This photo proved challenging since Stephanie did not know me and many of the photos were of her crying, looking scared, etc. Finally after her father played Beek-A-Boo with her and I had taken several flash pictures, we finally got her to smile.
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Dejavu... This is the third shot titled "peekaboo" that I have done in a week!
First of all, looking at your photo & info I notice a couple of things. You definitely need better lighting. You don't have to have professional lights, but set up a bunch of soft lamps and diffused lighting. Lots of people (me included) use worklamps from Home Depot to help with this. Once you get more lighting you can get a faster shutter. 1/60 is the minimum for avoiding camera shake, but with a moving chid you really need something faster. You also need a higher aperture to get sharper focus. Somewhere between 5 and 6 is usually good for this sort of thing. A really small f number (like 2 or 3) is good for portraits when you have a background to blur, but that wasn't a problem here. That's one thing you have going for you - no distracting bg.
The composition is pretty good tho you might not crop quite so much off the top of her head. Main problem is that it looks so dark/underexposed and a little blurry. If you've been in the forums lately you'll know that people are pretty tough on kid shots. Sometimes I think that most of those people just haven't tried taking a good shot of a moving child ;P
This is somewhere between a snapshot and a studio shot. I think you are considering things (like background and composition) and just have a few technical issues to overcome. You have the cute factor working, but focus is SO SO important in portraits. The eyes are open and looking at the camera so they HAVE to be in focus. I know that's tough with a moving child, but using a high f number helps a lot. Good luck with this cute model! Don't get too discouraged with entering kid shots. Once you get the hang of it, they can be far more rewarding than many other things. Besides, what's really more important... a good shot of a child or a good score from a bunch of strangers?
The lighting is not right. The picture could be a little crisper too. With the right lighting this could be a good pic. It's genuine and thats the first step. The next part is all up to you - Inspzil
Absolutely sweet. I like the peeking out from the blanket. There needs to be a little more light on her precious face but the composition is great otherwise.
What a gorgeous child.
With a bit of brightening, contrast adjustment and sharpening, this could have been a lovely photo. If you email me, I'll send you a copy of the edit I had in mind.
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