Quick Feedback Required

I'm currently PPing & would like your opinion on whether this soft focus effect works or not ?
[IMG]http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q105/RR76/sf1.jpg[/IMG]

Thanks, Bob

At this image size it doesn't seem a strong effect, maybe a little more would be helpful?

It depends what you want of course but here the light doesn't seem diffused very much.

Thanks for the response John. I was afraid of overdoing it.

Here's a regular version for comparison.

[IMG]http://i134.photobucket.com/albums/q105/RR76/sf2.jpg[/IMG]

when you have such an aappealing subject, whatever it does for you is where I would want to be. The flowers in the background kinda bother me, but that is me. It woudl be great to have a family picture in the background, maybe the grandparents, even a head and shoulder shot worked into the greenery. Just a suggestion/ Is it a boy or a girl? the baby, I mean... regards Ronald

It's a boy. (Not mine btw) ! It was a favour to some of my wifes colleagues, I was expecting more of a formal shoot but they just wanted some informal family shots in the garden.

My main concern was over the focus effect, I don't want to lose too much detail, but it has to look deliberate obviously.

Bob, I'm rather a newbie, but...
1) I like the postprocessed picture more, it's softer, and the lady on the picture looks better (in my opinion). However if you could save her... ermm... blouse? (I never know the names of women's clothes) from it - the texture is lost.
2) It looks a bit overexposed, if you take look at her hand and the child's cheeks and nose. Not sure if you can get a bit more RAW processing?

I'm really a beginner with post-processing, so cannot help much, I'm afraid - you're far superior with that kind of work

And as far as I know, parents are usually happy with they babies' pictures even when not perfect (at least when I think about my family or friends) - if it is a family (home) picture, not a studio, etc. And probably it's worth taking a number of different pictures, preselect and show / offer them on CD, then they can pick what they want to print themselves.

[IMG]http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/philstaff/sf1.jpg[/IMG]

Think I prefer number 1 to be honest dont know if a tighter crop may work better for you.
Ian

Thanks all for your input. It's nice to have a group with a keen eye to help out !

edit: typo

I prefer No. 1 (tweaked version), not least for the more flattering skin tone.

I agree she has better skin tones