Toddler (and guinea pig) studio shots

Looking for feedback on these. I'm using one 60" parabolic umbrella to the left. I don't have a lot of space to work with so that's an issue for me, but was wondering if I need to add additional lighting.

Please ignore my logo as I posted these on my social media sites and I prefer my logo there to protect the images.


Thanks.

Piggy.

IMO lighting on the Guinea pig looks good but is too flat on the little girl. She needs some soft shadows and a hair light.

rrblint wrote in post #18151546
IMO lighting on the Guinea pig looks good but is too flat on the little girl. She needs some soft shadows and a hair light.

Ok, I'll play around with the light placement and look into getting a hair light.

Thanks for the feedback.

I can't advise about lighting, it's too technical, except to agree with what Mark said. In pic #2, especially, the top of the girl's head (toward us) could use more light to get additional shine on the hair.

The color of the background, I think is unfavorable for the girl, though appropriate for Piggy. Hard to say exactly what's wrong; perhaps this color is too warm, making it close to a skin tone, and it's too similar to her jacket. These photos have an awful lot of brown.

Very cute subjects!

I agree with OhLook on the background. Wrong color for the girl. Also I forgot to mention that her mouth is dirty. I find this quite distracting. This is easily repaired in post with the eraser tool or clone tool.

I can't speak for the lighting- I learn from others here. I like that the girl is looking at us in the second shot. I'm trying to decide id the food around the mouth is distracting or character.

Even though you used an umbrella modifier and shot with the light source off camera, the light is flat and looks the same as if you had shot with a flash on camera. The lighting is coming directly from camera position and is eliminating the shadows. You need shadows to add depth to your image so your two dimensional image will appear three dimensional. IMHO, you don't need a hair light in your small space. Raising the light just a little will eliminate the need for it and improve the light's direction. You're lighting should mimic the sun and the sun is an overhead light source.

Some mentioned your wall color as being too close to the skin color of your daughter and an easy way to change that is to gel a flash and use it as a background light. This would allow you to vary the background color for very little cost, especially if you already have a flash that will work in slave mode. If you don't have another flash, any cheap 3rd party flash that works in slave mode would be suitable for this task.

Capn Jack wrote in post #18151667
I can't speak for the lighting- I learn from others here. I like that the girl is looking at us in the second shot. I'm trying to decide id the food around the mouth is distracting or character.

Depending on the objective of the photo, there may be nothing distracting about it at all. I often find unusual features to be fascinating.

It's actually a backdrop not a wall, so I can order a some different ones and try different colors.

Now that you mention it, I had the umbrella at its lowest point because I shot the guinea pig first and then my daughter, and I didn't think to put it up higher.


Here's a different pic from a previous session. I think I can see the difference when I positioned the umbrella for her height.

Also my daughter doesn't really pose for me and she moves around, so I also get different light fall on her depending on where she is.

I gave her a cookie for her participation.. in other shots she is eating it. Otherwise no photos from her

I thought about cleaning up her mouth but then decided against it.

The lighting in your last image is much better and the shadow gives it a sense of depth. Instead of buying more backgrounds, you may want to try gels. They are much cheaper than backgrounds and can give you many options.

I like the last image better. Interesting how the change in lighting changed the image. Nice catch-lights in her eyes too.

atsilverstein wrote in post #18151695
It's actually a backdrop not a wall, so I can order a some different ones and try different colors.

Now that you mention it, I had the umbrella at its lowest point because I shot the guinea pig first and then my daughter, and I didn't think to put it up higher.


Here's a different pic from a previous session. I think I can see the difference when I positioned the umbrella for her height.

Also my daughter doesn't really pose for me and she moves around, so I also get different light fall on her depending on where she is.

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forum: Critique Corner

Yes, this is much better. See how the soft shadows on her nose and left cheek make her look 3 dimensional? There's still room for improvement though.

My opinion is the last photo (post #10), the light is positioned slightly camera left vs. straight on and maybe just a little lower. The main thing is with it being slightly left you have caused a hint of shadows which show depth - which is wanted.

I couldn't tell a good guinea pig shot from a not so good one. The other commenters may be more experienced.

Gart