Steinway - Prints already wanted, suggestions for touch up?

[vfilby]

Unfortunately I won't have the opportunity to retake this picture anytime soon, it resides about 8 hours away from me.

This was taken in a living room with lots of windows but one just to the left gives an uneven brightness to the print. What do you guys think?

However the owner wants to buy a print, any suggestions for digital touch up? Also I am thinking about putting a border on it, I tried to give a thick black border with the gold colour for an outline but it didn't look right. Any siggestions for finishing touches like borders or copyright signatures would be appreciated as I have never sold anything photographic in my life.

http://www.filbar.org/Pictures/IMG_1815_edit_small.jpg

Capture Settings:
1/30s, f/2.5, no flash, ISO is unknown but it is probably 50 or 100 and unfortunately it was only taken with the Fine compression setting.

Thanks,
Vince

[Conk]

I wouldn't do too much to alter the photo. No border either. You sold the shot the way it is. It looks good the way it is. Only thing I might adjust is the lettering as it gets darker left to right. Make it consistent. Bring out the red felt behind the keys. Reduce the size of your watermark considerably.
As far as copyrights go, I'm not that educated about it but even with the piano manufacturer's name I'd say you own the rights to the photo.

[Bruce Hamilton]

As far as copyrights go, I'm not that educated about it but even with the piano manufacturer's name I'd say you own the rights to the photo.

And since the person buying the print ownes the piano, the Steinway estate probably wouldn't have any claim. If he were selling to someone else, it might be a different story.

[Meerkat17]

Nice image - as for adjusting it I'd leave it as it is - the shadows are nice. The one thing I would do different is to reduce the size of your copyright and name and run them vertical along the side of one of the keys rather than horizontal across the keys.

Nice work
David

[PhotosGuy]

I'm seeing a pink (magenta) cast in the white keys. You could clean it up with Image>Color Balance, or an easier way might be to just lighten everything a bit so we can see some more detail in the intersection of the top & right side of the black keys.
Since you're selling a print, discrete signature on the front & copyright info on the back.

[CDickinson]

Nice shot altho I agree with P'sGuy---light pink tinge going on....might want to take it out.

C

[vfilby]

Thanks for pointing that out guys! Nobody wants to have a pink piano. The original image was darker so I lightened it and the red must have crept in then.

I have not brought the red felt out at all, I made all the felt bright red but it disagreed with me (I did try it though).

I have tried to make the changes and here is my result. Please let me know what you think.

http://www.filbar.org/Pictures/IMG_1815_edit_small5.jpg

Vince

[Conk]

Splendid™

[LightHunter]

Hello Filby,

I allowed myself to download your latest image and did some additional postprocessing:

1. I copied the logo and brandname of the piano.
2. Desaturated the original => becomes black and white image.
3. Pasted the logo and brandname (gold) back.
4. Added a matte (+ 200 pix) with drop shadow
5. Added the black frame (+30 pix)
6. Finally your signature.

http://homepage.mac.com/ffack1/.Pictures/Forums/2004-05-16-Filby.jpg

[PhotosGuy]

EDIT: It looks like Lighthunter & I were working at the same time! Here's what I did...

It still didn't look right to me, so I saved it & opened it in P$hop and went to Levels. You will see a big gap on the right side which means that the full value of the whites isn't coming thru. I readjusted the settings to 0 1.00 & 235, which is just a bit more than called for (239). Result is that you can now see a bit more of the contrast in the black keys & also more of the reflection of the keys in the Steinway name.
Byproduct is that the black in the upper left corner went gray, so I hit it a few times with the burn tool at 10%. It's not perfect, but you'll have more control when working with the original.
It's too much trouble for me to upload it now, but I'll email a copy to you if you PM me your email address.

Be sure that, when the prints are made, they exactly match what you want. Too many times people accept leeway here just to get the job over with. My guess is that you’ll have to make 3-4 to get the contrast & color just right!
Good luck.

[Volatile]

I think the adjustments have left a noticable graininess or noisiness in the ivory that's in shadow. Perhaps Neat Image could help, or you could always use the blur tool to smooth it out.

OK, I went ahead and tried it out. Neat Image didn't do much, but I used the magic wand to select the shadowed areas (had to grow it a couple times, but it works great), and hit it a couple times with the blur filter. Let me know if you can detect a difference, and if you think it's an improvement.

http://img69.photobucket.com/albums/v210/Volatile/Canon%20forum/Steinway_editing_by_Bill.jpg

My work is quick and dirty, and there are spots where I trashed the sharpness... After all this post-processing by others, you should go back to the original photo and go through all the steps yourself, just to produce the cleanest image possible, free from .jpg artifacts.

[vfilby]

Thanks for all your input, the final product turned out great. I ended up selelecting all the black and white sections and desaturating them, adjusted the brightness and I did blur the keys a bit. I also used the border suggestions provided by lighthunter.

Thanks again,
Vince