baby hands

[NeuroVision]

While away, I had the opportunity to take many (many!) photos of my 5 mo niece. I really liked her chubby hands, but had difficulty capturing the softness while retaining the depth of the lines and curves. This was my best shot. Any suggestions for shooting baby appendages?

[wulf]

I think you have managed an impressive image with this one. If you want more softness, you could look at post-processing - perhaps applying a gentle blur away from the lines or just some manual "airbrushing".

However, I think this is great as it is, including the overall light - subject - dark flow from top to bottom.

Wulf

[googlit]

really gorgeous shot.

if you have Photoshop, try this:

) duplicate the layer
) filters > blur > gaussian blur
) raise the radius until the details start to disappear and it's relatively blurry
) change the layer blending mode. try overlay and screen.

you should end up with something like this (click it to see the larger version):

the "other" was me copying the red channel (rather than duplicating the original picture layer) and applying the process above.

[Saralonde]

I think you did a really nice job with this shot. Nice memory of when she was so small.

[XpLoiT]

i like the detail in the "original" photo, i think manipulating it with overlays would only be an idea if u wanted to stray away from the detail and lighting captured.

Editing the photo does have some benifits, ie: overlay, but then it looks like it has been played with and, i dont think, that it will have the same relationship to the person as the "original" shot

[The Real Caffeine]

very cool shot, it looks a little unbalanced to me though - maybe it's because the white cuts off to the black. If you darkened the hands just a tad that might take that effect away. How close were you? The hands look just stunning...

[NeuroVision]

Thank you all for your comments on this photo! I am not yet skilled in Photoshop (currently using v7), so I did not use it to edit this photo. Simple things still take me hours. This image was cropped slightly and I applied the "sepia" affect in iPhoto.

I learned a lot from your various suggestions, particularly with Photoshop, and I hope to implement these in the future. As for distance, I was pretty close to her, probably 2.5 feet, (info says: 46mm, 800 ISO and F5.3, 1/25, no flash).
It was morning, and the light was warm, but I would have preferred more of it to drop down to 400.

[dkchac]

This is really cute and people really like to have these memories -- of when their children's hands were so little. I also would soften the skin -- because it is one of the precious things we like about babies... I use CorelPaintShop Photo Pro XI and the skin softening feature. It works BEAUTIFULLY and it is fast and effective for photos like this.

I really like how you captures something really precious here! Good work!

Debbie

[Liacs]

wow, this looks great! I am just a bloody beginner and don't know how to make those shots.
My son is also 5 months now and I would love to have such photos of him...

Lia

[dkchac]

Skin softening and warm glamour filtering on Corel Paintshop Photo Pro XI. Hope you like this... just a different slant to the beautiful work you have already done...

One on left is original. One on right is tweaked with Corel.

Debbie