Critique Baby shoot

[Mogsy]

I thought I would leap out of my relative comfort zone of landscape photography and have a dabble in more indoor / studio based work - Namely photographing babies and the good old 'fruit splash' shots (But that's for another thread... Maybe!)

Anyway here are a few I did of my partners friends baby. I did rather enjoy it in all honesty even though as I say, it is not what I am used to... Except for a few practice ones of my own daughter a couple of years back! But not sure if that counts.

**warning - There may be some selective colouring present in below images!!**

Thanks for looking

1.


2.



3.

 

[Major]

Good photos, but

* I think they would benefit from unobstructed face
* on #2 left foot look like it was cut off

I'd like to see colour versions too, I think it might be a bit more suitable for little babies. Of course these are just my own thoughts and nobody has to agree with them

 

[Livin The Dream]

I'll apologise if this may sound a little harsh Bill, but I think you're trying to be a little too creative here. Simplicity usually works best, most of the time.

The lighting in the first one is a little over whelming, it looks like the key is from below and has blown out the blanket too. Not necessarily the end of the world but the skin tones look a little unnatural given there's no shadow detail so it just looks like the kind of PP that was prevalent 15 years ago and thankfully fallen out of favour.

I'm not a fan of the hands/feet from nowhere shot tbh as you'll probably find on here, it's a little, well, you know... tacky. But then you'll find the same with selective colour. The thing that people do when they are starting out, which serves a purpose. I will appreciate that there are some clients that will like it however. Away from that, the reason for using selective colouring is to draw attention, or highlight something. I can't see the purpose here I'm sorry to say.

The subject matter is soft and so I understand where you were heading with the PP, but don't let it dominate, just a little softening of skin without losing so much detail will look more pleasing to the eye, as they are, it detracts. PP should enhance, not dominate.

Hope you take on board the sentiment, sounds a little harsh but the PP is ruining what I think could be natural, nice shots.

 

[Mogsy]

Not harsh at all and really appreciate the comments, thanks for taking the time out and for the pointers!

Will definitely tone it down next time 'if' I try this again... but might just stick to landscapes

Thanks again!

 

[Livin The Dream]

Not harsh at all and really appreciate the comments, thanks for taking the time out and for the pointers!

Will definitely tone it down next time 'if' I try this again... but might just stick to landscapes

Thanks again!

No problem, hope it helps/makes sense. Don't give up, give it another go. Try toning it down a little with what you have.

 

[Mogsy]

Yes makes perfect sense, I usually try to get as much right in camera and use pp minimal when shooting my usual stuff. But think here I have (wrongly/massively) over compensated in the pp stage for some reason due to the subject matter being a bit alien to me!

Cheers mate, will do. Will post the results here when I do and thanks again.