It’s in the hands: A mother and son

Leonardo, #16. Mendoza, Argentina, 2019

I have done a few of these kinds of images with just hands against a pure black background. There is just something about the human hand…it is quite the miracle for what it can accomplish once trained and coordinated with the human brain.

These are hand-held shots with the Sony RX100ii using natural light and a black t-shirt under the arms/hands. In post, I turned the background completely black (and painting it in where there was no t-shirt coverage—moving, and even lightly sleeping babies, can be fickle with their movements).

The final B&W conversion was done in Silver Efex Pro.

In some ways this shows what is possible with a sprinkle of imagination, an old shirt, a pocket-sized camera, and a bit of post-processing effort. Some of the images are actually quite acceptable—at least for web viewing.

On the other hand, it also shows the limitations of such a setup. I am not happy with some of the tones on the fingernails, for example (although I actually like the realistic wrinkled skin). And we should have cleaned Leo’s fingernails before the shoot. Also, I can’t print these particularly large due to the smaller sensor involved.

Next session, I will use the D850 on a tripod, which will allow me to print yuuuge. We will clean the baby’s nails. And more attention-to-detail in post, or asking the mother to paint her nails a certain color, will improve the odd fingernail tones.

I am always learning something. Especially when I try to photograph humans beans, which is not typically my forte.

Here are a few trial images from the “proof sheet”…