Good photo, especially going B+W. I like the wall and the dof. Your child has your wifes eyes.
With the first one, Mike, I would crop off a bit of the top and left side to remove most of the distracting background.
And with the second, I would probably prefer to back off just a little.
But the basic photography, in both, is fine.
I note Geoff's comments re the crop on the first one.
My thoughts were to leave the left hand side bit to crop at the right, placing your wife closer to the edge of the frame (but not too close. I don't think that seeing so much wall in front her contributes much to the image. I'd put her left shoulder pretty close to the edge. I think the background then gives us context and sets her in a busy urban environment.
Just shows that we all have different takes on the same thing, which is what makes it all so exciting.
Thanks all!!! I'll take a look at the cropping you all suggested!!!
Sorry for being a bit late to the party. On the first one I definitely think it needs a crop and I can see the argument for both left and right sides. On the left side you get the sense of business from the blurred people while on the right the lines in the brick wall do a great job of leading you straight to your wife. That being the case I'll just suggest cropping a bit off the top
On the photo of your daughter, the flash is probably just a touch too overpowering - but I'm being picky and really the photo is fine My only suggestion on top of the others is just to brighten her eyes just a touch.
@Goldcoastgolfer lol thanks! Yeah I am struggling the same way with cropping the photo. I like both elements and what they do for the photo...when I get home from work I will have to see what cropping off the top does!
In regards to the flash I believe I actually brightened it up in post...again I'll have to look at the original when I get home and see what I did. I think I was going for a certain "look" or "feel" and it possibly just didn't come across well. Which is really helpful to me so I can adjust what I am doing in post.
As far as her eyes...I am assuming the easiest way to do that would be to "lasso" her eyes and adjust the levels?
Depends on what program you're using for post processing I use Lightroom so I don't have a lasso tool - just an adjustment brush. Sounds like you're using Photoshop so Lasso should work although the other Photoshop experts can probably give you a better answer - you only want to bring up the level very slightly though.
Roger that Gold!!! Thanks again!
In Photoshop?
Here is what I would do in CS4. Not exactly sure which versions would behave in the same way...
Lasso (or select in any other way) her eyes. When selecting - pay attention to the "feather" of your selection. 0 is not a good number to have there.
Then add adjustment layer - "brightness/contrast" or "levels" or "curves" - whichever you like.
Notice, that when you add that - the new [adjustment] layer appears already with the mask, which is mostly filled with black, only the selection is white.
Then move your sliders till you like the new look.
Then realize, that what you initially selected is not exactly where you wanted your adjustments to apply.
Then pick a brush tool, make it soft (I normally use hardness at 0%), click on mask icon (making it "active layer"), and paint in mask with black and white to adjust areas where adjustment is applied.
Then you are done.
Mike, where's the updated crop of your wife?
I agree that in this case I don't like the vertical centering, but more than that the perspective isn't working for me. If you wanted to include more of the background, which to me looks good and not distracting, I would have used a lower perspective to do exactly that. If on the other hand, you didn't want to show that much of the 'distracting' background, I would have maintained the perspective you have (maybe slightly higher) and simply cropped off the top, and left a little more on the bottom.
The pic of your daughter is lovely, take more, she will grow so fast, which you will only realize too late.
Thanks for posting.