Birth of my son by C-section August 22nd, 2005. Levels adjustment, slight contrast adjustment, and cloned out a bright blood spot on the white blanket he is laying on. In this picture the nurse is actually cutting the cord. He'd been out of Mommy less than 5 minutes.
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Place: 73 out of 200 Avg (all users): 5.7842 Avg (commenters): 6.7368 Avg (participants): 5.6261 Avg (non-participants): 5.9286 Views since voting: 1141 Views during voting: 385 Votes: 241 Comments: 22 Favorites: 0
Sheesh, I managed to lose my critique when I PM'd you...
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I remember this image well from the voting. I liekd it then and I liek it now. It operates, of course, under a different set of "rules" than the typical DPC entry, being more documentary than aesthetic in nature. As far as the task you assigned yourself — to document your son's emergence into the world — you have done very well here. The colors seem true (not easy in that lighting), the focus is crisp and clear, and the composition is workmanlike if not spectatcular. Particulalrly pleasing to me is the inclusion of your wife's head (I assume that's her) in the BG.
Had you had the opportunity to be a hair more selective in composing/orchestrating the scene, I'd have liekd to see the forearm/elbow jutting from the nurse's head eliminated, as a mildly distracting element. The bright area upper left might profitably be toned down. You can accomplish this easily in photoshop by roughly selecting the upper left corner as far as the white mask but not including it, then using selective color in the white channel to throw some yellow into that area, giving it a tonality in keeping with the wall. Finally, you might consider slightly dodging the nurse's left arm to bring a little more visual interplay into that area of the image; it could be a stronger compositional element.
Nice job. I'd expected it to score in the 6 range myself.
Sometimes, showing less tells more. Zooming in on the baby and showing nothing more than him/her and the doctor's hands would have been a clean and simple yet very effective and story-telling composition, in my opinion.
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