my newest neice

[PWard]

I'm new to SLR photography, having only used point and shoot cameras until about 2 months ago.

I don't have expensive professional gear as I'm just starting out. I took this photo with a Canon Rebel XS with a 28-135mm IS USM lens, and no flash was used. I was using AV setting but can't recall the f-stop or zoom setting. I took the photo and blurred out the background a bit and adjusted color in photoshop (also a newb with).

i would love any feedback or tips on how I can improve. I know I cut off a bit of her hand :(. there wasn;t much lighting and as babies do, they tend to move around a bit so this was one of the least blurred pictures I had.

Thank you.
http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv262/Phil21080/ava_hug.jpg

[PWard]

i forgot to add...

since i'm also new to photoshop, I do not know all of the nice tricks. When I blurred out the background a bit, I used the quick-select tool to try and outline her body so I could blur the background. the problem I find that I always have is that when I use that tool, a lot of times I will get parts of the background that I do not want, which results in most of the background getting blurred, but some parts, especially close to the subjet, that stay in focus, and I have to manually try to blur..which doesn't turn out great most of the time.

[Maureen Souza]

The colors are awfully yellow and quite intense. I hope you don't mind but I tried to down down the yellows and calm the over-bright whites on her shirt and diaper. She is a darling baby!

[PWard]

Thanks :-)

I know my monitor is not calibrated for anything other than the built-in default settings. I don't have the cash right now to invest in any of the calibration tools I hear so much about.

also like i mentioned before, i'm new to photoshop as well, so i haven't quite gotten the hang of the majority of the features (not sure I ever will).

the picture looks a lot better now. I can tell the difference on my screen, even though i thought it looked right before. big difference!

[PWard]

http://i690.photobucket.com/albums/vv262/Phil21080/color.jpg

this is what i was referring to. in photoshop (left) the colors look dull, whereas using a different picture viewer (picasa) the colors stand out a LOT more.

[Pmolan]

Try using the feather 1 or 2px. Play a little with it. It will fix that cut out look that it has and soften the sharp edges. Great concept!

Believe it or not.. Youtube has great photoshop tutorials.

[johnboy00]

Looks kinda weird to me, like the baby is levitating. Beautiful baby, though.