Prego Photo Critique

Hello all,

My wife agreed to let me do a photo shoot for her 38th week of pregnancy. Her parents farm had lots of good spots, and we had some fun. I had an idea for this photo and tried to make it happen. Now I'm not sure whether to think it came out looking good or poor. Thoughts? What could be improved?

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/ytiT​ki

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/xwqS​VK

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/ytiX​XV

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/xiCX​ue

IMO, the last one is the best, although the fill is to orange for my taste, along with it being to low. She gets lost in the background and clutter in the first. 2 and 3 don't show off her pregnancy enough.

Pic #1, because "old farm trucks" tend to be photographed often, I felt like the presence of the truck and the silo took away the thunder of the pregnancy in some way. I'm not sure if that's my issue or not, but somehow it didn't seem right. I felt like there was too much competing with her baby bump. Which is a perfect baby bump and should get all the attention. #2, again, a popular backdrop, the graffiti wall which is a background better suited for fashion shoots or senior pics, but it's a bit of a disconnect for ME personally, to see maternity pic background. Her bump is largely hidden in shadow on top of all that. I do love the light on her face in that shot though, she's beautiful, and her facial expression did capture her contentedness/baby bliss. #pic 3, my fav because I love the backlit hair but the framing and crop could have been better. I'm finding the road with the puddle to be a visual distraction, drawing my eye to it. The crop is so close, we don't get to see all of her baby bump, which is supposed to be the star here. I love her expression though, the angle, but would like to have seen her posed on the far side of that road against the grass with the rim lighting on her belly, which is great! I love the rim lighting!!

Windpig and Sue, thanks for the insightful comments! It really helps me take a step back and realize what could have been done better. I was attempting to be somewhat creative with the backgrounds and crops, but apparently lost the baby bump theme in the process. Still lots to learn

I agree with the others. With a maternity shoot, you are really trying to showcase the happy mother and baby to be. If you have picked backgrounds more appropriate for her current state. Maybe a playground or with some baby toys around her.
The last shot is clearly the best of the bunch in my view. The water is distracting and if you had framed it better, you could have gotten the water out of the mix entirely. I also have the same issue about putting the horizon right in line with her head. If you have raised or lowered your camera to get that line from dissecting her head, it would have made for a much more compelling image.
But as I said, I have trouble remembering to do that as well. Something we all need to keep an eye out for I suppose.

Thanks for being so brave to post in critque I remember how daunting it can be.

my 2 cents are regarding the white balance. The first one seems her skin seems blue and in the final the skin seems overly orange

I love the rim light in final shot though

Cheers
Brent

So I'm definitely out to lunch with the location, could've done much better Perhaps if I was ambitious the water could be cloned out... The horizon was in an unfortunate place, but I was more concerned with putting the sun behind her head. Should have done it 15 minutes earlier and the sun would have been in a better location.

Thank you Ron & Brent for the constructive criticism!