Easter Shots

smoke665 · Mar 27, 2019

Some days I get the peanut with Lil'bit and some days the hull. Today was one those "got the peanut days". Sometimes she amazes me at how well she can work the camera when she wants to and I have to force myself to remember she's only 3 1/2. Setup was a little different on this with a 32" gridded Octabox camera left as the key, 32"x48" soft box, camera right for fill, and a 22" beauty dish kicker from behind and above the backdrop. I went with the dish for the kicker, because it gives good separation, and isn't as hard to focus on a moving toddler, plus I like the shadows it throws on the floor. 70mm, f/8, 1/125.

Lighting was really on the money today, as very little was required in editing, everything done in LR. I tried to clean up the knees and shins, but gave up on the task. Seeing her bruised and scarred knees you quickly realize "grace" is not one of her better traits. Out of about 30 shots in less then 30 mins, I culled about 20 of the best. Here are four of my favorites for the day. C&C always

no-image-available-grid.jpg by William Raber, on Flickr

JonFZ300 · Mar 27, 2019

These are awesome. She's a natural. Love it

tirediron · Mar 27, 2019

Fantastic - her expressions are absolutely superb in these. What a great model. I'm not 100% sure I'm overly fussed on the grey background; some coloured gels might have added an interesting element, but really, with such an amazing model, you hardly notice the background.

Derrel · Mar 27, 2019

I agree 100% with each aspect of the response above...I'm not enthusiastic,at all, about the gray background...perhaps it could be selected in PS and re-colored???

Designer · Mar 27, 2019

#4 is my pick of the bunch.

smoke665 · Mar 27, 2019

@JonFZ300 Thank you, she has a natural talent that comes out every now and then.

@tirediron the one with the hands in the air was all her, almost didn't get it because it was so spontaneous on her part. Just told her to do something for the camera, and bam. If my finger hadn't been on the shutter I would have. Fyi: I took your advice and swapped sides with the modifiers. I'd planned on using gels, but other things came up.

smoke665 · Mar 27, 2019

@Derrel as above, original plan was to gel the background to match one of the colors in her top, will try a couple later in PS. Have a few B&W I need to finish first

Jeff15 · Mar 27, 2019

Lovely set of images...

smoke665 · Mar 27, 2019

Had a couple of decent conversions, one of them from today. I did try Pulling one into Ps earlier and experimented with different background colors, but frankly I didn't find anything that I liked better then the gray. The women in the family (Mother, grandmothers, and aunts) are all happy with the background, and I generally find that when they're happy, it's better to just shut up and leave it alone. LOL

Easter 201920190327_0741.jpg by William Raber, on Flickr

Derrel · Mar 27, 2019

I LIKE the above B&W conversion!

Dean_Gretsch · Mar 27, 2019

Nice set. I believe I like the b&w best.

CherylL · Mar 28, 2019

Cuteness overload! Love them all and if I had a favorite it would be #4. The expressions are adorable. Love the vintage chair. I picked up a wood one for $10 for the Easter shoot here, but have not thought about the "how" yet. Thanks for the inspiration. Is the background a seamless paper?

smoke665 · Mar 28, 2019

CherylL said:
Cuteness overload! Love them all and if I had a favorite it would be #4. The expressions are adorable. Love the vintage chair. I picked up a wood one for $10 for the Easter shoot here, but have not thought about the "how" yet. Thanks for the inspiration. Is the background a seamless paper?

Thank you Cheryl! She was in fine form. We give her general instructions for posing but she's pretty good at putting it to use. We got 30 mins of quality shooting before she informed us in a no nonsense tone "I'm done taking pictures now".

I'm almost embarssed to admit that the vintage chair is from a patio set DW bought 45 years ago. :02.47-tranquillity:

over the years it's gone through multiple coats of paint before being moved to the barn. The boxes we found at a flea market a couple years ago, plant from Walmart, and the paper is Savage seamless.