Emily aged five weeks

I've always liked high-key portraits, and always found them technically hard to do. Here's a recent attempt with a freshly-bathed model which I like at lot, but I am having problems disentangling my feelings for the subject from my feelings for the image. I would appreciate comments on how well it works photographically.

Please don't spare the photo because you know it's my daughter. I wouldn't post the image here if I didn't expect it to be held to a different standard than the one that pertains to family gatherings.

-- Struan Gray (struan.gray@sljus.lu.se), March 10, 2001

Answers

Mmm, lovely. The exposure seems to be spot-on. Well done!

A couple of niggles:

1. The image could probably do with a tighter crop: the expanse of white mesh does not seem to add much value in the compostion for me.
2. What happened to the right hand index finger? It looks like it's amputated, but I guess it is just out-of-focus? You are not going to throw the background out of focus anyhow, so next time use f11 to ensure the whole baby is sharp, or use f1.4 on a long lens to ensure that only the eyes are sharp and the rest is visibly out of focus. The latter seems to work better in black and white than colour, and I wouldn't really recommend it here: she's simply too cute :-)

But it's a fine picture.

-- Allan Engelhardt (allane@cybaea.com), March 10, 2001.

I like this. I will have to try some high key work with my kids, too. Great idea.

I would have preferred that the light around her head be as bright as the rest of the blanket.

-- Stephen C. Murphy (stephmur@hotmail.com), March 10, 2001.

This is not ment as an offense...there seems to be a bit of "dinginess" around the child's head...a bit off-color. I really think high key works best in B/W or, you need to move the baby's head away from the background with some light filling in behind the child's head... for high key, you need a white glow all around.

Very nice family photo, however.

-- Todd Frederick (fredrick@hotcity.com), March 10, 2001.

Hi Straun. well let's just get my first reaction out of the way.... OH my gosh she is so beauuuuutiful!

ok.... now for the photograph. :o)

there's a definite blue-violet cast, especially at the bottom which bothers me because i want her surroundings to seem warm and they seem cold because of the color cast. window light? i would have done it in black n white anyway, just my personal preference though... the top part of the image is darker..... keeps it from looking high key to me. i think an important element of high key work is to have a lot of reflected light bouncing around to minimize shadows. just white foamcore boards propped up around her might do it, but i think you needed more light as well. last nit pic is that her right arm is pointing my eye right out of the image at the bottom. perhaps if you'd waited till she pulled it up in the same position as her left arm. i cropped this just across at elbow level, eliminating her arms and hands altogether, and my eye gets riveted to her beautiful face, and stays in the image.

you have a wonderful model who obviously enjoys posing for daddy, so let's see some more!

by the way, i think it's a wonderful baby portrait as is, my comments spoke mainly to your desire for that high key look. :o)

-- susan daly (slascaux@aol.com), March 10, 2001.

She is quite beautiful, and she is also beautiful as a subject of photography. However (and I continue based just on personal ramblings and with the greatest of respect), baby shots such as these lack strength because their facial expressions and overall facial character can't often portray personality, happiness, sorrow, thought processes, or life experiences to the degree that portraits of older subjects do. The photograph of the FSA migrant mother comes to mind as an example, although an extreme comparison. My point is, I guess, when you look at a baby shot, it's like "OK, cute kid. Shot looking straight down. Kid's probably thinking, 'What the heck is Dad doing now?,'" but so what? I will say that the look in her eyes seems to be that she is preoccupied or seriously considering something. My own feeling is that if you're going for a strong, evokative, emotional, or controversial (etc...) statement kind of photograph, you're are trying the impossible or at least the impractical. But keep taking photographs of her. The kind of shots that you will end up will be much more important to you than "strong, evokative" photography any day!

-- Tony Rowlett (rowlett@alaska.net), March 11, 2001.

Very cute. As noted, the background needs to be cleaned or lighted more evenly..it looks dirty above her head. Also mentioned as a closer crop...maybe somehow get the background away from her and throw it out of focus as well as the previous ideas.

-- Roseblood (kyller@bbs.annex.com), March 11, 2001.

Thanks everyone for the comments. This picture was taken for her passport, and the rules for mugshots set by Her Britannic Majesty were my original motivation for the layout and style of the shot.. It turned out so well that I'd like to refine the look for something even better, although I'm still aiming for a straightforward portrait (sorry Tony).

The major point that the background lighting needs to be improved has been taken on board. I don't mind a touch of unevenness or a hint of shadow, but the way the uplighting dominates here is certainly wrong - she's not starring in a horror movie.

Her right hand will also have to be tamed. From this roll, both the shots with this best-of-set facial expression had her twiddling her fingers like this. As a proud dad I couldn't care less, but I agree that photographically that finger looks odd and leads the eye out of the frame.

Other things are more a question of taste. I can't agree with the suggestion to use B+W. I love B+W portraits, but the whole point here is the blobs on pink on a white ground, and in any case it would be a crime to desaturate those sapphire blue eyes. I also like to give my subjects space in the frame, so tight cropping is also out for me.

I appreciate the responses. If the sun ever comes out again during a period when she's not asleep or colic-ridden I'll try another portrait encorporating your suggestions.

-- Struan Gray (struan.gray@sljus.lu.se), March 16, 2001.