First critique post - Valentine portraits

[klynam]

My wife wanted to take portraits of her best friends for them to give their husbands on Valentine's Day. So we had all the girls come over, 30-45 minutes apart, for a 3-4 hour photo session, last week. Here are the results...

http://home.comcast.net/~klynam1/photos/before-after.htm

I've been using Photoshop since version 1 and have been a professional art director for over 15 years. I became really interested in photography about 3 years ago and began shooting digital photography last year. I just got my lights a couple of months ago and have a long way to go to learn strobe lighting - as you can tell.

Specifically, we'd like your comments on our end results: skin cleanup, level adjustments, cropping, backgrounds, etc. My wife made most of the shot selections and cropping recommendations. I did all the post processing, including creation of the digital backgrounds from old digital snapshots.

If nothing else, let this assure everyone out there regardless of photographic ability, you can save just about anything in Photoshop. And if you want to give your wife a great present, do something to make her the hero of her friends!

[klynam]

Forgot to mention...to get these, we shot 25-30 images of each friend and came away with 5-10 potentially usable shots of each person, selecting 1-3 each for final retouching.

All shots taken with a Digital Rebel and 50mm 1.8 prime, set to JPG fine. Output of final images was 5x7 on HP Premium Photo Plus paper from an HP 970cse on highest possible photo resolution.

[reewik]

I think you did a great job. I like the BW's the best... That last shot with the glasses is a nice one.

[KO_300D]

hell man, just looking at those makes me wanna ask you for Photoshop lessons!

very impressive results!

[Citizensmith]

I'm very impressed by the backdrops. How exactly where you able to knock out the originals while preserving the fine hairs. Pixel pushing or a specific technique. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

[ayotnoms]

Citizen: check out the Photoshop advanced masking techniques here:
http://www.russellbrown.com/tips_tech.html
scroll down toward the bottom.

Great tips on knocking out those fine hair pixels.

If you don't have PS, never mind :confused:

[Mazza]

I really like the like the black and white photos.

[Citizensmith]

Citizen: check out the Photoshop advanced masking techniques here:
http://www.russellbrown.com/tips_tech.html
scroll down toward the bottom.

Great tips on knocking out those fine hair pixels.

If you don't have PS, never mind :confused:

Well I've got PSCS so I was all set, and he had some great looking tutorials on there. Unfortunately they are all in Quicktime format, something I've resisted installing. And guess what, now if you want the latest version you have to install iTunes too. Are they kidding? Mac can go screw themselves. I don't really want quicktime, and as for iTunes I really don't want to install software I have absolutely no use or desire for. Guess I'll be finding the tips and tricks elsewhere.

[rohitkumar]

Well I've got PSCS so I was all set, and he had some great looking tutorials on there. Unfortunately they are all in Quicktime format, something I've resisted installing. And guess what, now if you want the latest version you have to install iTunes too. Are they kidding? Mac can go screw themselves. I don't really want quicktime, and as for iTunes I really don't want to install software I have absolutely no use or desire for. Guess I'll be finding the tips and tricks elsewhere.

try installing VLC player, it will play video files of all formats and its not too heavy on the system

[ayotnoms]

Over the years, I've seen many tips on how to create a mask for things like stray hairs around the head but Russell Brown's is the best I've seen so far.

Do try and get your hands (or eyes) on his tutorial. I think you'll find it useful.

of course, Klynam could just tell us how he did it 8-)

[Pugdaddy]

I am impressed. Can you make me look that good? j/k. The woman in the last 2 shots is HOT. The last one is very sexy, whether it was intended to be or not. Good job on all of them.

[Citizensmith]

try installing VLC player, it will play video files of all formats and its not too heavy on the system

And its even nice enough to work inside Firefox. Thanks for the pointer!

[klynam]

Hi to all - my apologies for not responding sooner. I watched my post for replies a couple of days and didn't get many. Just happened to check in again today.

Thanks for the good words. As for background masking and skin smoothing, I've worked on those a LONG time and continue to seek the holy grail: defined by me as 'free, effective, and flexible. I've downloaded every action, tutorial, tip, trick, and plug in I can find. (Oddly enough, I've never run across Russel Brown before - so I'll have to check that one out asap.)

While I haven't tried them all (a thousand ways to skin this cat), I've tried a lot of them. None work in every scenario. Most either overwork or underwork the image - at least to my eye. And almost all of suffer as image resolution increases. One thing I can tell you: almost everything we find online display sample images in low (screen) resolution, which can hide a LOT of problems!

Quite frankly, I often end up right back with very judicious use of Photoshop's basic tools. My best friends are: background eraser and extract filter, healing/clone tools, dodge/burn tools, and layers. Truly it's as much art as science. I use my eye and experience to judge when to use what particular steps and functions, and in what order.

Tell you what, give me a few days and I'll detail as much as I can remember on these images. Deal?

[Citizensmith]

Tell you what, give me a few days and I'll detail as much as I can remember on these images. Deal?

I for one would certainly appreciate your time and efforts.

[PhotosGuy]

You have some nice ones there. I'd use a softer lighting on the older people, though. Saves a lot of work in PS! ;-)

[skifly]

Very nice retouching.

[imanewbie]

you did great work with the eyes on a couple of them... gave them wow factor!
Great post processing work!

The b&w's are great, by the way.

Definitely makes me want to go learn more about Photoshop!!

Thanks!