Newborn snuggle

[First Light]

Hi, everyone! This is my first attempt at newborn photography. Luckily, my beautiful neighbor has a 6 week old for me to practice on! Here is one of my shots from last weekend:



I'd like to know what you think of the composition. I also finally got my LR3 today (yippee!!), and have been playing around with it. In PP I did some correcting of skin flaws on his forehead, then added a B&W with green filter.

EXIF:
Cannon Rebel T3i
Lens EF-S 18-55mm
focal length 55mm
flash: in camera/fired
exposure time: 0.0167s (1/60)
aperture: 5
f/5.6
white balance auto (oh, yeah, I touched that up in PP, too)
shot in JPEG
ISO 800
shutter speed 6

[fais54]

So cute! I have a soft spot for baby photography, and I can't wait to get into it but it seems a bit difficult, so I commend anyone who does it. Now on the photo, It's not overexposed, but I think the exposure can be toned down a smidgen. I think there's too much empty space at the bottom. I think you do a tighter, square crop would work and would still show off the snuggie thing it has on. I think it would look a lot more professional (?) just straight up B+W, without the green filter. I think you did a good job at editing the small flaws, I wouldn't have noticed it if you didn't say anything.

EDIT: I see you used flash. So, it may not be the exposure as to why it's a bit bright. You can use your 'Flash Compensation' (I'm not sure if that's what it's called) on your camera to lower the power of the flash to get softer results. I'm having a hard time with indoor photography myself, so I'm not sure what else to tell you. Try to use natural lighting, or your own 'makeshift' light setup so you don't have to use flash.

[JFSanders]

Everything that Fais has said is spot on. If you are using on camera flash make yourself a bounce card or a diffuser to soften the light as much as possible. What you are seeing here is the texture of his skin being washed out. Bringing it down in post may bring back the texture but it would be easier to do in camera. The composition is pretty good but as Fais said there is too much space at the bottom for me. He is a beautiful baby. I would also suggest that you do a straight conversion or go with a sepia tone but to be honest I don't like sepia photographs all that much.

Jim

[First Light]

Thanks guys! Appreciate the input!