New Born & Toddler in hands

[KTHXBAI]

My wife thinks this is a great shot. However, her view is slightly skewed since these are our kids Maybe i'm just hard on myself but I think the lighting on my older sons right eye seems to be too dark and looking at it may give an optical illusion that my sons hand is the one on the left... or am i just crazy? Thanks for viewing

[GrahamH]

Wow your older son has large hands - or in other words, yes I agree with your assessment as to composition.
The iris blends into the shadows, a little more detail and great. Also I find the shadows around the corners of the mouth a little too dark.

I'd love to see one with the three subjects hands (big, little and tiny) all together with their heads showing.
Beautiful BW nevertheless, Michael.


Graham

[PRSearls]

Congratulations, Michael on your newborn. This is a very precious image that captures the wonder and joy of your toddler. It will become even more precious in time, when they are both grown. His dark eye might be lightened in post processing (Lightroom > Lightness slider) but I would not want to change the image very much. Your composition and lighting looks very good to me and draws my eye to your toddler's adorable expression. The adult's hands seem a little foreign to the image but logic tells me this was necessary. I think this would have been a stronger image if they did not show, not practical I'm sure, to get this shot. Nevertheless, it's a very fine image that evokes strong emotion in any parent or grandparent (me). Your black & white treatment is beautiful and very fitting, in my view. I would be proud to get an image like this. I am voting with your wife on this one.

- Paul -

[KTHXBAI]

Thank you both for your insight and opinions.

@Graham I think your hand idea is a great idea. I may have to give that a shot.

@Paul did you mean fill light? The original image was very poorly exposed (even with a flash ) so some info was lost. I jumped up the exposure by +2 I'm okay with LR but this is the best I could repair the photo. I think I am with my wife on this one too. It's just the critic in me that hates the errors that I can see.

Thanks again.