4 week old session

[Crissy7682]

This was my very first attempt at photographing a baby. He will be 4 weeks tomorrow. He is my friends son. All I had was a Canon G9. We ended up using a pillow on the floor with a blanket over it. The black background was done with PS. I also converted the B&W in PS

I am taking a 6 week photography class and my focus is babies so I am sure I will do more sessions with this little one. Any tips/suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc156/Crissy7682/IMG_2725.jpg

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc156/Crissy7682/IMG_2719.jpg

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc156/Crissy7682/IMG_2706.jpg

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc156/Crissy7682/IMG_2659.jpg

[heycow]

I think you have some good captures here, but you should look at tweaking the B&W. Right now it's really more gray which makes the baby's skin lose that "baby look". :)

For the first one, if you shift the baby to the left and fill in the right with black, it would make a good announcement card.

The last three all look like they could use a bit of an exposure boost and some curve adjustments (2 and 3 especially).

In all of them, you might also want to use the dodge tool in PS to lighten the baby's face a bit (if you have Lightroom it's a simple local adjustment with +10 or +20 brightness).

I think it's a great start with a tricky subject. If the G9 has a histogram display, you should enable it since you'll be using it a lot in your class (hopefully). You can take a doll, loaf of bread, etc and practice at home shooting with various lighting setups.

[Crissy7682]

Thanks, how should I convert to B&W? I just use "convert to B&W" under one of the tabs.

Here is another one
http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc156/Crissy7682/IMG_2659bw.jpg

[heycow]

Converting to B&W is one of my biggest problems. :) You can look online for some free plugins/scripts to convert to B&W, but the main thing is to tweak the channels, etc.

I'd pull them into a curves adjustment layer and see what happens when you bring the black point in. Try putting some custom S-curves and see what they look like.

Take a look at this link to see some tutorials on "Tonal range and the Curves tool": http://www.chromasia.com/tutorials/online/curves/

[Kellz625]

#2 is my fave, for some reason the angles in the other pics don't call out to me.

Do you have PS or lightroom? If you have PS, try pioneer woman's actions, I LOVE the B&W actions from that site, I use it a lot.

[Crissy7682]

I have PS Elements. I will check out those actions, thanks.

I will hopefully be going to do another session with the little guy Wed and his 2 sisters. They are adorable too and one loves the camera.

[Maureen Souza]

The last shot is my favorite but be careful not to cut off the feet. With a little PP, I smoothed out the red marks (from the diaper) and softened the skin. I also lightened it a little and added a smidge of sharpening.