If your shutter speed is high enough, they look peaceful even if they're squirming

[TheHoff]

http://imgur.com/z9bJG.jpg

[Grimlock]

Beautiful shot, Hoff.

[D Thompson]

Lovely capture & conversion.

[pj30something]

Perfect.

[Tigerkn]

Nice photo!
Please help me to know how high is high enough.

[boubou]

Beautiful!!! Which light equipment did you use? Flash, strobe, umbrella??? I would like to built my first own studio, but I have no idea about the minimum light equipment you need to start with.

[vaguelyobscured]

Yes, really good shot! I would be interested to know what lighting you are using too.

[TheHoff]

Thanks for the good words, everyone!


Nice photo!
Please help me to know how high is high enough.

For kids around the house, the absolute minimum is 1/160th... and even then you need to shoot multiple frames because there will be blur. 1/250th or 1/320th is better.

For this one, though, it was 1/100th as that was all the light I had. (ISO 1600, 1DS2 w/ 16-35, 1/100 @ f/2.8 ). I pushed the exposure 2/3 stop in LR. I don't do NR as I added grain with a film filter (Alien Skin Exposure 2).


Beautiful!!! Which light equipment did you use? Flash, strobe, umbrella??? I would like to built my first own studio, but I have no idea about the minimum light equipment you need to start with.

Sorry to disappoint but this was a candid with window light. Here it is SOOC:

http://imgur.com/pEPLR.jpg

The bedside light is also on so there is an orange tungsten glow. You'll see the lighting is a bit flat here so I did some levels to brighten and then burning to bring down the back of my son's head to give it more depth. They're on the bed with dark blue sheets so it only took a few more burns to black it out. I may work on it again and try and preserve her hair at the top.

[boubou]

No disappointment... I had to take shots of a baby indoor, in a couple of days. And I don't have flash, except the built in flash. Do you have advices to help me to succeed?

[TheHoff]

No disappointment... I had to take shots of a baby indoor, in a couple of days. And I don't have flash, except the built in flash. Do you have advices to help me to succeed?

Sure. Definitely do not use the onboard flash. Flash would only be appropriate if you could turn it to bounce off of a wall or you could use it through an umbrella.

Use the window light if you have it. If you don't any good windows, you'll have to turn up the ISO, use room lighting, and assume that you will make them black/white.

[C-Shuler]

Love the pose!

[mjamesv]

I would like to shoot something like this. So serene.

[boubou]

Sure. Definitely do not use the onboard flash. Flash would only be appropriate if you could turn it to bounce off of a wall or you could use it through an umbrella.

Use the window light if you have it. If you don't any good windows, you'll have to turn up the ISO, use room lighting, and assume that you will make them black/white.

That's what I think to... but would it be so awful to add just a little built in flash if I set the flash exposure compensation to - 1 or even more. I'm afraid to set the ISO to high and add grain, or get blurry pictures because of the slow shutter speed.

[TheHoff]

That's what I think to... but would it be so awful to add just a little built in flash if I set the flash exposure compensation to - 1 or even more. I'm afraid to set the ISO to high and add grain, or get blurry pictures because of the slow shutter speed.

I would choose grain over on-camera flash, always. The only way I would use flash is if I could bounce it off of a white wall, ceiling, or full-size modifier like an umbrella. Otherwise it will just look harsh and flat.

I add grain to many of my photos so it isn't something I mind. No one looks at the photo at 100% on your monitor -- they see a web size JPG or a print -- and both look fine with grain or noise.