Excellent photo, Mark! I love the B & W for this. Really nice work! There is only one thing that bothers me a little bit - the way Julie's arm disappears into the black at the right corner it gives me the disconcerting impression of an unattached arm. Yikes! As I said, it's a small thing but perhaps significant.
Congratulations on baby Julie's arrival! How about a few more details? I'm sure we'll all look forward to seeing a lot more of her!!!
All we have right now is her arm till we pay off the HMOs deductible in twelve payments. Her first birthday will be extra special!
Mom had her in a frilly dress, so I used some black cloth to mask it off. She was a lot more fidgetty than I expected.
I agree it does look a bit odd.
She was born July 23, about a month early and was 6lbs13 oz and 19 inches. She came home after a few days at the hospital. All is well, except her big two-year-old brother thinks she is a football to carry around.
You guys were right. I had some shots I had shot mistakenly with the camera set on med jpg instead of RAW, so I hadn't looked at those. Had to do the conversion differently.
I thought the "floating arm" series was going to crop better than it did. To crop it to remove the floating, would cut off too much of the thumb.
I almost like this one better, and I didn't have to worry about not having enough pixels to work with. 640 is really small!
I have to tell you I love this. I also saw the other shot and had the same issue as Endre. This new one is great. Makes me remember what those days were like. Way to go!
Hi Mark! First of all......Congratulations!! What a joy to have a little baby in the house. Can't wait to see more of Miss Julie!
I didn't see your other entry, but this one is excellent. Gorgeous lighting, and sharpness. The B/W works well, and this is just my opinion, but I'm betting we'll be voting on this one.
Best of all, this is an image that Julie will cherish when she's all grown up. I'd love to have one with my Dad's hand, and mine, when I was brand new.
It's a portrait that is sure to be an heirloom. I'm envious!
Thanks everyone. My wife bought me the 20D back when our son was born with instructions to take lots of pics of him. Well, 10,000+ pics later, a fair percentage are of him. Most others are shots for the WA! I'm looking forward to the next 10,000!
The new shot is MUCH better, Mark! The B & W is still wonderful and the clarity and composition are much better, too. My ONLY niggling little complaint wolud be that had it been my shot, I'd have cropped it slightly less tightly - enough to allow for the top of your finger not to get cut off. Either it should be cropped corageously somewhere way down or so that the entire hand is visible. Missing that tiny sliver of finger is just a tad irritating. I may be all wet, but that, for me, would make it a perfect shot!
I hope you get those payments to the HMO in sooner rather than later as I'd love to get to see the rest of Miss Julie! Congratulations, again and Philly said, I'm sure we'll be voting on this in the finals!
Thanks again Endre! I was paying too much attention to what I was going to do with the nail part of that finger, I lost the knuckle. I thought it might be OK, since it might empahsize how big my hand is, but I think it almost works better as the bend brings your eye back into the pic and towards her fingers.
I also let a little more of the last knuckle show to provide a stop so that your eye doesn't drift out.
Mark,
This is priceless! Keep a copy of this one around for Julie and for you later on. You will really appreciate it about fifteen years from now.
Robert
Almost perfect now, Mark! As long a you are taking my suggestions in good spirits, I have one last teensy little one. There remains that tiny bit of light background right in front of your finger on the the right side. As it is, we lose the curve of your finger at that point because it sort of bleeds off the edge of the shot. It takes my eye out of the photo because it looks a little peculiar. It would take all of a minute to paint that area in black with the brush tool and everyting about the shot would be perfect! I suspect you will be surprised to see how much such a little detail improves the shot.
In looking at it again, I notice that once you've done that, you'll have a little problem with the white sliver of fingernail that will become more prominent and therefore an unnecessary distraction. Hmmm... To solve that, you could 1. split the difference in the cropping to eliminate that bit of nail 2. recrop it slightly tighter to take care of the background problem 3. crop it slightly wider to include the entire finger and then fix the background all around - my personal best option since I think the entire curve of the finger will bring the eye back into the photo . But, you've got to be careful in making the background look right as it touches the finger. Take a look aat it and see what you think. It's well worth doing since I suspect this one is a winner! "beer"
I'd love to shoot photos of Miss Julie!
All best wishes,
Endre
anselwannab wrote:
Thanks again Endre! I was paying too much attention to what I was going to do with the nail part of that finger, I lost the knuckle. I thought it might be OK, since it might empahsize how big my hand is, but I think it almost works better as the bend brings your eye back into the pic and towards her fingers.
I also let a little more of the last knuckle show to provide a stop so that your eye doesn't drift out.
That whiteness is actually her arm OOF, and that was what I was looking at earlier when I wasn't paying attention to the knuckle. I wish my finger had been a little more turned to me so I had more nail to work with.
When ever I try to touch stuff up like that, I end up with a weird edge.
I just tried it and it does look a bit odd after I extend the background. If I had more nail to work with I might be able to work it, but the whole area is just so soft, its hard to make a break with out making it look artificial, now that everyone will know where to look!
I might just crop it up the finger a bit.
Gotta catch a plane in a little bit. Dirty laundry for my trip of work on the WA .....
Very creative idea and beautiful shot. I was wondering what it would look like in color. The B and W is nice. Just curious how the color would look.
Good jobl.
Color doesn't work as well because our skin tone are so different, but not different enough. Plus she was all fidgety and the lighting was low so I shot at 400 or 800 or so I was getting some color and grain issues. My first thought was color, but I'd have to try another set-up to deal with some of the issues.
I liked the B&W since it emphasizes the difference in how rough my skin is.
I love the B & W for this. Really nice work! There is only one thing that bothers me a little bit - the way Julie's arm disappears into the black at the right corner it gives me the disconcerting impression of an unattached arm. Yikes! 
As I said, it's a small thing but perhaps significant.
Congratulations, again and Philly said, I'm sure we'll be voting on this in the finals!