My New Baby

I suppose I should preface this by explaining that I'm nowhere near the skill level of everyone else here. I just enjoy taking snapshots and like to "practice" so that my family photo albums are no longer filled with blurry photos, subjects with their heads cut off, or worse yet, my finger in nearly every photo

With that being said, here are some pictures of the newest addition to my family- my little guy, Grayson. Any quick tips for the total novice are completely welcomed!
*Edited to add*
Please excuse the enormous bugger in photos 1 & 2.... didn't notice that until I previewed this post! (how embarrassing)

1.

Absolutely adorable!

we all have to start somewhere...I'm doing the same thing. Practice makes perfect!

These look pretty good! I really like 1,2 and 7.I also really like your DOF in the first 2, I'm assuming those were with your 50 1.8. Did you shoot these in Raw? It looks like your white balance is off which is an easy fix if you have photoshop or lightroom... Otherwise the only tips or tricks I can give you are to just watch your focus (some are soft around the eyes) and watch your cropping of hands and feet. Keep shooting and sharing!

Very cute pictures! Some of them look a bit underexposed though, so I'd brighten them up a bit in post-processing. (Not sure what software you've got but the trial of Lightroom Beta 3 is free to download and use until they release it officially, at the end of April.)

If you're just starting out, I'd recommend flat(ish) lighting from a window. On these photos it looks like the light was behind baby and you were facing the light with your camera - if you do it the other way around, so that baby is facing the light source (window) then your exposure will be spot-on; baby's face will be well-lit and the light will be even, without any shadows around the eye sockets.

Hope you don't mind, I had a quick play with the top one - I used Lightroom (Beta 3) to brighten it up and ran one of my (free) Photoshop actions - Whipped Cream - on it. Quality might not be great though as I grabbed the low res image from your message ; )

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Other than being a bit dark, they are good. Put your baby in front of a big window (when they are sleeping so you have time to shoot a lot) and practice taking photos with different settings.

I goofed around with a couple of the shots....

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One more (my fave)

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That last one was classic!

Congratulations, my wife and I just had a baby girl just over a week ago and it has been an amazing experience...

-Mario

Thank-you!

Very true.... obviously LOL!

I have Photoshop 7, but very little know-how with using it really.
Yup you're right- light source (the window) was behind baby
Thanks for playing with the photo- I LOVE LOVE LOVE the way it turned out!

Yes, 50mm 1.8 Lens
No, I shot them in jpeg <blushing>
I actually have no idea about lighting (obviously) and only have the flash the camera came with- no fancy extras. When I had the flash on it was WAYYYY overexposed, but I don't know enough to shoot out of "Automatic Settings" mode so I just set up my own "lighting" and turned the flash off Horrible, I know LOL

Thanks so much! The ones you goofed around with look much better than my originals! And thanks for the tip with the lighting/window!

Very awesome! Thankyou so much!

Thanks! I'm sure it's a pose that's been done 1000s of times before, but I hadn't personally seen it before, so unlike all the other shots, it was one I tried to be a little more "creative" with in my own way.
CONGRATULATIONS to you on your new baby girl! (I think I just saw her pictures posted by you, yes?) Is this your first? They honestly grow so fast... I know it's over said and sounds cliche' but it's true- enjoy every moment! And of course, you can never take too many pictures!

I think you did a great job! You will be surprised by how much you learn by just taking photos and editing them and looking at them! Thanks for sharing with us!

Welcome... Your baby is beautiful! thanks for sharing...

My advice... turn off the flash.. and learn to use the window light as it comes through... you'll be much happier with your photos.

Don't be afraid to shoot in RAW as you have more control to adjust white balance and exposure after the shot.. especially while you are learning...

Start reading and try to learn to shoot all manual.. having that control over your exposure is huge... Great read.... Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson.. highly recommend it.

Keep shooting and posting.. obviously you are creative... that's the hard part... the technical crap is simply a learning process.... creativity... that inside of you.. so you're already one up on some of us.

Happy Day!

Congratulations on your very beautiful baby. Take more pictures of him, they'll become more precious as he grows up.

SadieSue wrote in post #9685004
Thanks! I'm sure it's a pose that's been done 1000s of times before, but I hadn't personally seen it before, so unlike all the other shots, it was one I tried to be a little more "creative" with in my own way.
CONGRATULATIONS to you on your new baby girl! (I think I just saw her pictures posted by you, yes?) Is this your first? They honestly grow so fast... I know it's over said and sounds cliche' but it's true- enjoy every moment! And of course, you can never take too many pictures!

Yup, our first.

Yes you probably saw the pic's I posted yesterday.

Congrat's again...

-Mario

Thanks for the advice- I did like you and a couple others mentioned and tried using the window light again from various angles just this afternoon- still have to get used to that a bit- but my photos definitely weren't as dark as these- so it's progress at least I think LOL!

Put that 50mm lens on, open it way up, step back a little and shoot away. Be sure you are steady and get the focus point on the eyes. Then post your results