1st Basement Portrait Attempts - 17 Month Old

So these are my first portrait attempts of my 17 month old. My wife wanted to start taking our own pics with our camera since we have it. What we did was hung a piece of beige fabric of sort from a rod in our basement for our back drop. (Wife got it at JoAnn Fabrics I guess)

So any constructive criticism is welcome since we have no idea how to really take these types of shots.

These were all shot with my new 85mm prime. F/5.6, ISO 200, 1/125th, bounced flashed off ceiling & Bounce Card on ETTL (430 EX II) Thanks!

I am sure others have better CC for you but I know the one thing I found (I shoot the same way) was tighten the back drop so it's not wrinkled, it just gives it a much better look!

You might also pull your target farther away from the backdrop, and open your aperture up to decrease your DOF. Both of those things will blur the background a bit.

Thanks, ya we were worried about the wrinkles too. Good suggestion. Pulling him away from the background is also a good idea I didn't really think about.

The problem with bouncing directly up is that you don't get much (if any) light in the eyes.

You can get much better lighting by getting the flash off-camera and firing into a modifier such as an umbrella or softbox.

For now, experiment with bouncing off of walls to the side, behind you, etc...

I know what you're dealing with. I have just about the same situation as you. Check out these shots. Backdrop bought at a local fabric store. One light bounced off umbrella. It is hanging from a piece of PVC which is laying on some curtain rod hangers... Shot at f2.8 to blur the BG.

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Looks nice, maybe steam the fabric or tighten it to a board. I agree adding the distance between the background and the subject too! He is a darling little guy!

Great capture, one think i learned with muslin is do not fold, if you ball it up and then pull the subject away from the backdrop the it want show as bad and the lines will be gone.

Yes, either iron the fabric, or increase the distance to blur it... also, does the white balance seem a little off...? Cute kid, nice pics...

I don't have much to offer as I haven't done this myself. Nice work. It inspires me to try setting something up.

You can get cheap triggers on Amazon and such to move your flash off camera. Umbrellas and stands too.

What others have said. Straighten the backdrop and then put some distance between the subject and the drop to blur it more. That will improve these a ton.

The stool is distracting in the first one. It is not a part of the photo and that is the first place my eye went. Your little boy is also centered in all of them. There are times I will center a subject but there has to be a purposeful reason for it.

I am also confused about the markers. What were their purpose?

You were so brave to take on your first portrait project with a 17 month old as a model! I agree with what others have said about the b/g and with what egordon99 said about the lighting. But, you have a super cute little guy on your hands so keep working at it!
~Megan