I'm trying to learn the fine art of portraits a little more. I'm finding it a little challenging, as subjects move (especially babies) and the lighting is such a variance.
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This intimate portrait has good potential. If I might make just a few suggestions and some of these may just be personal preference. Make the crop much tighter. You can still tighten up the crop without losing a sense of "place". This is an intimate moment between mother and child, so make the image itself more intimate as well. I know it is difficult to do sometimes with DX format because your focal lengths are shorter and often maximum apertures are slow, but try to minimize the depth of field to separate the subject from the foreground as much as possible. Especially here since the rock jetty behind them is going right through the middle of her head. Below is a very quick and dirty Photoshop of what I am talking about. This day seemed to be either overcast or cloudy, which is good because it does not produce harsh shadows, but the contrast is a little on the weak side. Using fill flash properly balanced with the ambient light (no more than maybe 25% contribution) would have really made them "pop". The point was also made about sand and snow complicating things and this is a very true statement. Down here on the FL panhandle, our sand is nearly as white as snow and it can be a real
bear sometimes to balance, but on the other hand it does provide a good reflector to open up shadows under chins, etc.
This image was taken under similar circumstances, it was late in the day and the sun was setting below the dunes. I used two strobes with about 20% contribution to up the contrast. It also put catchlights in their eyes and a little reflection on her lips. On camera flash might have worked here, but even during the day, you run the risk of "red eye". It will also kind of flatten things out somewhat, which is why I use two stobes, with one at half the power setting of the other. This was taken with a 105mm f/1.8 Nikkor @ f/2.8. I If you look really closely you can tell that his watch is slightly soft because it is just outside the depth of field of the lens. I try to go with the longest focal length I can get away with given the space I have to work. My 180mm f/2.8 Nikkor is usually my "go-to" lens for outdoor portraiture. Even with the sun down, I still had to use a 4x (2 stop) neutral density filter to keep the shutter speed below my wireless strobe capability (1/200 sec) at that wide an aperture. The background however is very soft, providing very good separation but you still have a sense of place. This of course was a staged shot, unlike yours, but even using balanced on camera flash could have improved the improved the contrast a good bit