roxiemarty Loc: Florida

These were done last year for a friend of mine, one of them won an award for a Figure and Portrait show at my Art Association. The mother changed several times, then let me use a couple of my own ideas. As she is a bit of a nature girl, I had definite ideas....guess which one went to the art show!

orange dress


Christmas present


Summer fun


retro wrap


retro wrap 2


With Child

Jay Pat Loc: Round Rock, Texas, USA

Nice series!
For me, #3 stand out!
Pat

PalePictures Loc: Traveling

To improve your next set of maternity shots.
Here's some tips.

1) Use solid Colors for Clothing. Loud clothing competes with the maternity theme.
2) work on your color management. Certain colors are complimentary. Look and understand a color wheel. Post processing of colors can go along way in making a photo more intimate. Maternity and intimacy go together like Bacon and eggs.
3) More Earthy tones are almost always better in setting a mood for maternity.
4) how you light these shots makes a huge difference.

Here is an example from Sergey Ivanov

http://500px.com/photo/5197877/-by-sergey-ivanov-(seriv)?from=user

I usually don't do critiques unless people ask. But it seemed from your profile you have some experience and may want to improve.

Bobby Deal Loc: Loveland Colorado

#5 stands out as the best of the bunch to me. Maternity is such a personal and emotional subject. Using light to shape and define the growing baby bump and to capture emotion and draw the viewer into that emotion is critical. These are a little flat for my taste. I would have loved to seen more directional lighting and ratios used to separate her from the background and give her dimension.

I agree with russ the clothing selections are ultimately distracting and solid earth tone colors are best if you can convince mone to wear them.

In the end they are fun portraits and will preserve the memories of the mothers maternity for her and that is the first task at hand anytime we do this type of shoot.

Learning to grow and expand and give the photos a bit of ourselves is a process that takes time and practice.

Thanks for sharing I look forward to seeing more of your work in the future.

roxiemarty Loc: Florida

Thanks, Pale and Bobby, I value your input, as I have been watching your work. I am mostly self taught with old Novatrons, and alot of trial and error. I read alot and was happy to discover this forum There is alot of talent and knowledge here. Thanks, again.

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

Roxymarty,
Did you make your own backdrop? Looks like mine. Tried to make it black, came put purple. Anyway, I'm guessing you had a few white balance issues, as it looks like the same backdrop, but different in most of the photos. Her skin varies from very cool to very warm.

I agree with the choice of clothes. Often for a photo shoot, I actually tell them what to bring. If I don't, I always end up with whites, busy designs, or sleveless shirts. All create issues.

Everyone else pretty much covered most of the stuff.
Keep it up. The more you do, the better they will become... and they are really pretty good now.

Bobby Deal Loc: Loveland Colorado

You are welcome, I too am self taught and I still have an old 1200 ws Norman pack and 3 heads in the studio and I use them regularly. Of course if you have followed my work here you know I have shall we say a bit of a thing for vintage lights.

Being self taught is a double edged sword in that if we don't have anyone to bounce our work off of we can easily develop bad habits that can be hard to break. So the best thing you can do for yourself is keep shooting as often as possible and then put the work out for C&C and put on the thick skin and take those critiques and use them as guides to learning. Not everything you get from each critique will be right for you but use what works for you and file the rest away for a latter day because what is not useful to you today just might be the tiucket for you 2 or 3 years down the road.

roxiemarty Loc: Florida

Thanks, BK! I ordered that from backdrop outlet, had a big problem with them on 2 backdrops and will never give them my business again! That is an Old Masters brown...see what I mean? They are not a good business. But you learn the hard way sometimes. Thanks for your comments. I'm a Hoosier myself, going to visit next month, Indy.

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

I've been making my own backdrops for a while, and they look as good as, or in some cases better than what you buy. The key is to make sure your muslin is DAMP not dripping wet, before you put the wadded thing up in the dye. Then let it sit for quite a while, pull it out, re-wad it up, and dunk agian, until you get the look you want. Only issue has ever been with never getting a true gray or black, always comes out purple. If you buy Muslin at JoAnnes, use a 1/2 price coupon, and it gets pretty darn cheap. I make most of mine at 10x12 or 10x20. If JoAnne's doesn't have it in stock, they will order it for you.

roxiemarty Loc: Florida

Thanks, bk. I had already bought rit dye in a denimwash color, but was afraid to try it. What type of tub(washtub?)do you use for the fabric? Mine are 10 by 20 so that is alot of fabric!

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

Sorry, I didn't get back sooner.been busy. 3 weddings 2 graduations, and a newborn shoot in the last few weeks.

I'm not sure what it is "supposed to be used for" but I found a large plastic tub at Wal-Mart that I've seen people use for filling with ice and beer bottles/cans at receptions. (the one I found is pink, but obviously that doesn't make a difference, unless I have people over for a cookout and decide to dye a backdrop at the same time. :-) Seems to be the perfect size for both 10x12 and 10x20. You may have to purchase extra dye, or do what I do, and pull it out of the dye after it soaks, then re-wad it up and put it back in until you have several different "layers" of color so there is quite a bit of tonal range. I've not tried to do multiple colors on the same backdrop, but the principal is the same. I hope to, I'm just afraid of wasting that much money on muslin if it doesn't work. When handling a huge piece of muslin, it is nothing like a small sample, so you can't really do much testing, just "going for it" and I'm a cheapskate....photography and cheapskate, don't really go well together.