I took her pictures when she was 3 weeks old and yesterday they came back for more. She is a doll



This one cracks me up

Wow, it really is difficult to get C&C here

Any element in particular that you want CC'd??

Just wanted to know overall what people think of the pics, that's all. Isnt that what C&C is always asked for? I never see it specified in other threads

I will give you a cc because you asked for it. Three months old's is the hardest age to photograph. They are still young but yet much bigger then when they were newborn. They cant hold up their heads for a long period of time and they are still kind of floppy.
If someone contacts me for a three months session, I try to push for a four months instead as the baby can hold their head up so much better and are in general much happier at that point. Which means, better pictures= better sales for you!

So in regards to these, try to position babies this age in a bean bag or on a basket, or use the parents to hold them. Then they are somewhat controlled.
Your b-w's looks muddy and flat, dont know what conversion you are using, but you could improve there.
The one of these that I like, is the one where she is peeping out under the blanket. I would have tried to get one with eye contact though. Also, the mismatching color sceme is a little bit distracting, so this would be a bw for me.
The selective coloring of the others, are not really helping these pictures. I know it was a fad years ago and many parents still ask for them. I try so hard to steer my clients away from this. Very few baby or adult really looks good with a little bit of color brought back, it just is not flattering to a human. Just my two cents.

I think you have a good start and great for you to share here. I think there is room for improvement and kudos for asking for cc, that is the only way to improve and grow.

I agree with Anna, three months is a tough age. I like photos of younger babies, or a little older, but 3 months is tough. In these shots the selective color is a bit much. In the first selective color shot it looks like the baby is wearing lip gloss.

I don't really care the use of negative space. Too much and too bright. If the peeping blanket shot was a horizontal crop, you could get a tighter image with less bright white.

I like #2 the best, but again, would like to see little different crop on it. It seems to capture what 3-month-olds do a lot which is stick out their tongue like they are constantly nursing. They seem to do this again when they get their first teeth. (I did a baby shoot with a toddler always scraping her tongure against her teeth which looked like she was always giving rasberries to the camera.)

Hope it helps and keep posting!

Thanks.

I had taken her pics when she was just 3 weeks old and there was so much more I could do and be so much more creative. I then had included the parents hands holding the baby and all those "tricks"

I had to do something different this time, wouldnt make sense to do the same kind of pics again that they already got only the baby being a little older.

I look foward to doing her pics ones she sits up on her own

i never really noticed this before. But now that you bring it up I realize how true it is. A month (or a few) one way or the other can make a huge difference... thanks for putting the pieces together for me on that one.
Correct me if I'm wrong on this but, a bright flash usually makes babies eyes react by opening extra wide. Which I think is funny to watch but doesn't photograph well. You might want to soften up the flash or not use one at all.

OK, harsh CC, because I *heart* you!

Generally, you seem to have a WB problem with most of these... some pics are blueish, some greenish, some close to neutral. If you are trusting your camera's auto WB, this is probably not a good idea. The best course of action IMHO is to measure WB from a grey card.

Also generally, the baby is getting too much wrap-around reflected light from the BG. She's either too close to the BG, or the lights on the BG are too strong. Some gentle wrap-around is OK, and often pretty. But in these, it's causing the baby's features to be obscured, and the highlights are blown pretty bad as well.

Last general thing... i can't tell exactly what sort of lights you are using, but from the shadows and catchlights, they seem to be either nearly barebulb flashes, or your main light is too far away from the subect. While the backside of her head is often blown out, her face looks somewhat underexposed in a few of these.

More specifically, I'm not a fan of the touch of color look, either, but I know that people WILL ask for it, so I've found that the best way to pull it off, and not look dated is to use the a bit of the color on the child's skin, add more contrast in, and then pull in some color *maybe* on the details as well.

Like somebody else said, the BWs are off.

The white space in the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th is overwhelming the baby, and throw the balance of the image.


Studio lighting is *hard*, but once you understand studio lighting well, it'll help in every aspect of seeing and working with light.

Lemme know if you have any questions about any of that!

Baby was about 10 feet from the backdrop.

Light for the backdrop was one small softbox and a bare bulb flash with barndoors opened up.

For her I used a small softbox, about another 10 feet away from her. That maxed out my studio space, it is a small area.

Don't we ALL wish for more space!! My studio room is only about 15 feet deep, and I have a massive roller system that takes up a good 3 feet of that! So, I have about 12 feet to work with, basically. I generally keep kids about 3 feet away from the BG (About their height, roughly) My main light is almost always 2-4 feet away from the kids' faces.

For hi-key, you don't have to completely blow out the BG... just get it white enough. I used to use FULL power lights on a white paper backdrop EVERY time, but I was finding similar problems to yours... so I dug out the old hand held meter, and metered for *just* what it would take to keep my BG fairly clean and white.

My studio set-up is odd, to say the least; but I've found what works for me. I don't have to repair the scene in the computer, and still get the soft, sweet light that I trust and love!

Now when you have explained your light set up, it makes a little more sense about her catchlights. The catchlights are tiny, and that is because the lights are so far away. That does not help it make a soft light set up.
Like Carrie was saying bring them closer and practise and practise and you will get better with studio lighting and to control the light spill. It is great fun to work with studio lights, but it is not something that comes natural. It does take practise. There are times I think I am still learning my self.