A little Photoshop fun

[lasercomp]

Hi all, please tell me what you think of this pic. I played around in Photoshop a bit to get the effect you see.. If there are any PS users, please give me comments on anything I could change to make the photo nicer. Thanks

http://www.pbase.com/image/15889480

[Karp]

Love it! You did a great job making the image have a soft effect and focusing on the subject, cute kid! Love her expression

[PFlor]

I'm not sure exactly what you were trying to do here. Were you trying to blur the background while keeping the subject sharp? Or just going for the soft focus effect in general?

[lasercomp]

PFlor wrote:
I'm not sure exactly what you were trying to do here. Were you trying to blur the background while keeping the subject sharp? Or just going for the soft focus effect in general?

My goal was to make the background blurred as I did and keep her focused.. I oversharpened her a bit. I will cut back.

[PFlor]

lasercomp wrote:
My goal was to make the background blurred as I did and keep her focused.. I oversharpened her a bit. I will cut back.


I just did the same technique yesterday on a pic before I got it printed. You did a good job in general, although there's a little bit of haloing around some of the edges, and it is a little oversharpened as you mentioned. There are several ways to do this but what I use is a combination of the History Brush in Photoshop and my Wacom tablet.

[lasercomp]

PFlor wrote:
lasercomp wrote:
My goal was to make the background blurred as I did and keep her focused.. I oversharpened her a bit. I will cut back.


I just did the same technique yesterday on a pic before I got it printed. You did a good job in general, although there's a little bit of haloing around some of the edges, and it is a little oversharpened as you mentioned. There are several ways to do this but what I use is a combination of the History Brush in Photoshop and my Wacom tablet.

What does the hostory brush do? I used the blur tool to make the edges.

[PFlor]

lasercomp wrote:
What does the hostory brush do? I used the blur tool to make the edges.


The technique I used is similar to this one:

http://www.wacom.com/tips/tip.cfm?ID=5&category=Photoshop

Even if you don't have a Wacom tablet the concept is the same with any tool.

[new girl on the bloc]

did you add color to her cheeks? the one on the left looks a bit orangey.

[ThomasL]

Good picture, looks like you used "smart blur" which can be cute at times, especially to hide focus problems... I like the halo effect.
To improve the composition, try to shoot from her eye level instead of from above, and try to get a better background (or clean it up in PS later).
Also there is another board specifically for posting pix.
just my 0.02...

[drisley]

I LOVE the pic!
Looks great!

[craig1972]

lasercomp wrote:
http://www.pbase.com/image/15889480

that's great stuff laser! did you use any special kinds of filter etc? its a very very clear picture, well done!

[iesrick]

Cute picture. Other than repeating Thomas' remarks I think you caught a nice picture.

[lasercomp]

Hi all. Thanks for the kind words on my photograph of my daughter. It took like 30 shots to get the right one that I was looking for. My main qualification that I wanted of this picture was to have her look at me with a nice facial expression. Something always goes wrong such as her eyes half closed or her mouth crooked or her eyebrows going astray. Finally, I got one where everything looked good but the level I was standing was off. I did the blurring effect using gausiean blur in PS. I dont understand what some of you said about the halo effect. Can someone please explain what part of the pic shows the halo effect? I will try to add pics as good ones come along.

[PFlor]

lasercomp wrote:
I dont understand what some of you said about the halo effect. Can someone please explain what part of the pic shows the halo effect? I will try to add pics as good ones come along.

The haloing is most prominent on the edges of your daughter's sweater in the shoulder/upper arm area and looks similar to a "glow" effect. Nothing wrong with it if that's the effect you were trying to accomplish.

[lasercomp]

PFlor wrote:
lasercomp wrote:
I dont understand what some of you said about the halo effect. Can someone please explain what part of the pic shows the halo effect? I will try to add pics as good ones come along.

The haloing is most prominent on the edges of your daughter's sweater in the shoulder/upper arm area and looks similar to a "glow" effect. Nothing wrong with it if that's the effect you were trying to accomplish.


Now I see what you mean by halo effect. Well to be honest with you, I did not mean to do it, it just happen to come out. When I selected my daughter, I noticed some of the selection was not done well, so instead of erasing with the eraser tool, I used the blur tool to hide any inperfections. Worked out well I guess.. I am very new to Photoshop and still learning all the raw power of it.