Ask me what you want.

[mosi2]

Thanks Siona,
These are the images before i bump up the contrast and brightness,

_MG_1747 by akusumajaya82, on Flickr


_MG_1724 by akusumajaya82, on Flickr

really, thankyou for helping me, appreciate it a lot.

[mercersmoments]

I really like these images in black & white, they are so meaningful and sweet, black and white always gives a nice mood to photographs like these. He's a very lovely baby too !

In photo shop I used a black and white layer to de saturate the images.
I then used the burn tool to darken the haze from the sun
I used a levels layer to darken the blacks & lighten the whites
Adjusted the brightness and contrast slightly.


I hope this helps you

[mosi2]

Wow..you did a little thing, but resulting in very different mood. I love it. I think i'm gonna present it B/W just like you did. It feels more "touching" than the colours, and you right about the haze, it much better without it. Ow and thankyou very much for today lessons, hope I'll shoot this baby again soon. I'll try to make better. Yes, he's lovely baby, not even a single cry when we do all the photo things, and he's very small baby, only 2.05 kg.

[mercersmoments]

Yes, less is more when it comes to editing ! I think the mother will love these images !

[delmama]

I love those in BW as well!

[delmama]

Hi Seona,
I have been practicing with different settings on my camera and I liked this photo of my daughter, nothing fancy just playing around in my room. I think there is too much light, perhaps lowering the ISO would of helped, it was at 400. I see some color casting on her face too, I am not sure how that happened...
CC welcome
ps: she has halloween stamps all over her arms too!

[mercersmoments]

delmama

What a gorgeous girl !!! Sweet shot too, it looks like she will pose for you - so make the most of it and practice on her !!!!

It looks like you have had plenty of light here, which is good. I think the photo is a bit over exposed & there's also a shutter speed problem.

It looks like you have exposed a bit too far to the right of the meter, which is why it's so bright - this can be fixed in PS.

There appears to be a small amount of shake, see how the image isn't crystal clear ? - it's not a focus issue, as the photo isn't soft, so it's a shutter issue.

Can you please post the exif data for this shot ?

Without being in the room this was taken in, I'll have a guess & give you some settings to use.

There seems to be alot of natural light coming in from the window.

So try:

ISO 200
f/2.8
1/200th

you may need to tweak these settings a little, try to keep the shutter speed as high as you can - still keeping the meter either in the middle or half a stop to the right.

I try to keep my shutter above 1/160 when using natural light with kids - they move around too much !

Keeping your shutter speed high will help with any kind of movement from the child, or from your hands.

I find that after a while - holding a large heavy camera (especially the 5D2 with the 85 1.2L attached) that my hands/arms get tired and I shake !

let me know how you go using these settings and post another photo Oh and shoot RAW (if you're not allready )

[delmama]

Thank you!Here is the info. It was right in front of my french door in my bedroom, it gets pretty bright in my room, I always use it for photos
And yes, she will pose for me, when she feels like it haha. I do have a question, I tried upping the shutter speed to about 150 and my photo came out completely dark? why do I have this problem?

F-stop:10
Exposure time: 1/10 sec
ISO: 400
focal length: 50mm (using my 17-50 2.8)

I hope that helps, I will attempt some shots again tomorrow!

And this is the SOOC shot, feel free to edit. I know the background is not the best, like I said she was randomly playing in my room and I was just practicing with some settings

[mercersmoments]

I'll edit this for you, it's not as over exposed in the SOOC shot so thats good.

1/10 - thats very slow. Also f/10 is too narrow - so you will get dark shots using this if you set it to 1/200

f/10 is great for outside group shots or landscapes, but I find that you need to up your ISO depending on how much light you have.

I use f/10 with flash for group shots insdie at a wedding reception etc.

You can photograph her using 2.8 on that lens, or even 3.2

[mercersmoments]

Ok, so I desaturated it using a black and white layer. I burnt in her face just slightly. Used a levels layer to up the blacks. Used the coffee shop baby action, smoothed her skin at 10 opacity & used eye define at 12 opacity.
Dodged her hair a little to bring out highlights.

[daniboo]

Howdy! I'm new to this site, and new to Digital Photography! I did 35mm B&W back in the day, and recently bought a Canon T2i! I'm using my 9 month old, Caden, as my subject! He's great in front of the camera! Here are a few of my first shots with him.... Can you give me some suggestions? These have not gone through PP. I'm in the market for a program, and not sure what to get. I like an organic feel to my shots, so I wouldn't want to go nutso in PP.

I'm currently using AV mode right now..... It'll be a while before I feel comfortable with M....









Thanks so much!

[delmama]

Originally Posted by mercersmoments

Ok, so I desaturated it using a black and white layer. I burnt in her face just slightly. Used a levels layer to up the blacks. Used the coffee shop baby action, smoothed her skin at 10 opacity & used eye define at 12 opacity.
Dodged her hair a little to bring out highlights.

wow! your edits always look absolutely GREAT! THANK YOU for taking all your time to teach us all some great stuff, I would love to know how you desaturated the photo, just whenever you get a chance
you are so good at this, you need to do some workshops!

[mercersmoments]

Howdy! I'm new to this site, and new to Digital Photography! I did 35mm B&W back in the day, and recently bought a Canon T2i! I'm using my 9 month old, Caden, as my subject! He's great in front of the camera! Here are a few of my first shots with him.... Can you give me some suggestions? These have not gone through PP. I'm in the market for a program, and not sure what to get. I like an organic feel to my shots, so I wouldn't want to go nutso in PP.

I'm currently using AV mode right now..... It'll be a while before I feel comfortable with M....

Ahhaa ! What a cute little man you get to photograph !!!

That last one is just so cute ! Love it !

I am using photo shop CS4, I have just upgraded to CS5 - Though it's still waiting to be installed onto my computer - I must do that soon.

If you can get hold of CS3, CS4 or CS5 - you will be very happy

You can do very basic editing in photo shop, to keep a natural feel to your photos.

I have done a very quick edit for you, just to show what a few simple adjustments can do to enhance a photo

I did a curves adjustment to lighten the photo & I took some yellow out. I used a levels layer to add some blacks & and a brightness/contrast adjustment too.

wow! your edits always look absolutely GREAT! THANK YOU for taking all your time to teach us all some great stuff, I would love to know how you desaturated the photo, just whenever you get a chance
you are so good at this, you need to do some workshops!

I usually do my de saturating ACR with a RAW file, but this time I did the following :


Layer - new adjustment layer - black and white

Play round with the sliders and adjust to taste then click layer - flatten image.

Have a play and see how you go

[daniboo]

Originally Posted by mercersmoments

Ahhaa ! What a cute little man you get to photograph !!!

That last one is just so cute ! Love it !

I am using photo shop CS4, I have just upgraded to CS5 - Though it's still waiting to be installed onto my computer - I must do that soon.

If you can get hold of CS3, CS4 or CS5 - you will be very happy

You can do very basic editing in photo shop, to keep a natural feel to your photos.

I have done a very quick edit for you, just to show what a few simple adjustments can do to enhance a photo

I did a curves adjustment to lighten the photo & I took some yellow out. I used a levels layer to add some blacks & and a brightness/contrast adjustment too.







I usually do my de saturating ACR with a RAW file, but this time I did the following :


Layer - new adjustment layer - black and white

Play round with the sliders and adjust to taste then click layer - flatten image.

Have a play and see how you go

Thank you so much for your help! I really love the editing you did on the photo! On the whole, how did you feel about the set? What can I do to improve?

[travln1]

First post!

May I ask what your "go to" lens is? Which do you prefer? If you could only have one lens, what would it be?

And secondly, in the shot of your daughter taking a photo of her doll...is this typically the distance you would sit at when photographing? Which lens would you use in this scenario?

Thank you so much for being so generous!