First Bath

[Miche']

[IMG][/IMG] I am not sure what to do with this picture. I am just so struck by the innocence of it all that it throws me off and I don't know what to do with it. Leave it alone, black and white, sepia, bring more light on the subject, crop it? I am just so torn. Really looking for some creative suggestions and critiques on this one.

[jiminyClickit]

Miche',

Would you want to keep all of the photo, or lose about 50% of it outside of yellow blanket? As with "Piggyback?"

[Saralonde]

Yeah, I think a good cropping would be in order. I do notice the baby first, but then I'm quickly distracted by the sink, the adult, etc.

[googlit]

a crop would definitely do it some good. My attention is quickly drawn to the shaving cream (or whatever that is) on the sink. top, left, and bottom are ok, but bring the right edge in to the base of her thumb or so. Might try to lighten it a little and do a little softening in places.

nice shot, though. =)

[Miche']

Jiminy and Saralonde,

I like the fact that the mothers face is touching down onto the baby's head, but I find the adults hand in front of the baby very distracting (because of its size). I could crop it out but I might loose the baby's hand which I would like to keep in the picture. Worse still cropping the adult hand down too much leaves me with an unattractive thumb which I think looks odd. How do you think it would look if I cropped a little off the left, liberally cropped the right to the thumb & cropped up the bottom leaving some of the hand along with the thumb. I think the hand needs work (softened,cleaned up,skin tone changed,which I don't know how to do at this point forcing me to put it in black and white ) and the baby needs some of the pink taken out of his skin and may be brightened slightly. May be I would blur the mother in the background just so you know she is there but keeping the baby in main focus. Now if all that sounds ridiculous then just say so. The only other avenue I know of is to crop it all down and darken as much of the background out as possible leaving just the baby. Should I just forget about it and crop the heck out of it leaving the babys face? May be that the solution is simple and I am over complicating it.

[jiminyClickit]

Miche',

Words can get in the way: the hands communicate. The eyes communicate, maybe a little more now that they're clearer. Photo's brighter, distracting material removed, and still suggests newness (maybe not 'bath'). From here you could do sepia, b/w or even more crop.

[Miche']

Jiminy,

What a nice way of telling me I talk to much. (laughing) Do you know how many times I downsized that post before posting it? Never mind.. thats unimportant. Getting better with the terminology would probably help size down my chattiness but I won't promise anything. In a nutshell, love the edit, you're right about the hands and eyes and I'll explore with the b&W or sepia and try not to kill it. No promises..you know I have a heavy hand.I just hope it does not look like a cartoon when I am done with it.

[jiminyClickit]

Miche',

Self-confession: I could not begin to describe how I would do this, so I had to show it and then throw some words after. Your description gave me some parameters (more is better in this case), even though this does only feature the hand. The face was too incomplete to make including it workable.

All of this is done with the basic PS stuff you're practicing now. As long as you save your original first every time, you can do it until it looks right to you. Always, enjoy the process. And not to worry, your words are my guide. If you don't mind typing, I don't mind reading.