First maternity pic - C & C please

[GQsmithy]

I am relatively new to digital. I bought my first dslr about a year ago and only aquired photoshop elements 4 about a month ago. (I know this is an outdated version, but it was bundled with a Wacom tablet that I got a deal on.)

My wife and I are expecting a new baby and I wanted to do a maternity series -- about four pics, taken during the pregnancy and ending with my wife holding the new baby. I wanted B & W, and my wife wanted modesty.

I took this using available light, with my wife standing next to a full-length glass door. I used a Sigma 500 DG Super, bounced, for fill. The camera is a 20D. The lens is a Tamron 17-50 @ 42mm. The settings were as follows:
ISO = 400
Av = 3.5
Tv = 1/25
I darkened the image considerably in post, to get the mood I wanted. I blurred the background through the glass due to the highlights being blown, which I found distracting. I like the result, but I'm not sure others will. Since I my intent is to frame several images together as a series; and since I am brand new to things like layers and selective masking, I would like to know if I overdid the processing before I work on any other images.
Sorry for the novel.:)

[Ockie]

The image is beautiful, however, when I look into the details of the background I find it artificial, I haven't used elements so I don't know if you have any other tools you can use to blur the background, if you do perhaps you can play around with the other options and see for yourself which one looks more realistic.

Besides, if Elements has this option, perhaps you could light your wife's face a little bit, i.e. with local level adjustments.

But as I said before, its a beautiful photo, and the little details will be most probably not be noticed by most (with most I refer to most non-photographers) :)

[lil_miss]

personally i think its a bit dark, but that's just my preference

[GQsmithy]

Thanks Ockie and Lil_miss. I appreciate your replies and useful advice. I will try lightening the highlights a bit and tinkering with the blur and see what I can come up with. I'm glad you didn't think the image was a total loss, as this was my first attempt at this type of photography and processing.:D

[katsoulis]

I agree the background looks a bit artificial. However, there is nothing to stop you from giving it another go. If the outdoors is distracting, you can tape up a thin white fabric outside the window, which should read as pure white and allow the focus to be entirely on your subject.

Congratulations to you!

[GQsmithy]

I agree the background looks a bit artificial. However, there is nothing to stop you from giving it another go. If the outdoors is distracting, you can tape up a thin white fabric outside the window, which should read as pure white and allow the focus to be entirely on your subject.

Congratulations to you!

That's a good idea. Thanks for the comments.