Upde Designs

I have mixed emotions about this post.  On the one hand it is a post about and  of my Grandson and as such every image is precious.  On the other hand as an aspiring photographer these are lousy images.

Here are my excuses for these less than stellar shots.  I have a flash diffuser which is designed to soften the light and spread it more evenly in the room.  I had packed it for this shoot, but it somehow fell off the flash when I was putting it in the car and so it spent some time on the garage floor.  (error #1 no diffuser.)  The lack of a diffuser produces harsh shadows and uneven lighting as evidenced above.

Second issue is the images are softer than I would like them.  (i.e. fuzzy, out of focus.)  This is as a result of improper camera settings.  The camera has three settings for focusing.  The first setting is manual (rarely used by me except in micro photography), single focus, (mainly used for portraiture work) when you know your subject is not going to move (also it is the default setting on my camera), and continuous focus, used when the subject is apt to be moving (i.e. a little baby) 🙂  Hence the fuzzy shots.

Third issue was too shallow of a depth of field or too low of F-stop.  I shot these pictures at F2.8, which means that only a very small part of the subject (where the little focusing square is) will be in focus and everything else will be soft.

Fourth issue was poor composition.  By that I mean given the lack of a diffuser, one must work with what is available.  There are ways of re-composing shots to lessen or eliminate the problem of harsh lighting.  Plus I was just too lazy to move around and get a better angle on my subject.

So while any images of this beautiful child are precious and special, from a purely photographic standpoint I am very disappointed in my work here.  As the old adage goes the “devil is in the details” and when you do not pay attention to the important details you pay the price.

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope to do better in the future.