How Much Post Processing?

[Meerkat17]

I shot this at the weekend - its almost in it's RAW state apart from slight adjustments of levels, contrast, etc.

I would like other peoples views on how much more (if any) processing I need to do to the image - your help would be appreciated.


The focus was on the boy in the hope of setting the girl into slightly soft focus - which I think I achieved.

Thanks in advance

Regards
David


http://www.btinternet.com/~David.Lewins/g5/images/aa_MG_0428.jpg

[Scottes]

IMHO you might be able to get away with a little bit more contrast, but the boy looks perfect really. Perhaps also a touch of saturation boost to perk up the background, as well as his cheeks and shirt - add a touch of red and a bit more green. The girl looks a bit pale - but that might just be the way her skin is naturally, and her paleness lends to the "soft focus" effect, too, since it also lessens her presence in the image. Some highlight lessening (ala PS CS Shadow & Highlights) might improve her a bit, especially along the left side of her face.

All in all though, you're definitely beyond "correct" and well into that gray area of "personal taste." So whatever more you do is up to you, really. The tweaks I mention are all rather slight, so they're just my opinions.

[Radtech1]

David,

I agree with tweaking the color, but I would not touch the saturation. Another avenue you might try is to vingette the faces a little. Wish I could elaborate, but I am at work.

Rad

[Meerkat17]

Thanks for the prompt reply Scottes, conversion to sRGB has taken a lot of the saturatiion from the image although you are correct about the girl as she does have a pale complextion to begin with. I will have a go with some highlight and shadow work on her face as that is something which I didn't notice.

Thanks for your input.

David

PS Thanks Rad I look forward to your elaborations if you care to give them later

[Radtech1]

David,

Here is where I am with this shot. I think that the faces are wonderful. I guess the question, "How Much Postprocessing?" is best answered by asking yourself if you're looking for a representational or a stylized image. Yours, as it stands, is very representational. I would lean towards a stylized image somewhat. As soon I started to work on it, I realized that a straight vignette would not work with two faces in the picture. Instead I added a couple of layers, one of which had a strong Guassen blur. Another layer which held primarily the background, I set to Multiply. I changed the tint ever so slightly and here is my result:

http://home.ripway.com/2004-2/78486/aa_MG_0428copy.jpg

Sorry that this took so long. I was at Marcia's for the night without PS access. I hope that this is not too much for your taste.

Rad

[maderito]

Very nice shot. The larger face of the girl, partially defocused, nicely balances the smaller and in focus boy's face. Good effect.

There is a significant cyan/blue color caste on the image - that is, the white balance is off, and the faces appear excessively cold to my eye.

Correcting the WB will warm the image. Using a curve adjustment layer, set a point on the red channel at 247/255 and on the blue channel 255/232. Adjust opacity on the layer to taste. Consider toning down the highlights using shadows/highlights adjustment.

I agree that you need to be careful and conservative with the color adjustments. The image is dominated by skin and blond hair tones, and it is easier to get them wrong rather than right.

[Hellashot]

I'd recommend some sharpening. When I process RAW files I always set sharpening to zero in PSE 3 and then save the same in TIF. I'll sharpen to print and not save it so that if I want to do other things with the image I haven't saved the over sharpening needed to do 4x6's.

[Meerkat17]

Thanks everyone for all the input - I've spent most of the day playing with different effects for this image and trying out a lot of what you have suggested.

Whilst l like would have gone for the stylised version that Rad posted. However, the parents have choosen one which I altered the contrast on which was Scottes suggestion. I still have a little work to do on it but thought I'd post all the same.

I've not converted this to sRGB but even so it has still lost some of the saturation which is in the original.

Thanks again for all your help.

Cheers
David

http://www.btinternet.com/~David.Lewins/g5/images/_MG_0428_2_crop.jpg

[Scottes]

However, the parents have choosen one which I altered the contrast on which was Scottes suggestion.
And that explains why I like this one better... http://photography-on-the.net/forum/images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif

[Meerkat17]

Thanks Scottes

[Scottes]

Not a problem...

I'm just wrestling with the fact that an average person (ie; non-photographer) chose my "correct" version over the more artistic one, thus trashing all my hopes of ever becoming an artist.

I'm doomed to take snapshots for the rest of my life.

Oh, well. At least they'll be good snapshots, correctly exposed, with good contrast and colors.

Ho-Hum.

:(