I agreed with you on the first post (that was my wifes photo), but I like the second, even with the bad lighting. I haven't even touched the first thing in photoshop with that one, not even cropped, just resized, so I think I can work on it a little. As for your photos and mine, the lighting is just not harsh and contrasty enough for me. But thats just my taste. Thanks for the comments though, I didn't take any of them as coming accross as mean.

[smittymike19]

yeah like i said, i didnt have a chance to get the more artsy stuff done (i.e. contrasty light, etc..) after thsi weekend ill post soem more, so hopefully they will be more interesting. lol i know what you mean about the well rested thing. funny. i guess i should have said "as rested as can be".. :) try using the sunlight though, you can get pretty contrasty with it.

[Wavy C]

As far as the second picture, it was taken in the bathroom, after her first real bath. The lighting wasn't supposed to be good. If I had staged it, it wouldn't have been the same.

I really like that second picture (the colour one). OK, you could argue that the lighting isn't the best, there are big shadows etc etc, but the really important thing is that it captures a special moment in time.

I'd keep this one, I bet the kid will like it when they grow up.