3weeks baby needs CC

planC · Nov 1, 2012

Hello everyone, I am a proud dad of our third son. I bought my first DSLR camera only last year (still bitter that I should have gotten with my first baby). Any how, I have been very busy with taking pictures of our third son. This is a picture of him at 3 weeks. Somehow I am in love with this one and are looking for some tips of my before and after processing and what size of prints I can print at. Please please help. This is my first time posting, but definitely lurking for a long long time. I will take any advice that can make this picture pop a little bit more. I am using LR3 and my picture size is 4752 x 3168.

before

after

Thank you in advance. I am by no mean professional, this is strictly hobby for my kids and family. This is Noah by the way.

snowbear · Nov 2, 2012

Welcome to TPF.

He's a real cutie!

I'm not a pro, and typically don't shoot people, but IMO the "before" is better. I don't think the B&W does him any justice. I also think the skin smoothing is overdone - he looks like plastic. Personally, I would stay with the color shot, and fix a few spots like the little red dot on his cheek, and the whitish spots around his right eye.

Sweetneers · Nov 2, 2012

Take the before image, lighten a fourth a stop, remove major blemishes via the repair tools in your photo editing application. Brighten the eyes a tad, and throw in some clarity. Add very light feathered vignette, and you're good to go.

planC · Nov 2, 2012

Thank You snowbear and sweetneers for your time to comments. I will print the color one with a little tweaking.

slow231 · Nov 2, 2012

Sweetneers said:
Take the before image, lighten a fourth a stop, remove major blemishes via the repair tools in your photo editing application. Brighten the eyes a tad, and throw in some clarity. Add very light feathered vignette, and you're good to go.

i agree with all of this with the exception of maybe the clarity. baby eyes are huge, and dark eye kids can usually use some additional light on the eyes. the B+W has way too much smoothing (oh and also i hate b+w). as for CC, nice shot of him looking into the camera, that makes a big difference IMO and isn't always easy with babies. I wish you hadn't cut off the cute baby hand though. also it's hard when the baby's that young and awake, but opening up the clenched fists displays the cute fingers and makes them look more relaxed (although some think the fists endearing). toes and fingers are instant "awww" shots. also depending on the print aspect ratio, maybe crop a bit of the dead space on the right.

planC · Nov 2, 2012

Thank you for the tips SLOW, i think i will try to post more pics for CC because it sure helps and i need all the i can get. I learn most of the photos stuff from youtube but never got feedback. I think i've made a good decision asking for CC

cynthiav99 · Nov 2, 2012

agree with all said and agree don't like the "orton" effect on the B+W a natural one in black and white would be fine but you have a great color one so go with it. clean up the skin a tad

Great shot!

planC · Nov 2, 2012

How about now? I tried to listen to all the advice tips and tricks so far.

slow231 · Nov 3, 2012

i personally like the last edit a bit better, but in this situation you have the unique position of being the client and the photographer. we'll give you all the advice we can about what we think could work, but ultimately it's your call on what you think looks better. whatever you like, run with it, print it, keep shooing it, and enjoy! congrats on the new kiddo, and don't forget that even though they're older, the dslr can get just as much use with #1 and 2 as well!

Sweetneers · Nov 3, 2012

planC said:
How about now? I tried to listen to all the advice tips and tricks so far.

I think the image looks great. It's already been mentioned, but try to shoot a bit wider, and crop down, that way you make sure you keep the hands. Other than that, I'd buy this photo if I was your client.