my first attempt at holiday pics!

[CanadaJen]

A friend asked me to take a few photos of her kids for the holidays - something I've never ever done before! I don't have kids - they don't sit still much do they lol?! She loves the photos I gave her but I wanted some c&c from those "in the know"! I don't do much post processing because I simply don't know how - I'd love to learn better b&w conversion for photoshop elements, if anyone has any pointers I'm all ears! Thanks!

1.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/radiationjen/hanh12.jpg

2.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/radiationjen/hanh6.jpg

3.
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/radiationjen/hanh22.jpg

[indigobox]

Image one made me smile. Very cute. :) It is very well lit also, and colouring is nice. Well done.

Cj.

[Kris K]

very nice and yes children don't stay still very long

[family guy]

I think you nailed the lighting in #1! Did you use an external flash? My only nit is to watch the horizon, looks a little crooked. But the cuteness sure makes up for it! Great job all around!;)

[izzy35]

I'm not as "in the know" as many here, but 1 and 3 are GREAT!!!

[coopergirl]

you had image editing ok so i had a go at it. loved #1 just tried to bring out the eyes a bit. it's a really cute picture! oh and i straightened out the horizon a bit and cropped it in a bit closer.

[bobbyz]

I like #1. #2 needs less light in the bg and tree lights to show up.

[CanadaJen]

Great edit coopergirl! I'd love to know what steps you did to bring out the eyes- it looks great and I've never been able to do that!

I didn't even noticed the horison in the background - shows how much I need to learn! :oops: I'll have to pay more attention to that from now on!

Oh and the lights on the tree weren't actually turned on - they weren't working and mom didn't have time to change them before I came over!

Thanks for the feedback!

[indigobox]

If you are using Photoshop, this could help.
A quick way to sharpen eyes in Photoshop, is to Lasso tool the eyes, very randomly, no precision is required. Then go and set the selection to be feathered of about 5px's. This will then allow you to sharpen just around the eye area. Then go and set your unsharp mask, and it should allow it to pull the sharpness of the eyes out.
Cj.

[coopergirl]

since you have elements and not cs3 i would suggest doing what indigobox said but also try running a high pass filter instead of unsharp mask play around with the different amounts.

[samoan_ridah]

Wow, those are great shots! The last one could be on an A&F Kids poster... :)

Great ideas for my kids, gotta love this forum!

Thanks for sharing.

[Rhinotherunt]

I think you did great!