B&W Baby Portrait - Please Critique

Hey Guys & Gals,

This is my daughter Liberty aged 8 weeks (Nearly!), I did this shoot on a whim one evening and think it turned out ok. Hit me with any CC you have i would love to know what you all think, I respect all of your input so much.

Thanks All.

Alex

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/blounty/350975882/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/139/350975882_dc1b35b040_b.jpg" width="1024" height="683" alt="Warm &amp; Safe" /></a>

The eyes say it all - put that camera down.

Nicely captured, I like the composition and the tones.

Roger

Hi Roger,

Thank you for your comments, i really appreciate your time. Does anyone else have any ideas to improve etc?

Thanks All

Alex :)

My eyes were drawn to the highlight on the left cheek. To me, it looks blown out, but this may not be the case. At any rate, de-emphasizing the highlight might help. However, overall, it's a very good shot.

-Joe U.

Hi Alex ~

You have a beautiful little girl! I agree with Medley, that the highlights on her cheek are blown out but on the whole you did a good job of dealing with the available light. I'd rather have a few blown highlights than a baby's face in shadow, so it's a compromise, but it's something to look out for next time and maybe try bracketing the shot.

I think the composition looks a bit awkward. Try cropping out the distractions along the top and just a little bit (use your own discretion here) from the left side. I'd also clone out the little hair stuck to her forehead too if you have the tools for that. Congratulations on your precious Liberty, you should be a very proud Mama, she's lovely!

Regards,

Alex, what a beauty!

I don't mind the cheek highlight too much as I am drawn to the eyes. I would try a tighter crop b/c you have a lot of blanket that doesnt need to be there and the blanket covering the arm is a little distracting but only if you are looking to find fault - otherwise a great picture!

What a BEAUTIFUL little baby!!! I love the angle too.

Good eye contact from the baby.
Great to see both the hands in shot.
Nice tones.
I would crop it a little differently though. A bit off the left and the top thus making the baby's head position almost in the top left. A much better position IMO.
But leave enough framing around the baby just in case you want to mount the photograph, frame it and hang it on the wall.
Centred is ok but makes for a much more interesting and eye pleasing composition when off-centre. Try it and see.
Hope this helps.

I agree with Allison, great emotion and eye contact. I also agree with the crop changes. It might have a little more impact if you tilted the camera down a bit and panned right a little so her eyes were more towards the upper left diagonal.

Great shot.

Hi All,

Thank you so much for all of your excellent ideas! I will most definitely be using all of your pointers in the future!

You guys are great!!

personally i think its a little too low of an angle, as the foreground is distracting. nice and sharp, and the conversion looks fairly good, but I'm looking for a catchlight in the eyes. Without one they really don't pop out as much. I agree with allison's crop aswell. It's still a nice capture, it's just these small improvements that will help you improve your composition and everything else that's good.

Hey livin4lax09,

I completely agree! The lack of the catchlights in her eyes bothers me also, I willhave a re-shoot and see what i come up with. Thank you for you kind comments.

Alex:thumbsup:

I think it is very nice. The shadow on the cheek sort of detracts from the lighting a little. I really like the composition though. I might have hit it with a very little bit of Neat Image to sort of take the edge off the noise. Not much just a little. And it seems like there is a hair above the eyebrow? If that is true, some healing brush on that would be nice.

For starters, I wish I had a picture this good from when my kids were that young. It took me until my oldest was about 2 to really get going on photography.

That said, you have a classic. I would try to get more light in the camera left eye, but we don't want to go blasting baby with a harsh flash either (soft bounce off the ceiling...) Maybe a luittle contrast adjustment, too.