First Newborn photo shoot! CC pretty please!

JenLavazza · Jan 5, 2011

1. As far as angle, crop, comp, clarity, etc. this shot is nice. I do not like the processing at all though. This photo is basically skin and the processing is a sickly color for skin tone. Personal preference though! It does look a little flat though.

2. Cute shot! Only major complaint is how flat the image is. Here is a quick example of what I mean:

NOW there is depth. All I did was slide the left slider to the right in the lighting levels of Photoshop.

3. Skintones look orange to me. Selecting the baby and adjusting the saturation or adding a cooling filter would help. I agree the basket should be angled horizontally. I've done the same thing before though....you live and learn. Still precious though! I LOVE a newborn in a basket!! lol

4. I LOVE baby feet! I think a straight black and white processing or left in color would be best though. These black and whites with tints of color just look odd on skin to me, but again personal preference! Nice comp and clarity on this one as well!

ababysean · Jan 5, 2011

I think they are really nice, however on the first one, the close up, it seems as if you maybe sprayed with a low opacity brush to fix skin tone, but forgot to mask the nose holes and the space for the mouth?

RauschPhotography · Jan 5, 2011

Not really liking any of the post processing effects done on this set, sorry--especially the sepia in #1. Could be personal preference, but when editing newborns I really shy away from any kind of tints to my edits. Occasionally a B&W, but most are natural and soft in color.

swedberg311 · Jan 5, 2011

Jeanelle said:
1.

Really nice for your first newborn shoot I know they can be really tricky the one thing that bothers me is #3 if you could lighten the skin and remove the red so it looks more doll like... Maybe like this

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Jeanelle · Jan 5, 2011

I just wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone for your critiques! I learn soooo much on here, and it is wonderful to be able to try to train my eye to see these things when I am shooting them. I really appreciate all the thought that you guys have put into your comments and for making them so straight to the point instead of yeah I like it or no I hate it! I am not where I would like to be on the post processing yet, but I hope to be getting a lot better. I agree that I should stick with one type of color treatment, I will try in the future to be even better about that. I just need to pick out my favorite for that shoot and stick with it I guess!

Jeanelle · Jan 5, 2011

Swedberg311 I love the new image! I will have to try to work on that. I use LightRoom2, so I will work on learning how to do that!

swedberg311 · Jan 5, 2011

No Problem I love newborns if you have any questions feel free to message me or find me on facebook . I love doing edits and I have had people help me along the way so Id love to pay it forward.

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AprilEye · Jan 5, 2011

SO cute! But I wonder with #2 if it was your intent to have the babies feet not completey centered with the two "humbs" of the heart. I mean, on the right side you can see the entire hand near the top and on the left side, the babies foot covers that part of the hand. See what I'm sayin'?

Karri · Jan 5, 2011

Great set - I agree with Studio7Four about #1 and for #3, I see what misstwinklytoes is saying. My thought is I would have liked a different blanket in there - one softer, fuzzier since with newborn shots, everything is about soft. That's the only thing that I can put my finger on with that one. Overall, fantastic job!

phiya · Jan 5, 2011

Schwettylens said:
I agree with you, how about leveling it and the rotate it 180 deg?

Studio7Four said:

3) I agree that the tilted basket is bugging me. Unfortunately, simply rotating it to level the handles would put the baby's head lower than the rest of his body which just feels wrong. If you're good enough with Photoshop you can probably move each of the handles just a little without touching the rest of the basket or the baby so everything feels more level. I kind of like the neutral color of the blanket he's lying on, it blends in with the basket a bit and allows the eye to go right to the baby. However, though I'm sure it's really soft in person, it doesn't convey that. I'd suggest in the future using something more blatantly soft, something fluffier or shaggier. I also think this would work well as a B&W, particularly if you tone down the brightness a bit. (Similarly to my comment for #1, "baby in a basket" is a serene scene and I'd like to see more mellow lighting.)

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That is a good suggestion schwetty. As an aside, rather than moving the handles on the basket in photoshop, it probably would be easier, and give the same result to just remove them all together in photoshop

Jeanelle · Jan 5, 2011

That is a good suggestion schwetty. As an aside, rather than moving the handles on the basket in photoshop, it probably would be easier, and give the same result to just remove them all together in photoshop[/QUOTE]

Thanks that is a good idea, is there a way to do that in LR2? I have messed with photoshop a bit, but other than just cloning it out is there any easy way to do this? You guys are sooo smart!!

Robin Usagani · Jan 5, 2011

LR3 isnt very good if you need to clone something like that. You need to use photoshop.

Jeanelle · Jan 5, 2011

Schwettylens said:
LR3 isnt very good if you need to clone something like that. You need to use photoshop.

I need to spend more time in photoshop, I just kinda have given up on it for a while because I was having such a hard time with it. I even have been watching tutorials on it just like I did for Lightroom, but it seems so much harder to understand.