Portraits

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Photo of the Day: Baby Learning to Crawl

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Sure I've got some nice newer cameras but occasionally I like to grab one of my old ones and have some fun. I found my older camera and popped on a nice 50mm lens and had some fun shooting my daughter as she tried to crawl. I really love the depth of field on this one.  

I've also been enjoying Color Efex Pro 4. I used a soft focus filter and then dropped it back into Lightroom 4 so that I could add some clarity to her eyes and clean up a tiny piece of food on her mouth. Hey that's how babies roll!

Derrick Story had some similar advice this week about digging out an older camera. I shot this photo back in January but his idea holds true: Reinvigorate your photography by using one of your older cameras. 

​Baby portrait 50mm, f/2.0, 1/30 second

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Shooting Baby Portrait Photographs

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It's that time again, time to shoot another round of baby photos for my family. I always find baby portraits to be difficult because my daughter likes to bob and weave all over the place. And I have a minimal amount of time before she needs milk or a nap!

One answer I've found is to shoot in Manual Mode and really amp up the shutter speed without going too high on the ISO. The more ISO the more noise but noise reduction software is so good these days that I don't really mind it. The hard part is keeping the blur to a minimum and that's where the shutter speed comes into play. I usually start around 1/160, that gives me a nice clean shot with minimal blurring. 

I also shot this series with a few different lenses. On my Sony NEX-7 I used my new 50mm prime lens. It's a cropped sensor which means I had to sit further back from my daughter than I would normally like but it takes great pictures. The other lens I used on my Nikon D800 is the 70-300mm, this is a great piece of glass for getting just the shot you want with a nice bokeh (or blurring of background). 

I did some minimal post processing on these. A few I just ran through Lightroom and a few I used Color Effects Pro. Tell  me your thoughts!

 

 

Baby Portrait

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Sony 50mm f/1.8 Prime Lens Review

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I just received my new 50mm f/1.8 Mid-Range Prime Lens for my Sony NEX-7 and here's my early review. Wow! It is stunning that it's this good for under $300. It's even more impressive because it's just as outstanding as the more expensive 50mm Prime I'd been using before. And I've heard from fellow photographers that even it rivals the $4,000 Leica Summilux 50mm f/1.4.

Sony 50mm f/1.8 Prime Lens

The only reasons I kept my Canon D-Mark II camera for as long as I did was (a) I loved that camera (b) the 50mm Prime lens I had to go with it was just a gorgeous piece of glass. But I've moved onto to different cameras with more advanced lenses. The new Sony lens is a perfect substitute. And there's simply no reason to be using an older 50mm lens other than cost at this point. 

I got this lens to shoot portraits, plain and simple. I wanted a crisp shot with shallow depth of field and this lens gives you that creamy Bokeh that brings out the subject beautifully. The reason for this is because of the large aperture of the lens and what Sony calls its 'circular aperture design'. Who cares what they call it, it takes amazing pictures. 

It's also really light and compact. My older Canon 50mm Prime could be used as a paper weight it was heavy.

I'm going to add more to this post over the next few months as I spend more and more time with it. In the meantime please enjoy a few of these photos that were shot with the new Sony 50mm lens. 

My daughter

My son the photog.

Play time.

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Tips For Great Indoor Portrait Photos Using A Flash

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A simple trick to get better portrait photos with a Sony NEX-7.

 

A simple trick to get better portrait photos with a Sony NEX-7. I created a website to learn photography and fail in public. If you're new to photography and want learn with me please visit www.photographybegins.com

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Portrait Photo of the Day

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hen my son was born a few years ago my wife asked me to take photos of him each month on his "birthday". I know, I know, but as a smart husband I obliged. And now that my daughter is 5 months old today i snapped another round of "birthday" photos.

shot this with a Nikon D800 and some nice afternoon sunlight.

va at five months