Are these better?

I took advise on bouncing my on camera flash. Are these better? This is the baby from the maternity pics I posted earlier (need advise for next time) I used window light and bounced the flash.

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It looks like you are over exposed by at least half a stop on these...

If you shot them in Raw it would be easy to fix... if not, then you can recover some in PS if you reduce the exposure.

The light quality on these is odd.. it seems very harsh, or maybe it's just the reduced file size.... ANyway, here's what you can do to save them

Reduced exposure
bumped the shadow curve just a little bit
slightly softened the skin to tone down the grain in the shadows,
added a color balance to warm it up.. I think the warmth gives extra softness to the image.

I know my edit seems under exposed now, but I had a hard time finding a balance between the highlight and the shadow.
Hope that helps some. Keep shooting and practicing!!

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Thanks for the edit and advise. I wish more people would comment so I can improve!! I will be taking pictures of the baby again in about 2 months.

I'm sure more people could help, had there been exif data in the files, or, had you mentioned the settings of the camera. Once those settings are determined, others may chime in.

I agree with Kristy though...and with a bit more information, I'm sure lots of people can piece together the puzzle, to help out.

See ya,
Manish.

Keep the exif in files. Not sure why people strip it. Maybe it is save for the web thing in PS.

Also I don't think ambient has any play in here, atleast in first one. If you had posted exif, it would have helped to know if ambient was there or not.

with out shooting data like inthedeck said its hard to help. The flash is way to hot (dial it down) the flash should be the fill not the main if you are using window light. You want just enough flash so there is just barely a hint of shadows with babies and children.

reefergal wrote in post #6653624
I used window light and bounced the flash.

Look at the shadow on the man's arm, next to the baby's right ear. Also the shadow on the baby's right arm, next to his chest.

These shadows have fairly sharp edges, indicating that at least one of your light sources had a small apparent size.

I'm purely speculating here - Was there direct sunlight coming through the window? The sun is a small light source, relative to its distance. You'll get the magic of window light only if you use a window on the shaded side of the house, or shoot on a cloudy day.

One other suggestion - When bouncing flash, use the widest possible zoom setting. Pull out the wide angle diffuser if your flash has one. This will create a larger hot spot on the ceiling - A larger apparent light source.