Jonathan Brady
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I was too worked up earlier, about what women have to endure to feed their children, and I didn't leave any specific C&C, sorry about that.
Someone said that they felt the outdoor lighting was unnecessary and MY GUESS is that I disagree. One reason is that adding flare/ghosting/etc. via photoshop is, IMO, going to lead to too much perfection. I like the randomness that natural flare causes. And reason is that if you notice the trees outdoors, in the window pane on the left the branches are more noticeable whereas on the right, thanks to the flare, they're less noticeable. IMO, the flare helped to isolate the subjects against the background. Sure, the isolation could have been done in post by increasing the highlights/exposure, but again, I think having it occur more naturally likely resulted in better results. Could be wrong though.
Regarding the "two legs look like one"... Personally, I don't think it needs much, if any, editing. For one, are we saying that if she was a one legged person, we'd have an issue with the image? And two, it didn't seem to me to appear as one leg. On the underside of her left leg, I can see her right leg pretty easily. I also see two feet worth of toes and the ball of her right foot. Might the image look better with Jeannie's right leg propped up a little? Yeah, probably. But not because it would eliminate doubt of her perceived one-leggedness.
Actually, my biggest opportunity for improvement suggestion would be to locate a more aesthetically pleasing surface for her to sit on. This looks like a folding table with a black sheet on top of it (which it may be). The rest of the scene is warm, inviting, comforting. The table looks hard, dark, unforgiving. And while it's a very small part of the image, I think the contrasting "feelings" it injects could be eliminated by selecting a better surface.
Finally... I can't help but wonder how this image would look with Jeannie leaning up against a big oak tree, sitting on nice, lush grass. If she were wearing a bathing suit bottom which was hidden by the shirt, a wayward tree root, grass/flowers/whatever, there would be no reason for anyone who saw her to complain and I think the setting, in "mother nature", would exponentially increase the impact of the image. I also think the image could serve a dual purpose as a pro-breastfeeding in public piece, if that were so desired.
Having said all of that, I still LOVE the image and if this image were of my wife feeding either of our 2 children, I'd print it without hesitation and hang it up :-)
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