first try at pp...c&c appreciated

[MsUmpire]

this is a pic of my baby sis...her eyes are really that blue, I was trying to get them to stand out more...any comments or suggestions appreciated. this is my first try at doing something other than cropping! :)

[MsUmpire]

40 looks & no comments :( and she's the cute one in the family! ;):lol:

[NatsRoses]

I like the photo, but not so much the PP. I think the "sepia tone " (or antiquing (?)) needs to be turned wayyy down to appreciate the eyes a bit more, if that is what you want to stand out on the photo.

[corinto]

She has a lot more than beautiful eyes. Her smile is captivating. Also her hair although the sepia doesn't help there. I think that your attempt to emphasize her eyes by sepia toning washed down the image too much.

It is a nice capture. I would like to see the original.

[MsUmpire]

thank you guys for the honesty...i appreciate it...i'll have to "play" with this some more...I will definitely try to tone it down some. i'll attach the original when i get home to my computer. thanks again! :D

[txdude35]

Since you say this is your first try, it might be helpful to post the original and ask others to have a go at it, sharing their steps with you.

[MsUmpire]

I would appreciate any and all help. My goal was to hopefully show off her blue eyes. Here's the color copy, please feel free to make changes. Thanks again for the help!

[mamabravo]

the boarder is too strong for this photo

i would of left it b&w

[Palladium]

Great photo - here's a couple of workups to give you some ideas

The top has some touchups to the skin - eyes - teeth but I think I generally left the coloring alone.
http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/3569/paulacolorsmalltouchupqy1.jpg

For the bottom I worked using my image above and tried to improve the coloring abit by adding some golden highlights ;)
http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/604/paulacolorsmallcorrectedsv5.jpg

[MsUmpire]

Paladium...wow...what a difference!! she'll appreciate you making her look so good! thank you for taking the time to help me! Robbin

mamabravo...i agree with you on the frame...now that i've had several opportunities to look at it. my thought when i did it was, it would help bring out her blue eyes. i appreciate you! Robbin

[lostdoggy]

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b381/lostdoggy/POTN%20uploads/paula20color20smallPS.jpg

a little: level/channel mixer/USM/Photo filter (cool 80)/Gausien Blur

[SonyaL]

The Sepia version does nothing for the pic did you try it in B & W?

[MsUmpire]

Ms. Sonya, not yet, I'm going to play with it this weekend...hopefully i can get close to what the others have done! thank you for the suggestion, i appreciate it!
Robbin

[mgbeach]

the crop is in my opinion in a no-man's land area, meaning it's not wide nor tight enough. Not being able to get any wider myself, I cropped it a little closer.

I duplicated the background layer and used the clone stamp on a low flow and opacity (about 33% on each one) to smooth the skin. I went almost to a plastic, "barbie" look. Then I lowered the transparency of that layer to show the original through some.
I erased the eyes, mouth, eyebrows, and hair from that top layer, and used the Unsharp Mask on the original bottom layer, thereby selectively sharpening those features.

I added a levels adjustment layer at inputs of 12/1.45/236. A good rule of thumb is to bring the white slider and black slider just inside the ends of the "mountain range" of the histogram and then adjust the midtone slider to taste.

I selected the eyes with the lasso tool, feathered the selection and then added a curves layer to brighten them up. This way it only affects the eyes.

I did the same selection method on the teeth, but added a hue/saturation layer and lowered the saturation in the yellow channel, also increasing the lightness.

added an overall curves layer for a final tweak of contrast.

overall unsharp mask and we're done!

[corinto]

I went for a more "natural" look. Hope you like it. Basically, the same pp as mgbeach.

Edit: I also applied some burning to the lips, brows and eyelashes.

[MsUmpire]

boy do i have a lot to learn when it comes to pp! i appreciate you guys taking the time to show me what can be done to give a so-so photo a great look...thank you!!!

[MsUmpire]

Michael & Julio...I love what you guys did with my sister's picture! I really do appreciate what everyone has shown me can be done with pp! I hope with time & practice I can accomplish the same thing! Thank you again!

[corinto]

Glad to help. It only takes practice (granted that a lot of it :rolleyes:). Get a picture and try different settings to see what they accomplish.

Also, google for photoshop - glamour - retouch. There are so many resources, they will keep you busy for a very long time.