Dreamy Look or Over Exposed?

[taycam]

I am hoping to take my love of photography to the next level in the near future. I am hoping to specialize in infant portraits, so I've put the word out to all of my friends so they will let me practice with their little ones. This photo is from my very first session (which was a blast!) and I am very pleased with how the pictures came out. This is also my first time using Photoshop Elements 8. I was going for that dreamy look that many baby photographers use, but I don't think I like it. Is it just me or does it look over exposed?

Camera Model: Canon 50D
f-stop: f/5.6
ISO-100
focal length: 55mm
exposure time: 1/6 sec.
no flash used
shoot through umbrella light and a silver reflector

I've posted the original and the post production version

[Indigo November]

Sorry, but you just overexposed it.
Personally, I don't like the "dreamy" look (at least not when overdone), but I think people would use a gaussian blur to achieve that effect...... usually with some overexposure.
I think if you added a slight gaussian blur you would have what you are looking for.
I'm sure someone with more time will perform some sort of blur on it to show you.

[LeeR]

In photography there are rules, and then there are rules. Some, like the rule of thirds, are made to be broken. Others are inviolate and should never be broken. One of those is the one that goes "Though shalt not allow thy whites to get blown out." That is, we don't want our whites to get so light that they lose all detail especially in areas that are important. Allowing the whites to get blown out in the background certainly contributes to the dreamy feeling but losing details in the babies face and fingers is not attractive. Do you have the skills to blow out the background while leaving the baby intact? It can be done if you know how.
There was an artist a few years ago who did lots of paintings of beautiful women where all that showed was the hair, the eyes, the mouth and two little shadows that represented the nose; everything else was white on a white background. These were immensely popular for a while but I have yet to see anything like it catch on in photography.

[taycam]

I started over from scratch. Is that better? Anything you notice about lighting, composition, post production, etc. would be helpful and greatly appreciated. I really want to improve. Thank You.

[skoggiel]

beautiful baby! in my opinion, the whole image looks out of focus. in adding the blur to get that dreamy look coupled with the short dof, the entire image looks fuzzy and is distracting. i liked it better without the "dreamy" attempt. I admire your tenacity at nailing the look you want! keep it up!

[daddyoproductions]

My suggestion to you is work on nailing the focus in the first place. If you're using natural light you can shoot consecutively so you get one without cam shake. Then you want to go and research newborn editing tutorials...there are a bunch of good ones. You will end up selectively softening, lightening, smoothing parts of the pic, not usually the whole thing at once. Then you'll realize it's easier to adjust the quality of light before you take the shot, not in PP, and then you'll go back and learn to do that. At least that's how I've gone so far...though I need to get my hands on some newborns (currently waiting for three to arrive!)

~C