What Would you Do?

[bonethgz]

I recently shot a Samoan Cultural Festival and got some great shots. What would you guys do with this shot? This is straight out of the camera, with absolutely nothing done to it, I like the colors, and I like the composition of the shot. Any ideas? Lets see 'em!

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii65/bonethgz/8059-copy-Copy.jpg

[LeuceDeuce]

I really hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I think this is a miss. The focus is on the blankets hanging in the background, not the dancer. You are right about the colours and comp, but the focus just wasn't on the subject in this shot. Your only hope would be to do something artsy with it.

Sorry :(

[bonethgz]

crap! I don't know how I missed that one...I feel smart. Well, like I said, I'm new at this! Thanks for breaking it to me!

[Robert_Lay]

I don't know that I would have noticed that. My recommendation was going to be to crop off everything in the lower third in order to get rid of the two people in the rear and worst of all the electronics box with cables.

[Titus213]

I saw a terrific term that aptly identifies this process - polishing a turd. Alas, I believe that even after much polishing it's still a turd.:lol:

[conkeroo]

I saw a terrific term that aptly identifies this process - polishing a turd. Alas, I believe that even after much polishing it's still a turd.:lol:

There you go OP, the comments and constructive criticism you were hoping for.

[Robert_Lay]

Yeah, that was a little heavy to lay on a poor guy who only joined up this month:lol:

[conkeroo]

OP, unfotunately, because the focus is on the background, there's not really much you can do although it's not too badly out of focus. I did a quick edit here, brightening only the subject because the anbient light was fine, I did a small bit of sharpening and I also rotated it slightly, just to balance it a bit. And cooled it ever so slightly. For future reference, if allowed, use your flash to help fill the subject. :D

http://fc04.deviantart.com/fs32/f/2008/211/8/a/8a031e9bf2636e5c77ed2ddedf4ff436.jpg

[LeuceDeuce]

Don't get discouraged. If this is a scene that you cannot re-shoot, you could still process this in such a way to give you a decent 4x6 for your album. The crop that I applied was to eliminate the extra stage equipment, and one of the ladies in the back. You could still go 4x6 though and process your image in a similar manner.

I basically worked on the image as two seperate parts (foreground and background). For the girl I brought up the exposure and contrast, while darkening, and blurring the background. The image of the girl is not particularly in focus, as mentioned earlier, but you can create the illusion of better (not perfect, but better) focus by throwing the background into stronger blur.

Hopefully this gives you a direction to save the shot as a keepsake, rather than deep sixing something you can't replace. The colours, and action in the shot make it worth trying to save.
_

[chauncey]

Were it mine and had no desire to deep-six it, I would run it through Corel Painter X.

[Titus213]

Yeah, that was a little heavy to lay on a poor guy who only joined up this month:lol:

Yeah, probably. But surely he understands that we all have buckets of turds laying around...:cry:

[LeuceDeuce]

Yeah, probably. But surely he understands that we all have buckets of turds laying around...:cry:

I've been guilty of polishing a few :)

[chauncey]

We all have done it, but to refer to them as "turds" is a bit indelicate. :lol:

[LeuceDeuce]

We all have done it, but to refer to them as "turds" is a bit indelicate. :lol:

LOL :lol:

[Titus213]

I'll try to be more delicate in the future.


Honest.