Clown

[elm54]

I'm not sure about the retouching....Ay suggestions?
http://www.pbase.com/image/21150186/medium

Thanks
Eric

[Conk]

Eric
The clown shows character. I would like it if a little adjustment was made to help show his eyes a little more.
Unfortunately I think the surroundings clash with the subject. The guy behind him is looking at you taking the photo. May I suggest a little photoshop here?
There is one lone blue balloon in the shot along with a couple bunches of balloons. Take that one balloon and copy it to the photo in a few spots making them alternate red and blue. Blur the background more.
It is a nice photo Eric but room for improvement also.

[new girl on the bloc]

the clown to the right of your clown is a bit of a distraction ;)

and yes, a bit too much going on in the background. pull your clown closer so that we can see his eyes and expression, so that we are convinced that he is sad and has a story to tell us with his face.

[elm54]

Thank you Colin and NewGirl,
For taking the time to look and coment, You all see so much , and it's hard to figure how much I want to put into an image. Alot of times I am just happy when the mechanical end of an image works( focus , exposure ) let alone the artistic part (which I suspect I will never get right ) . Alot of times I get flustered just looking through the view finder.
Anyway...
http://www.pbase.com/image/21179519
You all are right this does look better to me , I hope it does to you. :)
Thanks again for your help
Eric

[new girl on the bloc]

ah, now *this* is a great clown shot!

[perfectpixel]

how did you achieve this out of focus effect on the background using PS?
it's well done

[elm54]

unstuck wrote:
how did you achieve this out of focus effect on the background using PS?
it's well done

thanks,
I masked out the clown, I believe I contracted about 1 or 2 px then feathered 2px, inverted the mask and applied a gaussian blur at a radius of about 22 and then resized and sharpened to about 125%, .8 , 1. I'm sorry I don't really remember exactly because I tried so many combinations. :eyes
all with Ps7 and I am demo-ing extensis mask pro.
Eric

[Conk]

Excellent Eric. Turned out fantastic.
How are you finding mask pro? I have it but have never bothered to try it yet.

[elm54]

Conk wrote:
Excellent Eric. Turned out fantastic.
How are you finding mask pro? I have it but have never bothered to try it yet.

Hiya colin,
Thanks again for your suggestions.
As far as "mask pro" goes, the more I use it the more I like it. I'm just sad that I will probably end up paying $200 fir a utility that is in corel photopaint 8 . But I do like it and prefer PS to Corel.
I'm also sure that it will prove more powerful as I learn it......
So much to learn:)

Peace Eric