How would you process this baby photo?

[cc_chang2]

<p>The original is very nice as is.</p>

[tomdaly]

<p>I like the original, if you were to edit maybe black and white like this</p><div></div>

[miguel_angel_p._prieto]

<p>I like B&W. The composition is nice as you took it.<br>

Don't like cloning at all, adding or removing things (personal opinion), but with some burning and dodging you can get to some places.<br>

Congrats for little Mike!</p>

[miguel_angel_p._prieto]

<p>I like B&W. The composition is nice as you took it.<br /> Don't like cloning at all, adding or removing things (personal opinion), but with some burning and dodging you can get to some places.<br /> Congrats for little, Mike!</p><div></div>

[ericzb]

<p>My attempt for this already good image.</p>

<p><img src="http://img2.pict.com/f1/e1/48/3001647/0/00vswy224711784.jpg" alt="" /><br>

This is just the rough idea, as the selection area is still not perfect.</p>

[g-man1]

Shouldn't you be changing diapers instead? :-) that's what my wife would say.

Personally, I like photos of babies with their eyes open.

[lauren_macintosh]

<p>Here is my take on your foto of this baby , I did it in lightroom 2.6 , and resized for the web If want the whole file Email me: Lauren</p><div></div>

[buffdr_rasouliyan]

<p>My take...cute baby.</p><div></div>

[daniel_horande]

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>I Dont know how to get the file and Process it, But in my opinion, they perfect way is like <a href="../photodb/user?user_id=1008200">Sheldon Nalos</a> did. Babies faces need to be Soft, completely soft, here you dont have to make the image sharp. U have to go to the other way, hehe</p>

<p> </p>

[Not Here]

<p>Mike... First of all, Congratulations and this is one beautiful baby... How's this?... Mike</p>

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[passionsatplay]

<p><img src="http://www.flickr.com/photos/35783473@N00/4399950661/" alt="" /></p>

[michael_young3]

<p>Tim, that looks by far the best, IMO. I don't know what film that's supposed to emulate, but maybe it's time to drag the old EOS3 out of retirement for a few days and remind myself. Was that all just curve tweaks? No local contrast adjustments? The quality of light on the child's face is by far the most gentle and restful. A fantastic job in any case.</p>

<p> </p>

[markjordan]

<p>I actually think the original is just fine! Other than that I like Sheldon's the best!</p>

[rayyeager]

<p>Hi Mike. Original is great! Just another option. What a gorgeous baby ... Ray.</p><div></div>

[tom_mann1]

<p>The original, as well as several of the previous tweaks are great, but I couldn't resist jumping in with my own version. I concentrated on cleaning up the minor skin imperfections while preserving its texture and sharpness. I also brought back the excessive red in areas (eg, ear), and tried to give the impression of a darkened room + focusing attention on the face by a bit of vignetting. I intentionally didn't do any re-cropping or cloning out of background elements because there were already several good comments on this.</p>

<p>Tom M.</p>

<p>PS - If not obvious, the OP's original is above, my tweak is below.</p><div></div>

[riverfront studio]

<p>flower baby</p><div></div>

[Tim_Lookingbill]

<p>Michael, thanks for your comments on my attempt.</p>

<p>I worked from the original Raw in ACR 4.6 and set the camera profile to "Camera Portrait Beta 1".</p>

<p><em>Holy cow! </em><em>S</em><em>ure wished Adobe supplied 16 different profile combinations for my Pentax K100D like it does with Mike Mason's Nikon D2X. I have to roll my own with DNG Profile Editor to add to my measly Adobe supplied four. I'm jealous.</em></p>

<p>Anyway afterward, I just reduced Exposure in ACR 4.6 to -.55, Recovery at15, the rest at default, Clarity+35, Vibrance+35, Saturation+15. Set HSL Red Hue to +25, sharpened it and that's it.<em> </em></p>

[Tim_Lookingbill]

<p>Scratch that. Those aren't the edits. Did the edit on a copy and chose the wrong one.</p>

<p>Exposure: -1.10, Fill Light: 18, Blacks: 9, Brightness+58, Contrast+60, Clarity+30, Saturation, +30</p>

<p>Custom point curve shaped kinda like a low flat extended mesa. HSL Red Hue:+20, Yellow Hue: -40, Orange Saturation: -13</p>

<p>Calibration Panel set to ACR 4.4 and Green Primary Hue/Saturation both set to +30.</p>

<p>This was a saved preset used to beef up an overexposed and somewhat washed out daylight scene of a garden. I just started applying it to images like these and was getting what you see here. It was all accidental as it always is.</p>

[Sunset-Lounge]

<p>Lucky you! I miss my babies... sob sob - but - I think the baby is a bit too red as you mentioned. However that does not bother me as much as those deep dark spots in front of the baby.<br>

They distract. <br>

I've done a very poor job of softening (lightening) the spots, a very poor job... but I think you'll see what I mean.</p><div></div>

[Sunset-Lounge]

<p>I do like what Tom Mann has done.</p>

[tom_mann1]

<p>Tom, thanks for the kind words. I agree about the dark spots, but other than completely re-doing them (eg, reshooting the photo, painting or cloning them out, darkening or lightening them out of existence), I thought the best way to handle the situation would be to soften and darken them a bit and actually use them to help lead the eye of the viewer to the face of the baby. </p>

<p>Cheers,</p>

<p>Tom M.</p>

[lee_borsboom]

<p>I'd probably do something along the lines of this. Crop. Decrease saturation a little. Increase blue a touch. Get a 70% red channel, 30% blue channel mix, convert to LAB and paste that into the lightness channel. Smart blur the a and b channels a touch. Convert back to RGB. Duplicate layer and smart blur a touch, then gaussian to soften the edges. Add a layer mask to the 'smoothed layer,' hiding everything and paint in the skin area of the mask with a soft white airbrush. Set opacity of 'smoothed' layer to about 40%. Increase contrast a touch with levels, operating on black point only. I think that was everything :-)</p>

<p>Regards,<br>

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

[clark_king4]

<p>okay dang it i want a go but cant see how to insert the image???? I only see the insert button for web hosted images...</p>

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[clark_king4]

<p>wait there it goes...okay my edit was real simple...</p>