a princess- Please C&C, thanks! :)

[photography by trish]

Here is a photo of my daughter.
She's obviously a princess fan.
I used a 40D with the 28-135 kit lens, all ambient.

It's been awhile since I put myself out there.
Go ahead and break me down! :cool:

Thanks everyone.
Looking forward to your responses.
SOC
http://i478.photobucket.com/albums/rr141/trishaordonez/IMG_1496_SOC.jpg
PP
http://i478.photobucket.com/albums/rr141/trishaordonez/IMG_1496_2-1.jpg

p.s. i'd love to get input/advice on post processing techniques to improve my photos as i am far from a pro in ps. :)

[howaboutnow]

How adorable! Love the array of colors in this picture.

For post processing I'd maybe say brighten a notch just to bring out the colors even more, but I'm no pro.

[Robert_Lay]

We used to have a guideline of 800 pixels max. in either direction. Whoever changed that to 1024 must think that we all have higher resolution video systems. It is not a good idea to force your viewers to use the scroll bars - even a little bit.

The picture is cute. However, it is more of a snapshot than a portrait, but perhaps that is what you were shooting for.

I'm having trouble with the color scheme.
Blue colored siding is a little hard to get used to. Perhaps a better choice of background color would help - something that would let her clothing do most of the talking.

[skygod44]

How adorable! Love the array of colors in this picture.

For post processing I'd maybe say brighten a notch just to bring out the colors even more, but I'm no pro.

Lovely shot. And I agree with Howaboutnow. A little more brightening would make your daughters eyes look clearer. Why don't you do a little PP and post another shot for comparison?

[photography by trish]

How adorable! Love the array of colors in this picture.

For post processing I'd maybe say brighten a notch just to bring out the colors even more, but I'm no pro.

thanks for that! :D at first i kicked the saturation down a lot. i was going for an older looking image/style, but after i played with it a bit, the regular 0 saturation kinda stuck on me.

We used to have a guideline of 800 pixels max. in either direction. Whoever changed that to 1024 must think that we all have higher resolution video systems. It is not a good idea to force your viewers to use the scroll bars - even a little bit.

The picture is cute. However, it is more of a snapshot than a portrait, but perhaps that is what you were shooting for.

I'm having trouble with the color scheme.
Blue colored siding is a little hard to get used to. Perhaps a better choice of background color would help - something that would let her clothing do most of the talking.

thanks for the image size correction robert. for some reason i assumed it was 800 wide, not both. :o

if you don't mind, could you please elaborate on the snapshot comment? i'm wondering what i could do different next time to make it less of a snapshot and more of a portrait. but maybe i hadn't specified within my own mind what i was trying to do before i shot the image. like i said, i'm not really sure what specifications would separate the two.

and about the side color, is there something in PP that i could do to tone down the side color. i had noticed that earlier, but ended up getting used to it. maybe mask her, and de-saturate the wall if possible? OR just shoot in front of some other colored background, less distracting than that one?

thanks for your honesty.

Lovely shot. And I agree with Howaboutnow. A little more brightening would make your daughters eyes look clearer. Why don't you do a little PP and post another shot for comparison?

i edited my original post to show both, SOC and PP images. i had edited it in PS (i'm still on photoshop 1) originally, but i guess what i was really trying to say was, how can my PP skills improve in respect to this image? thank you as well for sharing your input. it's greatly appreciated. :)

[maximus96]

i'm also trying to learn the difference between a snapshot and a portrait. seems to me portraits often have a more blurry background where the subject stands out more, but i guess its not always the case. hope somebody can enlighten us.

[LeuceDeuce]

I think she's adorable. I altered the background to bring more attention to your daughter.
_

[photography by trish]

I think she's adorable. I altered the background to bring more attention to your daughter.
_

whoa! that's awesome. if you don't mind, would you please share what technique or method you used for changing the background color? thanks a lot for sharing!!!!!!!!! :D:eek::D:)

[Robert_Lay]

There is a difference between being cute and being beautiful. You can go either way in your photography - it's just a matter of choice and whether or not you work in that direction. Obviously, the same thing applies as to whether you end up with a snapshot or a portrait. It is possible to get really great candid portraits, but to get a well-done portrait you almost invariably have to work at the lighting, the surroundings, the pose, etc.

LeuceDeuce has demonstrated the fix on the blue siding. I think everone would agree that Chris' version gives a better separation of the subject from the background.

[LeuceDeuce]

whoa! that's awesome. if you don't mind, would you please share what technique or method you used for changing the background color? thanks a lot for sharing!!!!!!!!! :D:eek::D:)

Thank you, and I don't mind at all. All workflow done in CS3:

I changed the bit-depth of the image to 16 bits.

I changed the mode of the image to LAB.

I made three copies of the background layer (Daughter, New Background, Org Background).

On the Daughter layer I created a mask to remove all of the background.

On the New Background I applied curves in the A and B channel to change the blue to a nice bright green tone.

After getting the hue of green I liked I destaurated it so it wasn't so garish, and faded into the background.

I then applied a Lens Blur to the New Background to throw it out of focus.

I then did some fine tuning on the mask of your daughter with a soft brush to blend the image better.

I applied curves to your daughter to add contrast and a slight warmth.

If you look closely you'll see an effect of the blur that I don't like, and that is that the edges of your daughter get blurred as well, and stick out past the masked layer. If you want to get rid of that (and I would) you can use the clone stamp, and go around the entire edge of your daughter cloning the background over her. That way when you blur the background you don't get blurred edges from your daughter. It's more work, but (to me) it's worth it in the long run.

Flatten, convert back to 8-bit, convert back to RGB (sRGB color space). Save and post.

[punkix]

wow! thats a really awsome pic. you know, in an artist's perspective, its already perfect as long as you can express the picture the way you want it to, just make the color alive for everything you take and it will com out awsome. we both have the same gear; 40d and a 28-135mm lense. great job and very cute kid bw!

[skygod44]

i'm also trying to learn the difference between a snapshot and a portrait. seems to me portraits often have a more blurry background where the subject stands out more, but i guess its not always the case. hope somebody can enlighten us.

Ha, ha, ha! Aren't we all?!
But seriously, you hit the nail on the head. One of the first areas that we all need to learn in photography is how to STOP taking snapshots. Some people seem to have that ability instantly...the rest of us have to work at it....which is perhaps one reason why photography is such a popular hobby - it's actually enjoyable "working at it!"

Thank you, and I don't mind at all. All workflow done in CS3:

I changed the bit-depth of the image to 16 bits.

I changed the mode of the image to LAB.

I made three copies of the background layer (Daughter, New Background, Org Background).

On the Daughter layer I created a mask to remove all of the background.

On the New Background I applied curves in the A and B channel to change the blue to a nice bright green tone.

After getting the hue of green I liked I destaurated it so it wasn't so garish, and faded into the background.

I then applied a Lens Blur to the New Background to throw it out of focus.

I then did some fine tuning on the mask of your daughter with a soft brush to blend the image better.

I applied curves to your daughter to add contrast and a slight warmth.

If you look closely you'll see an effect of the blur that I don't like, and that is that the edges of your daughter get blurred as well, and stick out past the masked layer. If you want to get rid of that (and I would) you can use the clone stamp, and go around the entire edge of your daughter cloning the background over her. That way when you blur the background you don't get blurred edges from your daughter. It's more work, but (to me) it's worth it in the long run.

Flatten, convert back to 8-bit, convert back to RGB (sRGB color space). Save and post.

LeuceDeuce...let me say, that is a MIGHTY FINE edit!
Seriously! Well done and I hope the OP can learn a lot (as well as the rest of us!) from your kindness in posting your workflow. I'm new(ish) to in depth PP, and am having enormous fun playing with layers....but coming from film, it's taking me some time.
Thanks again, and I think your edit really shows what can be done in PP.

[LeuceDeuce]

LeuceDeuce...let me say, that is a MIGHTY FINE edit!
Seriously! Well done and I hope the OP can learn a lot (as well as the rest of us!) from your kindness in posting your workflow. I'm new(ish) to in depth PP, and am having enormous fun playing with layers....but coming from film, it's taking me some time.
Thanks again, and I think your edit really shows what can be done in PP.

Thank you very much. Now my head doesn't fit through the door :D

[skygod44]

Thank you very much. Now my head doesn't fit through the door :D

You're welcome.

And in looking at the pictures again, I've another comment for Miximus96:
If you look at a lot of classic "portrait" pictures, the background is completely out of focus. But in this picture, the background is clearly visible and understandable, and yet it adds to the picture over all.

So, IMHO that's a major difference between a snapshot and a portrait.

1) If the background is crappy, blur it out by any method possible - wide aperture, you-to-subject-to-background positioning, PP effects.
2) If the background is ok, keep it marginally in-focus, but simplify the section of it that you (we, the viewers) can actually see in-frame.

Right. Back to bed to nurse my chest infection before Missus Skygod starts nagging!!!!
;)

[michillebaker]

To me i think photo's like these are always the best. In my eye's this would be more of a photograph then a snapshot. I hope you don't mind but i also edited your photo. I used your soc image and created something like this.

Sometimes just a little photo processing can go a long way.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3411/3261002933_218f38c4ff_o.jpg

All i did was adjust the color, lightened it up, added some contrast, blurred the background, changed the color of the background, cropped, & sharpened. To change the background color all i did was added an hue/saturation layer adjust the hue from the blue channel and then masked out everything but the background. To adjust adjust everything else i used this technique that I talk about in my tutorial http://candyshoptastytreatspsactions.blogspot.com/.

Hope this helps :).

[photography by trish]

Thank you, and I don't mind at all. All workflow done in CS3:

I changed the bit-depth of the image to 16 bits.

I changed the mode of the image to LAB.

I made three copies of the background layer (Daughter, New Background, Org Background).

On the Daughter layer I created a mask to remove all of the background.

On the New Background I applied curves in the A and B channel to change the blue to a nice bright green tone.

After getting the hue of green I liked I destaurated it so it wasn't so garish, and faded into the background.

I then applied a Lens Blur to the New Background to throw it out of focus.

I then did some fine tuning on the mask of your daughter with a soft brush to blend the image better.

I applied curves to your daughter to add contrast and a slight warmth.

If you look closely you'll see an effect of the blur that I don't like, and that is that the edges of your daughter get blurred as well, and stick out past the masked layer. If you want to get rid of that (and I would) you can use the clone stamp, and go around the entire edge of your daughter cloning the background over her. That way when you blur the background you don't get blurred edges from your daughter. It's more work, but (to me) it's worth it in the long run.

Flatten, convert back to 8-bit, convert back to RGB (sRGB color space). Save and post.

you are the epitome of why i love this forum. you didn't have to and i truly appreciate it. i will definitely use your workflow to learn more. i'm sooo thankful!

wow! thats a really awsome pic. you know, in an artist's perspective, its already perfect as long as you can express the picture the way you want it to, just make the color alive for everything you take and it will com out awsome. we both have the same gear; 40d and a 28-135mm lense. great job and very cute kid bw!

thanks. personally, i like photos with a lot of different colors, but i also agree with robert in many of his opinions. there are technical differences that if incorporated into your own style will improve the quality of one's portraits. i guess i am always interested to know how something i've done can be better. thanks for both compliments, about my work and kid (which is also a lot of work!).

You're welcome.

And in looking at the pictures again, I've another comment for Miximus96:
If you look at a lot of classic "portrait" pictures, the background is completely out of focus. But in this picture, the background is clearly visible and understandable, and yet it adds to the picture over all.

So, IMHO that's a major difference between a snapshot and a portrait.

1) If the background is crappy, blur it out by any method possible - wide aperture, you-to-subject-to-background positioning, PP effects.
2) If the background is ok, keep it marginally in-focus, but simplify the section of it that you (we, the viewers) can actually see in-frame.

Right. Back to bed to nurse my chest infection before Missus Skygod starts nagging!!!!
;)

ay yi yi! chest infection! now i'm even more thankful you shared!
and also about the background. i felt it was more of a "portrait" when i took it because i tried to consider the background. at the time, i really appreciated the wall and was looking to throw my daughter in the picture somehow! haha so i noticed the wall first for this pic.

To me i think photo's like these are always the best. In my eye's this would be more of a photograph then a snapshot. I hope you don't mind but i also edited your photo. I used your soc image and created something like this.

Sometimes just a little photo processing can go a long way.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3411/3261002933_218f38c4ff_o.jpg

All i did was adjust the color, lightened it up, added some contrast, blurred the background, changed the color of the background, cropped, & sharpened. To change the background color all i did was added an hue/saturation layer adjust the hue from the blue channel and then masked out everything but the background. To adjust adjust everything else i used this technique that I talk about in my tutorial http://candyshoptastytreatspsactions.blogspot.com/.



Hope this helps :).

i don't mind at all! i like your take on it as well! like i said earlier, personally, i like photos with a lot of different colors. i will definitely check out your tutorial.

so,.....hope this question isn't foolish, but what would be the difference between a photograph and a snapshot in your opinion?

[michillebaker]

i don't mind at all! i like your take on it as well! like i said earlier, personally, i like photos with a lot of different colors. i will definitely check out your tutorial.

so,.....hope this question isn't foolish, but what would be the difference between a photograph and a snapshot in your opinion?

When i think of a snapshot i would think of one that has little to no regards to aim. I also think that snapshots are taken were the person who is taking the picture doesn't look at there surrounding and then adjust to suite the picture they are taking.

A photograph to me would be a photo were the photographer would have regards for it's surroundings and adjust to suite there surroundings.

This is my definition of snapshots and photographs but others will probably disagree ;).

Michille