Newborn **WARNING!!! SELECTIVE COLORING - view at own risk** ;)

[eric-holmes]

Yes, the colored Bow does take the eye away from the baby, but I think......

This would be what you need to get past. You know that it takes attention away from the baby, but you are letting your own personal liking get in the way of making the photograph better.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

I had no doubts that you are here to improve. I just had to point out that "because the customer liked it" is not a rebuttal of any value.It's used all too frequently as a defense against critique. I didn't feel you were being defensive, but you just HAD to throw that in there.

 

[helenjune]

I definitely feel like you were being defensive at first, in response to Travellers input.

You were given some points about the photograph that were bringing it down, in that persons opinion, and I think that instead of considering it very carefully and seriously trying to understand those points as best you could, you made excuses and put the onus of responsibility on someone else to "prove" their critique to you, with somewhat of an expectation that they provide you with more information instead of it being something you take the responsibility of trying to find out for yourself first.

I don't think it's a coincidence that someone felt like replying with "nevermind" in response to your reply toward Traveller.

That being said, you did calm down a bit and accept critique with a little more of an open-mind afterwards, but I dislike it when people act as if they aren't being defensive about something and never have been, when it's quite clear to me that they almost certainly were.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Helen!

 

[helenjune]

What!

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Hi!

 

[jani]

I like your baby pictures, but have to agree with the comments about selective coloring. Not that selective coloring is bad. It just doesn't work real well here.

 

[Rebekah5280]

I definitely feel like you were being defensive at first, in response to Travellers input.

You were given some points about the photograph that were bringing it down, in that persons opinion, and I think that instead of considering it very carefully and seriously trying to understand those points as best you could, you made excuses and put the onus of responsibility on someone else to "prove" their critique to you, with somewhat of an expectation that they provide you with more information instead of it being something you take the responsibility of trying to find out for yourself first.

I don't think it's a coincidence that someone felt like replying with "nevermind" in response to your reply toward Traveller.

That being said, you did calm down a bit and accept critique with a little more of an open-mind afterwards, but I dislike it when people act as if they aren't being defensive about something and never have been, when it's quite clear to me that they almost certainly were.

I was being defensive. Especially with Traveler's critique, I always feel ripped apart by Traveler, so my first instinct is to defend my work.
However, after I shed a few tears (j/k) I was able to step away from the picture and look at it in a different light. I tend to fall in love with everything I do, so I need to remember to take a step back and look at it from a different perspective.
I really do appreciate everyone's critiques, even Travelers. I have grown leaps and bounds, and I have you all to thank!

 

[The_Traveler]

I always feel ripped apart by Traveler, so my first instinct is to defend my work.

Rebekah,

I am sorry that I come across harshly; I try only to say what I am thinking and not pad it with extra stuff in an attempt to 'take care of' the artist. There is absolutely no malice involved.

It is very difficult to learn photography when your subject is an object of emotional attachment because your own feelings overwhelm any critical sense. It's like looking at your spouse while happily married and then after a divorce. After a divorce you can see all the fault, warts and wrinkles much more objectively.

I love my grandchildren and I've taken lots of pictures of them and, only after some effort, am I able to separate well-done (by my standards) pictures from pictures taken by a doting grandfather.

You need a little more emotional distance. Work on composition. Get better color and detail in your shots. Find the best f stops for your lenses. Practice on a doll if you must until you can reliably get a good shot whatever the situation.

Most of all don't depend on a gimmick or emotional connection to replace good composition, great color and fine detail.

I will do my best to be more pleasant - and if I fail, have no hesitation in telling me to be nice.

Lew

 

[Big Mike]

I think it's been said, but I'd like to expand on why I think people dislike selective coloring and why it doesn't work here.

I think that many of us photographers have come to dislike selective coloring because it's so often done poorly. Not that it's been executed poorly, but that poor choices have been made. People usually choose the wrong things to leave in color...and here we have the classic example of it.
It's a shot of a beautiful baby with a bow/flower on their head....and the typical choice is to leave the bow/flower in color while removing color from the rest of the image (the baby).
So what does selective color to for an image? It forces the viewer to look first and foremost to part of the object that is in color. It makes the colored part of the image, the focal point...the most important part of the image.
So now you need to ask yourself what really is the most important part of the photo...the baby or the flower? Of course, it's the baby (unless you are selling flowers). So why would people often choose to take emphasis away from the subject and put it on something less important? Probably because they don't know any better and it's just what they have seen before.

Now, unlike most photographers, I don't really hate selective coloring. I just don't like when poor choices have been made. I think that selective coloring (or selective de-coloring) can be a very useful tool in the photographer's (photoshoper's) tool box. You just have to know when & where to use it effectively, to help achieve the goal of the image.
More specifically, it is more properly used when you selectively de-emphasize parts of the image that would distracting from your subject. And ironically, I think that with most of these baby shots with flowers & bows, would be better photos if they took the color away from the bow/flower and left the baby in color.

Lastly, I just think that taking the color away from a person, especially a baby, looks a bit morbid. Especially when you contrast it against something that does have some color. I really don't want to expand on that...I'll just say that it feels better when the baby is a nice healthy color.

 

[helenjune]

I was being defensive. Especially with Traveler's critique, I always feel ripped apart by Traveler, so my first instinct is to defend my work.

It's understandable that people get defensive about their work - you invest your time, energy and emotion into it, and inevitably you may feel that the end product carries pieces/traces of you within it. It becomes harder to separate yourself, but when you haven't done that yet and you open your work up to critique, it's easy to have that 'knee-jerk' reaction. I don't doubt that everyone has probably been there at one time or another.

Thank you for being so honest in return to my comment. I can see you have humility, and I believe that is one of the most important traits in a person - the more humility a person cultivates inside of them the easier learning becomes, because they aren't letting themselves get in the way of it. Happy learning