Daddy's Legs...Editing Advice and Critique

[NicholsonPhotography]

My daughter and her daddy...Love this shot...

50 mm, f/1.4, 1/4000 sec, ISO 400

Colors are too muted. Too dark. I posted my before and after editing. The bright spot bothers me.

What do you think?

Before Editing:

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f280/stellar1110/IMG_7389.jpg

After my attempt at editing:

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f280/stellar1110/Legs.jpg

[Bill Boehme]

While the original is a little too cool, the edit has been warmed a bit too much. Also, the increased exposure in post processing has blown out much of the background. It is a nice image and I think that by choosing a white balance somewhere between the two shown would give very good results.

[Maureen Souza]

Adorable shot. Hope you don't mind me playing with the lighting a bit......

[Bill Boehme]

I also did some minor tweaking of the white balance and I also got rid of the boo-boo on the knee.

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[chauncey]

Bill, I like everything except what you did to Emily's eyes.

[NicholsonPhotography]

Thanks guys...Love the lighting of both Maureen and Bill's edits. But I like how Bill's is a little warmer. I'm a sucker for a warmer look!

Can you tell me what you did? I had used Daddy's shirt as a white balance, but obviously picked the wrong spot. Any tips?

Bill, I do agree that Emily's eyes needed something...She has beautiful eyes, but that shot didn't do them justice. What did you do? I would like to try it, but cut back just a tad.

Thanks again!

[Bill Boehme]

Thanks guys...Love the lighting of both Maureen and Bill's edits. But I like how Bill's is a little warmer. I'm a sucker for a warmer look!

Can you tell me what you did? I had used Daddy's shirt as a white balance, but obviously picked the wrong spot. Any tips?

It looked like Emily's outfit might be pink and white or maybe pink and light gray so I sampled several spots -- they all gave about the same white balance and the other colors appeared to be correct. I suppose that you could also use the gray weathered wood on the bridge -- in fact, that might have been a better choice, but I didn't think about it at the time. I was not sure about the color of her dad's shirt. I figured that it was a blue gray or maybe just blue.

Bill, I do agree that Emily's eyes needed something...She has beautiful eyes, but that shot didn't do them justice. What did you do? I would like to try it, but cut back just a tad.

Thanks again!

I created a layer where I increased the exposure level about 2 EV until I could see a little detail in the eyes -- everything else was way overexposed, but that part did not matter. Next, I created a mask to paint in only the eyes. Finally, I adjusted the opacity slider of the mask to around 40% so that the eyes wouldn't be so bright, but after revisiting it, I think that I should have adjusted the slider to around 25 or 30% -- just enough to reveal some detail, but not glow in the dark. :oops:

I also lightened the image around the top of her head so that the bow could be seen more clearly.

[Bill Boehme]

I forgot to mention that I also created another layer for the foot bridge and decreased the exposure about 2/3 EV. The using the same technique as with the eyes except for using a very large soft brush, I painted in the bridge decking and then adjusted the opacity slider to around 70%.

[NicholsonPhotography]

My goodness...That sounds like a lot of work! I'm going to try it and see how close I get. I suppose that you could also use the gray weathered wood on the bridge -- in fact, that might have been a better choice, but I didn't think about it at the time.
Are you saying that you would do a white balance using something gray?
I was not sure about the color of her dad's shirt. I figured that it was a blue gray or maybe just blue.
Dad's shirt was actually white, which is why I chose it for my white sample point.
I created a layer where I increased the exposure level about 2 EV
How do you increase the exposure level...(Is this in PS?)

If I can get more detail on these edits, I think I can figure out everything else.

Thanks Bill!

[NicholsonPhotography]

Okay, here's another shot at editing...Now it seems dull and not as "smooth"...Thoughts? Or am I just getting too picky?
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f280/stellar1110/Legs2-1.jpg

[Bill Boehme]

My goodness...That sounds like a lot of work! I'm going to try it and see how close I get.
Are you saying that you would do a white balance using something gray?

Dad's shirt was actually white, which is why I chose it for my white sample point.

How do you increase the exposure level...(Is this in PS?)

If I can get more detail on these edits, I think I can figure out everything else.

Thanks Bill!

It is actually fairly easy after you have done it a few times. A good book for beginners and intermediate Photoshop users is "Scott Kelby's 7-Point System for Photoshop C3" by Scott Kelby. The book teaches by having you go through 21 lessons that take around a hour each. One of my complaints about the book is that the will tell you to do certain things without going into much explanation of why you are doing it. I suppose the he is wanting the student to develop an intuitive feel for the various tools, but eventually it can be limiting to not know all of the why's.

Explaining the details of what I did would take quite a bit of explanation, but the first few lessons in the book will clue you in fairly quickly on using layers and masks and merging them together.

As far as white balance is concerned, better results can be obtained by using a true neutral gray anywhere in the range of "middle" gray (an 18% reflectance gray card) all the way up to a white balance card. My opinion is that a light gray that is in the vicinity of 200, 200, 200 for R, G, and B is the best. When you sample an area to do a white balance, the software looks at the difference between the three color values and then balances them so that they are all the same. So, as long as it is a known true gray area, it will work. If I use a white shirt to get a white balance sample, I will look for a fold or shaded area that has some gray. But, don't sample something that is dark gray because chroma noise shows up in darker areas.

I used Adobe Camera RAW (ACR) for most of the adjustments in exposure, contrast, white balance, etc. It is a RAW files converter that is part of the package that comes with Photoshop. ACR has evolved into a very powerful tool and I find hat after using it that I often do not need to use Photoshop for further adjustments.

[Bill Boehme]

Okay, here's another shot at editing...Now it seems dull and not as "smooth"...Thoughts? Or am I just getting too picky?

It looks great to me. If you treated the bridge as a separate layer and decreased the exposure, it would tone down the bright background and help the subject. Possibly your monitor is set too bright and washing out the image.

[LeuceDeuce]

It is actually fairly easy after you have done it a few times. A good book for beginners and intermediate Photoshop users is "Scott Kelby's 7-Point System for Photoshop C3" by Scott Kelby. The book teaches by having you go through 21 lessons that take around a hour each. One of my complaints about the book is that the will tell you to do certain things without going into much explanation of why you are doing it. I suppose the he is wanting the student to develop an intuitive feel for the various tools, but eventually it can be limiting to not know all of the why's.

I second this opinion. This is a great book to get you started understanding the tools, but as you become more proficient you start to yearn for more information. There are plenty of more advanced books once you get to that stage, but this is one that had the biggest influence on my early post work. It wasn't my first book, but it was the first one that gave big improvements in my work.