Cameras in the delivery room is a dubious event.
My mom took pictures the day Jordan was born and, mainly because it was before our digital age, we have uncropped prints of the baby on my chest that also captured the obstetrician sewing up my stuff immediately after pulling her out. Jon Alex was born in the middle of the night and no one made it to the delivery but him, me and about seven panicky RNs. No photos of that. Just as well. It took quite a few months for him to outgrow his dried hazelnut look.
Then there’s Ehren. Born into his parents’ obsession with all things digital and pixely. By the time he was four hours old, he was the baby pic sent ’round the world. His second day, he had a little color and looked so cute in his Justin Timberlake newborn cap, I had to save that digital memory as well.
looking jaunty
Day Three? Well, the other two photos were taken with my iPhone camera (sucks) and Q had given me his SLR and, before we knew it, it was Day 45 and I’d missed not one day of catching the baby in moods good, bad or indifferent. Today is Day 46; my camera bag awaits.
hey there daddy!
Somewhere around Week 3, I decided to learn how to actually use the camera. I’d been using it as a point-and-shoot, and that doesn’t really make much sense. It’s a powerful little machine with lots of number-y settings. Nope, no idea what F/3.5 means, and I vaguely remember ISO from my film-using high school days. I unwrapped the tulip lens hood from its plastic only today and attached it like I was Zippy the Chimp discovering a box of Legos.
It’s tough keeping up this project after being at work my first week back. But I’m subsisting on caffeine and sugar, so I am capable of staying awake long enough to take the photos and maybe upload them that night or the next. I let the shutter fly, and sometimes I am able to capture moments like this:
first secrets
What the heck you’re doing surfing the ‘net on such a beautiful spring day in comments…
I just got an SLR and I love it. I have no idea how to use it, either, but that is what the internet is for.
Ehren is lucky to have so many awesome photos of himself already. What a cute baby!
A few things to note while shooting with an SLR:
shutter speed controls your ability to “freeze” action. Shutter speeds are measured in fractions of seconds, i.e., a shutter speed of 800 is actually 1/800th of a second, and, as such, is faster and will freeze action than a shutter speed of 60 (1/60th of a second).
aperture/f-stop settings control depth of speed. The smaller the number (i.e 3.5 or 5.6), the bigger the aperture opening, and the smaller the depth of field. An aperture of 3.5 is better for portraits; an aperture of 16 or 22 is better for landscapes (which require more depth-of-field).
ASA/ISO settings are the equivalent of “film speed.” You’re usually OK if you just set this to “auto.” Likewise, if your camera has an “auto” setting for white balance, this will greatly ease your world (and improve your pictures).
That is all.
–Your obd’t photojournalism instructor, Motormouth
Alrighty then: which setting helps me adjust for the kids’ three different skin tones? One of them always seems to be at a disadvantage depending on who the focal point is. Either Ehren looks like a meth addict or Jordan looks like a crackhead. JA works it out no matter what which is weird since his skin is the darkest.
I don’t have a lot of experience in this matter as Massachusetts is the land of White, but… outside of adjusting the skin tones in Photoshop/your photo editor, you might try playing with the ISO/ASA, making it lower (try a setting of 60 or 100) while setting your Exposure Compensation (EC) to 1/3+. This will overexpose the overall frame but should balance it in conjunction with the lower ASA speed.
Or, you could just adjust the tones in Photoshop, but that’s cheating.
You might also try taking a picture where JA is in the center and see if that balances out the other kids.