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After some feedback from the members of the forum on my photos last week, I experimented some more tonight with different types of lighting and here are the results:





Would be interested in comments and feedback.

Thanks for looking

Alex

The second shot is lovely, shows the bond between new parent and child. The first is a nice shot but because the eyes of the baby are open and the mothers face is so close to the child it just loses something IMHO

The second one is very nice Alex, My only comment would be if the mum's eyes were also closed it would add to the feel and bond! The first looks alittle too bright. I think the second looks better because the silhouette of the faces

Both images are fantastic - you have really captured the bond between the mother and daughter. The lighting in the second is spot-on (perhaps just tone down the little hotspot on mother's nose).

On my uncalibrated, 16-colour work monitor, the light on the child in the first seems a little bright.

Otherwise, these are worthy of printing large and framing.

Composition wise the second shot is spot on. The angle, the contact, the contrast all go to make this shot better than the first.

Thanks for the comments and feedback everyone. I agree, the first one is a stop too bright on the child.

Cheers
Alex

Alex this time you have nailed it! Love the idea and composition. Does the baby sleep alot for you to try this? Also kudos for the better half for agreeing to multiple flashes while the baby is drifting off!!

I am curious about your lighting? One diffused source or more?

OK, I looked and looked and looked. I really like these shots and maybe one reason everyone is liking the second shot is that there are no background distractions whatsoever in the shot. In the first you have what I think is the mother's shoulder just visible around her mouth, but it's completely gone in the second. You could easily mask this out in the first and then the difference between the two shots might be very little.

Thank you all for your comments!

Regards,
Alex

alex can you share what lighting you used for these ?

Yep. Sorry was meant to post it a lot earlier.

The lighting for this was as follows:

Two umbrellas at roughly 45 deg. to the subject plane. one pointed at the child (reflective), the other pointed at the mother (translucent). I did a bit of light angle adjustment so that I can get some feathering from the main light for mother to act as a fill for the child and vice a versa, if that makes sense. The lighting ratio I can't remember but the first photo obviously had it wrong with the light on the right hand side (child's main source) being too strong. The ratio on flashes was not 1:1 as the umbrellas were of different type, otherwise I would expect 1:1 would be fine.

Cheers
Alex