Heidi Knight

[Shawnajc]

Can I pick your brain? I have a mirrored plexiglass and want to take a pic of my baby like the one you have with the black background. I can't get my camera settings right. Did you use natural light? i have an alien bee. What were your settings if you remember?

thanks
shawna

[HeidiKnight]

I have used both natural light and my AB800. What is your specific problem and I'll try to help out?

[Shawnajc]

Well, I'm really new to using manual. Trying to figure it all out. I'm ok at it using daytime light along with the alien bee, but at night time my pics are blurry. Can you tell me a starting point on the settings on my camera? How do you figure out what is best without sitting there for 30 min going through different settings. With a baby i don't have that much time. Hope I'm making sense. I have a cold and feel cloudy headed : )

[HeidiKnight]

First off, I am so flattered to have a post with my name on it - just had to say that.

As for settings, I use a Nikon D70 and a 50mm f1.8 lens. With these things, I am able to get my photos to lok good using natural light during the day. I set my aperture to 1.8 (as low as it will go) and then adjust my shutter speed until the light meter within my camera says it's good. Then I take a test shot and see how it looks. From there, I'll change my shutter speed accordingly. So, if it's too dark, I'll slow the shutter a tad and vice versa. If I'm having a hard time with not being able to get the settings to work out at an ISO of 200, I'll bump it up to 400. My D70 doesn't do well much above that so I will bring in my Alien Bee before I try to bump it much higher. I don't ever take photos at night since I don't have any other studio lights - I need some ambient light from the sun to get things to look nice. I recommend you get your shutter speed no lower than what you can hand hold and not have camera shake. Also, if the baby is moving around (as babies do), you'll need the shutter speed to be fast enough to stop their motion. One final thing - I lay down on the floor and shoot from there. Best angle for plexi photos. Oh, and I focus on the baby's eye and then frame my picture. It is always very important to do that! It's not a good thing to have an in focus nose and out of focus eye - very easy to do with the wider apertures.

[HeidiKnight]

PS - your DSLR should have a meter when you look in the viewfinder.

[Shawnajc]

Thanks a bunch!! I'll try those things out. I know it's stupid, but I hate reading manuals and trying to figure my camera out. I tried one out this morning and it looked pretty good, just a little blurry, but I couldn't keep going as my baby was not wanting to have her picture taken at the moment LOL!! Oh, and glad I could flatter you...I was hoping you wouldn't be bothered by me, but I really love your work and look on your website and gallery for inspiration all the time.

[Shawnajc]

Heidi, I just ordered a 50mm f1.8 lens just now. Yippee!! Happy Easter to me I keep hearing that's a good lens.. so maybe my pics will be better. After I get it and take some pics, I'll show you some for some CC!!! Thank you!

[HeidiKnight]

That lens will make a huge difference! It's a wonderful first portrait lens. The great thing about the mirrored plexi is that it acts as its own reflector - so you get great catchlights and the baby will shine. I just adjust the levels and curves in PS and clone out the line. I also burn the black since I just use a vellux blanket and occasionally the wrinkles show.

Please do post your photos - we can give you better advice if we see them. I can't wait! Oh, I find that 6 months is the perfect age for plexi pictures.

[Shawnajc]

My baby is 8 months.. but she's a tiny little thing and not crawling yet. She's trying real hard and it will be soon I think, so better get them before she starts crawling away.

[bbjones]

Heidi,

I have a question about burning your black background. How do you do that? I have pse 5.

I have two pictures of my two year old twins that I took. Because I could not get them to sit still together, without goofing around, I was going to merge them. The photo merge looks great (to me anyway) but I never did a final output because the black background are off just enough to make a difference.

Would the burning help my picture?

Thanks
Becky

[HeidiKnight]

If the tones are a little different you can try a few things. Check the levels to make sure they're good. Also check the curves. And you can always duplicate the layer and then choose a layer mode like overlay or something - reduce the opacity if it looks harsh. This generally deepens the shadows. Or, you can go to "selective color" (in the adjustments menu), find "blacks" in the drop down menu, and adjust the colors there to change the tone of the black in the photo.

As for burning, I would select all of the black backdrop with your magic wand and then fine tune at actual pixels size with the lasso (I use the polygonal laso most often since it's better than my freehanded attempts - just keep clicking to choose the anchor points so that it curves where you photo does. When all the black backdrop is selected, feather a few pixels - I typically use 3. Then you can use the burn tool to burn the backdrop - set to burn the shadows at around 15 percent or so should do it. This way you don't darken the subject. Sometimes things look a bit fake if they're burned to total blackness or dodged to total whiteness - the kid is floating in space. But in the plexi example you have the reflection to keep the baby grounded so I like a nice dark black. I haven't tried white yet - if anyone does, be sure to post the result.

Now, if you decide burning isn't your thing, after you have your backdrop selected and feathered, you can duplicate that layer and select a different layer mode to darken it. Or, you can just burn that layer. Lots and lots of options once it's selected.

I'm sure there are a dozen other things you could do too - these are just the things to check off the top of my head.

[bluelemur01]

Heidi, could you give me a link to see the plexi photo? It sounds AWESOME! I'd like to try that with my dd, although she's ~17mo and might not sit still. Of course I could try it with a niece/nephew, too. I also have Alien Bee lights that I sometimes set up and take portraits off my very wiggly girl.
Jennifer

[HeidiKnight]

[HeidiKnight]

And with a 5 year old. I tried digitally painting this one - so it's not the actual photo, but a "painted" version. Not great, but my first ever try. I pretty much gave it up.

[bluelemur01]

oh, that's fantastic! I think I remember seeing this in the gallery and liked it then, too! I really want to try it sometime!
Jennifer