Teach me something - C&C please

f3nr15 wrote:

Midwest wrote:

f3nr15 wrote:

A Little Wonder

Thank you, I appreciate the input.

To chat a little of my approach and philosophy - my purpose in this hobby is, like many, to capture the moment and the meaning. I'm very new to "the art", and in that respect most of my photos are going to be snapshots. I'm not at the point of staging pictures, and even feel uncomfortable giving people directions to allow composition, because I feel it takes away from the "reality" of the situation.

I'm glad you're putting thought into your pictures and I agree that 'staging' photos is not the look I generally go for either. Practically everything I shoot of my son comes about because I see the situation and realize there's a good photo to be had of it. My son lying on his back while my wife changes his diaper or whatever, I try to capture the moments I see and not to set them up. Being a real moment and not created is what gives it value to me.

Now having said that, I take very few photos, and despite their snapshot nature, I am trying hard to think and compose with each. In this instance, I have a small connection to the new baby, but a much more significant connection to my wife and daughter. The "moment" I was trying to capture was the unspoken lesson between my wife and my daughter taking place, which is the gentleness of holding a new baby - my wife has her arm protectively around the baby, with my daughter also practicing a tentative embrace. I wanted to the viewer to immediately focus on the newborn as the focal point, but then to recognise the "wonder" of the two holding him to be the story.

I think your approach is great! I often wonder why it is that so many people don't seem to ever try and capture a moment and just take a picture. I'm glad that is what you're trying do to. My comments on your photo here more directed towards the technical and the composition and not recognizing what you were trying to 'capture'.

So, I wanted the babe to be sharp and the bystanders to be a little softer, hence the f2.8 - I had a flash there anyway, and would have been able to use a larger DOF if I had wanted.

I chuckled about your comment re the tint - I'm a bit hung up on sepia at the moment because I'm enjoying the vintage look, but despite pleasing me, it probably annoys most. I'll cut back on the sepia in the future!

Please yourself! I'll be glad to tell you I'm not really keen on the sepia look but just as glad to say that you're ultimately the one you need to please. A hard drive full of photos that you aren't happy with isn't much good to you so by all means, if you like sepia, do sepia.

I got a few shots of my son yesterday eating breakfast and due to the white balance they rather had an almost sepia look to them so I processed the RAW images to get the natural color back into place. My personal favorite in post-processing (for the photos where it works) is tone-mapping, and some may not care for that either as much as I do. Not a problem!

Taking some of your pointers in to account, here's a less processed version of the photo with a tighter crop, centred on the babe a little more - do you think this works better in conveying the moment?

Yes. Absolutely! Obviously this is a crop of the first version and I much prefer it. The baby's face is easier to see and we are seeing a larger % of the photo used for the 'bystanders' and their facial expressions as they soak in the wonder of the new baby. And I prefer the non-sepia version too, as you might have guessed. IMO this is a superior photo compared to the original.

A Little Wonder - alterative crop, no processing

Finally, I had a look at your gallery and I really like the compositions of the kids, great stuff.

Thanks. Assuming you looked at the baby pics album, those are all of my son. Before he was born I didn't 'get' the whole kid- and baby-photo thing, or how strong a feeling they can convey. I'm a dad for sixteen months now and I think I 'get it'.