Chubby Cheeks

[Alison]

Window light only / no reflector / no flash / I used my kit lens 18-55mm / AV mode / ISO 400 / f/4.50
Would love to know what you all think.

[ChowChi-Ching]

What a cutie, but I think I would like to see all of the babys head.

[Alison]

I was trying to put the rule of thirds into practise Chow. So you are lucky here is the un-cropped version.

[brookied]

the second version is the better, the expression is great. "what in the blue hell are you doing?"

Great shot

[Sebastian]

First one is more personal, closer. The dark area of the frame is distracting from an overall light toned image. Did you put some sort of softening filter over it? It could use to be sharper and have more contrast.

[Alison]

No the only thing I did to this image was to convert it to B&W. I just sat my baby girl on my bed and just practised with my dof in-camera. I only used my kit lens. I don't have any filters.

[freygr]

the second version is the better, the expression is great. "what in the blue hell are you doing?"

Great shot

Second that................ But you could crop the sides and it should focus the attention more to your subject.

[Alison]

Thank you for your help.
Well it's nice to know my original was fine.

As for the dark area...short of moving the furniture around and then taking the shot, by which time the baby would probably have been crying. That's why i decided to go for bg blur to acheive dof.

I have now cropped it as has been suggested and in the second image decide to get rid of the furniture and toy in the bg.

My opinion...I have lost the dof in the second and have I improved the image by cloning out the furniture and toy?
What do you think?

[gahspidy]

the second one with the furniture cloned out is good. To address your very first image posted of the cropped head, I see lots of portraits done where the heads are cut off, especially within the last couple of years as it seems to be a trend or something. I like it in many that i have seen as it brings the subject right up into the viewers face , so to speak. And that is the whole idea. However, something about doing it as you have done to a babys head just does not seem to work, for me. Aside from that, I would like to see a bit more contrast, tones that pop a bit. It all seems a flat soft gray, and then the huge dark eyes standing out. those are just some of my thoughts on the thread, but I do think the last batch you presented with the furniture cloned out is working very well.

[freygr]

Thank you for your help.
Well it's nice to know my original was fine.

As for the dark area...short of moving the furniture around and then taking the shot, by which time the baby would probably have been crying. That's why i decided to go for bg blur to acheive dof.

I have now cropped it as has been suggested and in the second image decide to get rid of the furniture and toy in the bg.

My opinion...I have lost the dof in the second and have I improved the image by cloning out the furniture and toy?
What do you think?

I like the second image. I did copy the image and adjusted the contrast like Gary suggested and it does improved the protait, but you have to watch the highlights as not to wash them out.