New Granddaughter

[Craigs]

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[owenmorris]

Very beautiful image

[Craigs]

Thank you Owen

[kdoc856]

Beautiful picture, Craig. Tricky to control exposure and skin tones with the very light fabrics, but you managed it nicely. I love the pose with their mouths and noses fitting perfectly together as one. Well done. Makes me miss my only granddaughter.

Kevin

[Craigs]

Thank you Kevin your comments are very kind.
Craig

[Hansm]

opening this post I was happily surprised with the image.
You captured it very good!

Very well done Craig!

[Craigs]

Hi Hans,
Thank you very much for your very kind comments.
Craig

[jeeperman]

Congrats Grandpa and a very nice image, one which I am sure will stay current and enjoyed on the walls of your familys homes for many years if not generations to come.

[Craigs]

Hi Paul,
Thank you very very much for your kind comments
Well i must admit my son and his partner loves the images from the shoot. which makes old Grandpa even happier

Thank you again for your very kind comments they are much appreciated.
Craig

[rpcrowe]

Lovely shot. One which you will treasure forever.

[Craigs]

Hi Richard thank you, your comments are very kind.
Craig

[Donald]

Craig

The others have said it - A beauty.

How did you light it?

[Craigs]

Hi Donald, Thank you for your kind comments.

The set up was really simple, a small 36" softbox directly above camera.
Black backdrop which i stood them both about 6ft infront of to ensure no light fall off.

Shot at 100 ISO at 50ish mm if i remember right.

I didnt on this occasion use any reflectors as the main light was soft enough and close enough to wrap the light nicely.

All shot in their lounge one rainy afternoon
Hope this explains it a little.
Craig

[speedneeder]

Craig, what editing software are you using?
I agree that this is a wonderful image. If it were mine, I would make a few tweaks such as smoothing out some skin textures, and maybe slightly adjusting some exposure. I don't care for the way mom is kissing between the nose and the lip, but to each their own, I can see how many would like this.

Edit, couldn't resist to process this wonderful photo.

[Craigs]

Hi Brian,
Just made a few very basic tweaks in PS CS5. i.e. levels, sharpening, crop etc the normal kinda stuff lol
She had great skin so didnt want to play around with the image to much as it was purely for their album a record of their new bundle of joy

I must say i do like your edit though
What did you do?
Craig

[Hansm]

Personally I prefer your version, Craig.
To my oppinion there is no need in tweaking the skin textures.
Your image looks more natural.

[kdoc856]

Agree with Hans on this one. I didnt see the skin texture as a flaw but as part of her uniqueness, and I thought having Mom's profile conform so perfectly to her child's was artfully brilliant

[Pjerry]

A great picture Craig, it gives me a lot of inspiration.

I never thought about tweaking this picture (it's already so good), but now it's done, I must say that the balance in the tweaked one is better to my opinion. Especially the darkening of the the white childs cloth is an improvement.

Gratz with your lovely granddaughter.

regards Pierre

[speedneeder]

Hi Craig - I want to say again, I do like this image and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it as it is. As others have commented, everyone has different tastes. What struck ME about the image when I first looked at it was, in this order:
Awe, how wonderfully sweet, it looks a little dark for a mom and baby pic, this would make a great large print if Mom's skin was just a tad smoother, and the baby's bright clothes keep grabbing my attention.
I made three smalls changes to show another possible interpretation:
First, I did just a little cloaning, mostly Mom's cheek and I think one spot on baby's cheek. There is nothing wrong with their skins, just in this case it was distracting me from the wonderful and tender moment you captured.
Two, a small curves adjustment to mid and highlights, shadows look great already. The overall image just appeared a little dark to me.
Three, I darkened the baby's clothes with a gradient. I didn't quite get it right, the shoulder is still a little bright for my taste, but I think OK to demonstrate what could be done here.

Thanks for sharing your photo with us.

[Craigs]

Hi Brian,
i really like your adjustments to the image.
Poppys (the baby) clothes looks better now toned down a tad thats for sure.

I must admit however i didnt spend very long at all on the processing i would say it took me no more than 10 mins in total. Maybe i should have spent longer looking into the image further.

The main reason i didn't spend as long as i would normally on this image is purely the use of it. It is going to be put into an album, and not hung on a wall.

But like i said earlier i really like your adjustments and IMHO it does improve the image

Craig