Maternity Before/After

A shot of my wife and daughter before and after my newest was born. Let me know what you think.

Congratulations on the latest addition to your family! The concept is great, but you have not really captured a great deal of detail in the shadows. It's not a silhouette, but neither is it letting the viewer see what is facing the camera. A reflector or fill light or fill flash could have made a big difference?

Thanks for the reply! My goal with the piece at first was to do exactly what you were mentioning. However, once I got them positioned I began to like the look of mostly shadowed area with just a few slivers of highlight to provide shape to the face area, arms, etc.

While its not a true silhouette in the sense that is not made up of complete shadow, I think the places where shadow exists are not important to the overall scene. In fact, I darkened areas so that they would not draw attention away from certain other areas.

For the "after" photo, I did add a touch more light specifically so that the new baby would show up a little more.

Normally I'm hesitant to use strong contrast and deep shadows and I normally prefer more even exposures. This was a little bit of a step out of my comfort zone in that sense.