Baby Blessing Leads to Photographic Lessons

Today was a special day for our family...our daughter had her baby blessing at church! My wifes's sister even made a beautiful blessing dress for her and we wanted to get some good pictures of her in it. (To see more pictures of our little angel in her blessing dress, please take a stroll down the recent addition on the "Wildlife of Moss Grove" trail.)

We learned some simple techniques that improved the quality of the picture.

First, we tried taking some pictures inside the house. The camera's flash can can overexpose the subject and trail a big black shadow on top of the darkened backdrop behind it and damage the quality of a photo, so we opened the curtains wide to let some of the natural light fill the room in hopes we wouldn't have to use the flash. Unfortunately it still left hard shadows and a dark subject:

Even brightening it up with software doesn't change the shadows problem.

We decided to move the picture-taking outside with the natural light hoping it would give more brightness and softer shadows.

We laid some blankets down on the grass in the shade to avoid the sun shining in our daughter's face. With a few adjustments to the camera settings to capture the light better, we compensated for the shade and got better results...softer tones, less harsh shadows.

(I did still brighten it up with software, though, I don't totally have my camera settings mastered yet.)

Even though moving the baby outsided in the natural light solved the harsh shadows problem, it almost over-compensated and left the subject a little bit flat. So we took a single sheet of white poster board and used it to reflect softer light back onto our baby which added a nice bright, almost glowing accent.

You can see a big difference. In the picture below, the poster board is positioned off camera to the top right. The shadows aren't too harsh, but the light accents the subject bringing out greater depth and texture. You can especially see added depth in her face and dress.

The lesson learned is that a simple piece of white poster board used as a light reflector, can really bring a picture to life.

Can you tell where the simple poster board reflector is on this picture?