ISO advice for baby pictures!

So heres the story, my neighbor visited me today with his 7 month old son today.

It's the first time i've seen him (yes i know, i'm a bad neighbor.. been really busy with work and other stuff).

We've talked for awhile and i offered to take some pictures of their newborn and them with my camera. ( I wanted to practice too, perfect subject)


But here's the thing.. I just realized i don't know crap about portraiture :LOL: Wanted some advice from you guys, tips and positions etc.

I'll have to work with natural window lighting. I don't have access to any reflectors etc.. I don't have much gear.. all i have is the equipment listed in my sig (minus the Sigma 30 f/1.4 since it's going back to amazon for back focusing issues.) The only other light i have is a Speedlite 430 EX II with a omni bounce.

Any tips is appreciated since i'll be meeting them at 9:30 tomorrow morning.

Thanks!

from my little experience with that age, i say get down and eye level with him and shoot with whatever iso you need.
don't be afraid of higher iso's on that 50d.
also, if you need the flash - i use the flash mounted on top of the camera all the time, turning it to bounce off walls/ceilings with good success for little ones..

also, get him close to a window and keep the flash in the bag:

Thanks BigArchi. The only place i can bounce off of is just the ceiling. They painted the whole house :[except for the ceiling.

So

-Shoot at eye level.
-Use as much natural light as possible (keep him close to windows)

ISO more tips

djmoonlight wrote in post #9842784
And you did a very nice shot..

thanks, that's with the ol' 17-55 wide open and i think i needed iso 800 for that exposure, 2 feet from a window. further in from the window and i'm fine pushing the iso up to even 3200 for these types of shots to keep decent shutter speeds (kids move)

i gotta get some primes

Haha, from your OCN thread to this one, I only now realize that you mean "in search of" when you have ISO in the title. I thought you were asking for advice about what ISO camera sensitivity to use

oh that makes so much more sense, i didn't exactly know what "ISO more tips please" meant! ha

Haha maybe i should clarify my post better. I do mean "in search of" Lol..

Anyway, Thanks for the advice peoples.. I have to say i'm quite satisfied with today's results. They're obviously not "pro".. well because i'm not. But i do like the outcome.

No post processing at all


(1)

nice job! i particular like the 3rd and 4th and the last one too. and i'm sure his dad is super happy you were able to shoot these for him!

i often had problems with photobucket compressing photos even more than just exporting out of LR as well..

Thanks man! I hope he likes them. I've ordered a 11x14 print of the 4th pic from mpix to give them as a gift. Droping that off along with the digital copies for them on Saturday.

I'm late to the party here, but one thought:

Jdmhood wrote in post #9841732
I don't have access to any reflectors etc..

Where I live (SoCal) everybody has those window shades for their cars. They make great cheap reflectors: they fold up small and are usually a neutral silver color.

Another option is the local art/craft/hobby store; they have big foam boards (like 3 feet by 4 feet) intended for mounting things, or cutting up for projects. They cost maybe $6-10 each. They're clumsy as all get-out to haul around, but they work well as large reflectors. I have a couple of white ones, plus a black one that can be used to block light when you need to create shadows outdoors. (If you have an assistant and not a lot of wind!)

how did you get the background so blurry?

Binga wrote in post #9888006
how did you get the background so blurry?

I shot those images at ƒ2 and ƒ2.8 most of the time to throw the bg out of focus.