Baby Chase, first newborn shoot

[kimlasher]

Hi all, last time I posted I learned so much and tried to apply what I learned to this next session.

I chose what I think is the best of the shots. Probably an over done pose, but I would love to hear your critique. Does the contrast between the white background and the beige blanket bother you? Other things: cropping, retouching, (he had a scratch on his nose) and lighting.

thanks!

Camera Nikon D5100
Exposure 0.001 sec (1/2000)
Aperture f/1.8
Focal Length 35 mm
ISO Speed 800
Exposure Bias +2/3 EV
Flash No Flash
X-Resolution 300 dpi
Y-Resolution 300 dpi

[Niresangwa]

it's a little under exposed and cold, but with no blown highlights, its nothing that cant easily be fixed in post.

Wish you hadn't chopped the elbow off.

I don't believe the mismatched blanket and backdrop is that big of an issue... if you ended up opting for a black and white conversion, it would be a non-issue.

SO yeah, bump the exposure, warm it up, bring out the eyes a little and it should be pretty solid... not much you can do on the cropped off elbow, aside form try to shoot wider than you'll crop next time.

[edbayani]

looks good to me. the contrast between blanket and bg doesn't bother me. niresangwa is right about the exposure and the 'coldness'. i also wish you did not crop the elbow, but this can all be remedied in photoshop.

this is how it would look like if the elbow was not cropped.

[kimlasher]

Thanks, will do. I think I have the photo with elbow not cropped. Niresangwa, what else did you do to the photo? Looks much better.

Kim

[SusanH1970]

I thought this shot had a LOT of potential; hope you don't mind I had a play!

In ACR, I bumped the exposure and warmed up the WB just a tad. Opened in CS2 and used the eyedropper to sample the blanket color, made a new layer and painted over the background at a lowered opacity. I masked back in where I'd accidentally painted over the edges of the baby. Brightened the eyes just a touch, then increased the canvas size, and used the transform tool set to scale to fill in where it was white from increasing the canvas. Did a levels adjustment layer, cropped, ran through Portraiture at a very low opacity, resized and slightly sharpened.

It's still a bit messy around the edges and if I'd taken more time I'd have been more neat about it, just wanted to show you what could be done to really make this pop.

[Jim Bryant]

Needs to be cropped tighter.

[kimlasher]

Oh, yeah Susan, that looks great. Think I'll play in photoshop tonight.

[kimlasher]

Better, or did I over-do it?

Before:


After:


After #2 Final tweek

[SusanH1970]

Definitely an improvement, but baby looks a tad red/yellow now - maybe you pushed the warmth a bit too much? Not huge, just a little. He still looks a little splotchy, but I also used Portraiture. There are tons of other skin smoothing methods out there if you don't want to invest in that. Nice job on the background - a few rough edges that can be refined by zooming way in and using a harder brush while masking. All in all, pretty nice job!

[SusanH1970]

Originally Posted by edbayani

looks good to me. the contrast between blanket and bg doesn't bother me. niresangwa is right about the exposure and the 'coldness'. i also wish you did not crop the elbow, but this can all be remedied in photoshop.

this is how it would look like if the elbow was not cropped.

Ed, nice job with the elbow. Care to share how you made an elbow, to help others out?