How would you process this baby photo?

[mikemason]

<p>Our second baby arrived and I am shooting away trying to get some good stuff. She was asleep on a nice little cushion so I took a few frames. This one is shot on my D80 with the 35mm AF-S at f/2.5, 1/60th, ISO 800. I am reasonably happy with the composition -- perhaps I should have used my 50mm instead of the 35mm for a little more background isolation.</p>

<p>My question is how YOU would process this image. I shot RAW and processed in Lightroom. I adjusted the white balance slightly warmer than it really should be, she looked a little blue otherwise. I spot-healed a couple of blemishes and applied a touch of negative clarity. I cropped slightly and applied a small post-crop vignette. I left the noise reduction sliders at their defaults. Overall I haven't done anything drastic, I've just gone for a "nice" rendering of the photo. It feels fine but a little middle-of-the-road. I'm interested in how other people might interpret the image. Maybe a black and white conversion? Maybe more of a "glow" effect? Maybe more punch to the colors?</p>

<p>Here is the<a href="http://mikeandmichelle.ca/raw/MikeMason-DSC_0277.NEF"> original RAW file</a> (8MB) if you're interested in processing from the original, and here's a <a href="http://mikeandmichelle.ca/raw/MikeMason-DSC_0277.jpg">high-resolution jpeg</a> (400KB) if you're not into the raw conversion thing. Neither have any edits applied.</p>

<p><strong>Edit:</strong> Of course, if the image totally doesn't work for you and you think I could improve the shot in the first place, I'm very happy to hear that kind of critique too! Thanks!</p><div></div>

[aaron d]

<p>Some curves adjustment:</p>

[richterjw]

<p>I converted it to B/W which I felt allowed the smoothness of baby's skin to be contrasted with the texture and pattern of clothes and cushion, without the distraction of the colors (which in my opinion, don't add a great deal to this particular photograph). I feel like the B/W simplifies the photo, keeping the attention where it ought to be. JR</p>

[aaron d]

<p>I'm sorry, the photo didn't load...........</p><div></div>

[ben_goren]

<p>Mike,</p>

 

<p>Here’s my take. Let me know if you want the 100 Mbyte layered Photoshop file…</p>

 

<p>Cheers,</p>

 

<p>b&</p><div></div>

[StuartMoxham]

<p>Something like this:-</p><div></div>

[chris_lindsey]

<p>NX2 with NIK Filters</p>

[chris_lindsey]

<p>Here is the pic...</p>

[anthea50]

<p>Hmmm, I like your original rendering Mike, (but) IMHO the blue in the background is a little distracting, so I 'shopped it out and cropped the right side slightly to emphasize the lovely baby! I would loved to have soften it slightly but I don't don't know how to do that (yet). The cloning is rough and quick, but I hope you get the idea. Only other adjustment was curves.<br>

Congratulations, by the way!</p><div></div>

[nathan_b]

<p>HI Mike,<br>

I think you did a nice job. I would crop just a little more to cut off about 60% of the brown spots in the foreground. I would also boost the exposure just a bit.</p><div></div>

[sheldonnalos]

<p>I took a whack at it in Photoshop.... no real easy way to explain the retouch. About 15 layers of misc edits to taste.</p>

<p> </p><div></div>

[mikemason]

<p>Hi everyone, thank you so much for your comments and wonderful edits!</p>

<p>I think I'm leaning towards a monochrome rendering because the colors, as Jeremy noted, don't add that much to the image. The blue area top-right is actually Mum's sweater and I did have a go cloning it out too. I'm not that great with Photoshop (Elements) and I can tell that I've cloned something out -- maybe that's just because I know it was there but it certainly bugs me.</p>

<p>In future, taking a little more time over the image, I'd make sure to remove distracting background elements and shoot the image a little cleaner (maybe with better light so I don't have to use ISO 800 -- acceptable but somewhat noisy on my 3yr old camera). I'm very happy with how this exercise turned out, thanks again for your input everyone!</p><div></div>

[terry_spade]

<p>I copied the red channel, pasted it as a layer, reduced opacity to 40%.</p><div></div>

[Tim_Lookingbill]

<p>Here's a film-look treatment. Don't know what film stock this looks like. Anyone take a guess?</p><div></div>

[billsymmons]

<p>This would be my take.</p>

<p> </p><div></div>

[lukerossknecht]

<p>I felt like this needed to go in another direction. One with a little more... PATRIOTISM</p><div></div>

[dmarks]

<p>Luke,you're assuming Mike is from the US.It seems though that Mike is from Canada,home of all the great hockey players.Maybe you should redo it with the beaver and maple leaf. :^)</p>

[don_douglas]

<p>I processed in Silkypix with some CA correction and film color A (for Astia, presumably). Also, I use a technique similar to Terry's, which is to copy the red channel and then convert the image to LAB color and paste onto the L channel.<br>

<img src="http://dondouglas.com/MikeMason-DSC_0277a.jpg" alt="" /></p>

[bensgalguerra]

<p>Curve tweak, Power Soft action, vignette, cloned out unnecessary stuff in the background</p><div></div>

[lukerossknecht]

<p>Okay, how about this?</p><div></div>

[teresa_atkinson]

<p>I rotated the canvas a little so I could eliminate as much of the polka dots as possible, then burned mom's outfit so it's a little darker.</p><div></div>

[tom_mann1]

<p>Lots of nice tweaks already, so I'm not going to try, but my vote goes to either Benson's or Chris L's version.</p>

<p>Tom M.</p>

[nathan_b]

<p>I think of everything, I like Benson's processing the best. It's a little stronger than I would do, and I would still do my crop because that one big brown spot in the foreground is very distracting in almost every version. Cloning out the sweater was the most effective single edit I see here. I'm not much for desaturation and odd ratio crops. I like BNW but only in high contrast scenarios or when an image really has a lot of distracting color issues.</p>

[clfitz]

<p>Personally, I wouldn't change a thing. Nice job! Good picture, too. ;)</p>

[mikemason]

<p>Haha! I love the Eagle/Stars and Stripes comp but yes, we are Canadian.</p>

<p>This has been a really useful exercise for me -- I'm seeing many more elements in the original image after having folks express their opinions. I agree that the brown spot in front is distracting and I think a tighter crop is probably the way to go.</p>

<p>Thank you all for your suggestions and edits!</p>