Beautiful Babe ;) C&C

[tmjjk]

Okay... other than the obvious disrespect for the portrait orientation and rule of thirds....
What do you think? Am I partial to this little beauty? Any C&C is welcome... thanks so much

 

[cgipson1]

Mommy goggles! Cute kid... cute smile... but.............................................................................

 

[Derrel]

Crop off all that useless flooring on either side of her, and make it a "tall", and you have an absolutely LOVELY image!!!!! I looked at it full-sized, and I think you did a marvelous job of emulating the shallow DOF look of very OLD-timey portrait artists who shot, by necessity, using large glass plates and lenses that had VERY narrow DOF at indoor portrait distances. The rendering of her baby face with this kind of DOF,and the old-school, looking-downward-on-a-baby camera angle, with the child looking upward..is just super! Tres retro chic!

Cropped to a better composition with all that dead space eliminated,and the emphasis placed therefore on the SUBJECT'S FACE, this will make a truly timeless baby portrait, one that would look like a,professional studio shot from 1890, or 1910, or 1950, or 1980,or 2012.

Damn fine work.

 

[Heitz]

Great accent on eyes. Was this at 50mm 1.4?

 

[Derrel]

Here, I did a sort of QUICK, 2-minute rotate, crop, B&W gradient map conversion from RGB to B&W, Gaussian blur, screen, and quickie clone-in of the upper right hand corner. The bottom needed more reconstruction that I am willing to do, since the rotation 5 degrees CW left the bottom of the canvas blank, I just cloned in the lower left corner, and then cropped it off. It NEEDS more baby torso on the bottom unless cropped in at the top of the head, but that would make it look modern, and not "old-timey". Post-posting note: I can see now, that MORE cropping off the right-hand side would improve this. I also saw that the flooring had been burned down, which was revealed when I lighten the blacks up AFTER the conversion from RGB to B&W. This has kind of the look of some very old hand-airbrushed backdrops! I'm pretty sure some more cropped off on the right will REALLY strengthen this up!

 

[tmjjk]

Great accent on eyes. Was this at 50mm 1.4?

Yes... crazy I know

And thank you Derrel...

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2


3

 

[tmjjk]

WOW... nice Derrel... I didn't even realize how crooked... thanks, AND I vow to flip my camera the other way

 

[Derrel]

What's another 2 minutes....yet ANOTHER 5 degree CW rotate, another crop, then more cloning-in at the top left, top rightm, and bottom-left. NOWHERE near perfect, but kind of a general idea of what I see (or envisioned as being within) in this image as an "Old-Timey", classic baby photographic portrait look.

 

[tmjjk]

that's great Derrel! thanks for taking the time

 

[Derrel]

And thank you Derrel...


3View attachment 16323

zOMG!!!! Clone in some more canvas for her to "look into" and convert to a subtle hand-tinted look. OR do a light, delicate B&W look!! People need to click on this image, then click again, to see it LARGE. This shot has lovely rendering...the Canon 50mm f/1.4 EF is a lens I own, and I think it has lovely bokeh. It draws a beautiful image! Alternately, cut off some of the right hand side of the yarn bonnet, and it'll have nice balance.

 

[michael9000000]

The photo is gorgeous overall... I just wonder if the eyes were sharpened a bit too much...

Well done!

 

[MLeeK]

I was noticing the over cooked eyes too. Not that they are horrible, but they make the rest of the image seem soft.
I LOVE the second one in your later post. It's a bit darker, but I just really love her expression. So serious!!

 

[tmjjk]

I dodged the eyes in Lightroom, which I believed only lightened them? Does dodging sharpen them a well?? Thank you!

 

[LShooter]

Great shots! Only thing I might have done different is have her on a light background rather than a dark one.

 

[amolitor]

The reflections in the eyes are a bit much, yes. You might consider dodging the eyes to bring them up, but burning the reflections down a touch. The reflections of the windows (skylights?) giving you that great light are so large they dominate the eyeball -- it looks vaguely like cataracts or something, which is too bad since the rest of it is so great! Not something we normally think of 'what if the catchlights are TOO BIG?' but what can ya do?