Portraits of my daughters.

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SW3105

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Sharmaigne
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Most of my photos are of my girls, could I please have some advice with regard to my composition .. I feel like I've taken the photos too 'tightly'. For both pictures, I manually set the WB in each situation, both were taken in A mode on my D3100. EXIF data is in the comment of each picture.

Eldest

I lost the focus on her eye, camera is set to AF-A, and on matrix metering (thinking about it, I usually have it on centre weighted - would that have made a difference?) I feel that I have centered the photo too much and should perhaps have given the viewer an idea of what she was looking at - or out of! Obviously it's hard to get this little lady to stand still for any length of time so I have to compose very quickly, she was quite cooperative this evening though and gave some lovely smiles.

Youngest

This one, I really like, she always has quite a serious face, so this is her, full of mischief and thinking up her next disaster, is that conveyed in this image?

I really would like to get into post processing, my usual style is to upload them to Picnik and do cross process faded to 50%, and then lomo to 50% with a focal soften. What suggestions are there that could enhance these pictures? Or are they best just left as they are?

Thanks
 
I like the second one SW3105.

Im not experienced enough to give any technical help though!

Were you using the Kit lens? I also have the D3100.
 
Davo7 said:
I like the second one SW3105.


Were you using the Kit lens? I also have the D3100.
Click to expand...

Thank you, the second one is just another day in the life of my little lady .. she's a monkey!

That was with the kit lens. 2 weeks ago, I was using the camera fully in auto mode and not really getting great shots with it, well, the composition has always been great but auto kept popping up the onboard flash. I've bought no extra equipment at all. I find the flash ruins pictures, never really get the true depth of colour of their eyes, they've both got such beautiful coloured chocolate brown eyes and I've never known how to make the camera show this. Now that I'm 95% using manual settings, I'm much more pleased with the results .. definitely worth learning how to use the camera before buying more equipment, as at least then you know what you need ..
 
Hi Sharmaine,

I really like the first of your photos and I think the composition is pretty well spot on - it's a portrait not an environmental picture so showing what she is looking at/out of isn't relevant. You've got the lighting just about spot on giving good shadows across the face and highlights in her eyes. It does look a bit soft but not every picture needs to be tack sharp and the slight OOFness here gives your picture a nice feel to it.

Well done :clap:

The second picture is also great as a record of the moment in time too. Her wet skin has, unfortunately, blown the highlights on her forehead and left cheek but it's still a good capture.

In these situations I think matrix metering was the right choice. Centre-weighted or spot would almost certainly have completely blown out the highlights in the second image. If your camera wants to pop the flash when using AUTO mode in these circumstances just switch to "P" mode - programmed auto - and the flash will only pop if you press the button. As you've discovered, however, using the more advanced modes - S, A, M - gives more control and better results.

Keep up the good work :thumbs:
 
Bristolian said:
Hi Sharmaine,

I really like the first of your photos and I think the composition is pretty well spot on - it's a portrait not an environmental picture so showing what she is looking at/out of isn't relevant. You've got the lighting just about spot on giving good shadows across the face and highlights in her eyes. It does look a bit soft but not every picture needs to be tack sharp and the slight OOFness here gives your picture a nice feel to it.
Click to expand...

Thank you! I'm glad that I've got it right with this one .. She's getting better at standing still for pictures now. I agree with the slight oof. If I want to get her in focus next time, I just need to reduce the aperture, is that right?

Bristolian said:
The second picture is also great as a record of the moment in time too. Her wet skin has, unfortunately, blown the highlights on her forehead and left cheek but it's still a good capture.

In these situations I think matrix metering was the right choice. Centre-weighted or spot would almost certainly have completely blown out the highlights in the second image. If your camera wants to pop the flash when using AUTO mode in these circumstances just switch to "P" mode - programmed auto - and the flash will only pop if you press the button. As you've discovered, however, using the more advanced modes - S, A, M - gives more control and better results.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the second picture. I didn't realise that wet skin would have such an effect but it makes sense. I could probably have moved position as the light was particularly bright coming into the bathroom that day.

I'm much preferring to use A mode at the moment, I haven't moved from there really and I like that I can control the flash and to be honest, since I've moved to A, I haven't used the flash and had much better quality pictures since.

Thanks for your feedback, very much appreciated! :)
 
SW3105 said:
Thank you! I'm glad that I've got it right with this one .. She's getting better at standing still for pictures now. I agree with the slight oof. If I want to get her in focus next time, I just need to reduce the aperture, is that right?
Click to expand...

You get more of the face in focus if you focus on the eye closest to you. Whether you need to use a smaller aperture, or not, depends on the depth of focus that your focal length/aperture gives you. Experiment with several shots at different aperture settings to see the effect.

Whatever you do, keep up the good work :thumbs:
 
SW3105 said:
Thank you, the second one is just another day in the life of my little lady .. she's a monkey!

That was with the kit lens. 2 weeks ago, I was using the camera fully in auto mode and not really getting great shots with it, well, the composition has always been great but auto kept popping up the onboard flash. I've bought no extra equipment at all. I find the flash ruins pictures, never really get the true depth of colour of their eyes, they've both got such beautiful coloured chocolate brown eyes and I've never known how to make the camera show this. Now that I'm 95% using manual settings, I'm much more pleased with the results .. definitely worth learning how to use the camera before buying more equipment, as at least then you know what you need ..
Click to expand...


Well im in the exact same boat as you were 2 weeks ago SW, im really struggling im at the moment half way through 'Dummies Guide To Nikon D3100' It's helped me ever so slightly i guess. What Mode do you use for these indoor shots if you dont mind me asking?
 
I used A aperture priority mode. Also, I re-measure White balance in each room - and sometimes at different ends of the room. Sometimes, if I'm at one end and I've set the WB, it's perfect but the other end, where it's a bit darker, my pictures come with a blue tint to them, as soon as I re-measure, pics come out perfect again. It was a bit of a hassle but once you've worked it and see the results, it becomes second nature to carry the grey card around everywhere you go. The only exception for me is outdoors as the auto WB for outdoors sunny is ok. The other auto settings don't work out so well for my liking. Anyway, I like a shallow depth of field so aperture is always wide open and if the girls are rushing around, I just bump up the ISO and am getting great pictures without using the flash. It's great to actually feel as though I am controlling the camera, I'm no pro, but I feel as though I actually deserve the camera I've got now ;) the next thing I want to teach myself is how to effectively use shutter priority but saying that, as most of my photography is portraits, I don't need that right now. Hope this is of some use - I don't paragraph very well on the iPhone! :)
 
Evening!

I've been playing a bit more today .. really loving actually being able to use this camera now. Am on a serious roll! :)

I think I'm getting the exposure a bit better and playing around with different compositions too. EXIF data on comment on pictures ...

Playing with the basket

Big Smile

I don't always take pictures of her in the bath, it just seems that the room has the best light at this time of day, and she stays semi-still as she's contained in the bath! Anything I can do to improve, and are they an improvement on the last 2 pictures?

Thanks!
 
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