Mother and baby: 4/50

This is a shot from a family portrait session at an apple orchard. The family have asked me not to use their names.

I got a number of shots in a number of positions, inside, outside, with different combinations of people (another child and the father were also involved in the shoot). Most of the photos, however, suffered from looking somewhat staged (and many of them were). I was also having some issues with getting the lighting right.

I like this shot because I think it captured a candid moment between mother and son. The baby is looking towards us, and his mother is looking at him. I find this draws the eye across the image, and highlights their interaction. You can tell that he is her child.

I had to do a little work in post-processing to clean up the beam behind the baby's head, which had some distracting paint marks on it. I also had trouble getting the white balance and skin hues 'correct', but I think that this is close.

This is also my first portrait (of the fifty) in landscape format. I think it works well in that orientation, given that it shows the relationship between two people.

The only light in this photo is sunlight, coming in a barn door out of frame to our left. A reflector was used for many of the pictures in the shoot. I am not sure if it was in use here.

ISO 200, f/5.6, 1/80 second. Focal length 42mm (micro 4/3).