Flash Bounce Critique?

[sillyphaunt]

Bear with me here, this may take some expaining

This shot was taken on the couch (it has a white slip cover). The walls are white, so reflective, and the ceiling is low, so I thought maybe I could bounce a flash off of the ceiling. I've never done it before, but came up with this (uncropped, no levels done, just resized)

This is a scanned picture, so a bit of the unsharpness is from that. I messed around in photoshop and came up with this:

I just wanted some ideas about how better to use the flash in this situation? It seems like I got pretty even lighting but I'm not sure if I could have done it a better way.

And any suggestions on a better crop? I did cut it that close on the feet on accident in the initial photo, so I can't fix that, but any other ideas? Do you think the B/W works well here or not?

And here's the other shot I had.. I can't decide which one I like better.

Thanks

 

[LRJ]

i don't use bounce flash that much, when i do i get similar results, so i have no advice, - i like the one with the arms folded the best and i think the b&w works great - too bad about the cutting off of the little pudgy toes though, they're always cute

 

[KevinR]

#2 is really the best one. I see a couple of things. You are right in between on the lighting. Either, you need more to get rid of the shadow on the boys right side of his face. Or less light on that side to create more dramatic shadow. I would opt for more myself. Bouncing a flash for me is a crap shoot. It is a nice try. Better than I would have done, but I think you just need more of a light source. Then the details would pop more.

 

[mentos_007]

what is suprising: I prefer B&W here... but why did you crop his foot? On every picture one feet is cropped out :/

 

[Raymond J Barlow]

super cool work, sweet child! love all of them. How did u soften them, I like the mood!