My Niece

[agernega]

I'm really into photography and i want to get much better. please CC. This is my niece in the backyard.

Alena


P.S. Can anyone tell me why the image looks so different here than in photoshop. The colors are not poping?? Thanks

[710 Studio]

I'm really into photography and i want to get much better. please CC. This is my niece in the backyard.

Alena


P.S. Can anyone tell me why the image looks so different here than in photoshop. The colors are not poping?? Thanks

Very nice! I love the blues and the greens in the photo... very good combination. The overall color looks a bit "cool", though, so a little white balancing may be in order.

Why the colors pop in Photoshop more than the web may be due to quite a few factors. Do the colors lose their pop when converted to JPEG? Do the JPEGS look better on your computer programs than they do when uploaded to the web? What browser do you use? I know... lots of questions... =]

I see that you have IMAGE EDITING OK on your profile, so I hope you don't mind... I did a quick edit:

[Rishka78]

Great photo! Is your monitor calibrated?

[agernega]

Very nice! I love the blues and the greens in the photo... very good combination. The overall color looks a bit "cool", though, so a little white balancing may be in order.

Why the colors pop in Photoshop more than the web may be due to quite a few factors. Do the colors lose their pop when converted to JPEG? Do the JPEGS look better on your computer programs than they do when uploaded to the web? What browser do you use? I know... lots of questions... =]

I see that you have IMAGE EDITING OK on your profile, so I hope you don't mind... I did a quick edit:


Wow... I like it... Mind telling me what you did??:D

[agernega]

Great photo! Is your monitor calibrated?


No... its not... Would that make a difference when uploading on the web??

[710 Studio]

Wow... I like it... Mind telling me what you did??:D

Absolutely! I just hope my explanation makes sense...

1. Portraits can be color adjusted to the color of skin (in Photoshop).
a. open a new adjustment layer for curves.
b. 'SHIFT + Left Mouse Click' on the cheek (or any other nicely lit part of the skin). This will place a color marker on the skin.
c. In the INFO dialog box, click the eye-dropper menu by the RGB values of your marker. Change the info from RGB to CYMK for ease of editing.
d. To make the skin color more accurate, the value for 'C' should be about half of the 'Y' value and the 'M' value should be about 10 more than the 'Y' value. This will give the skin a more true-to-life color, usually bringing the rest of the photo to a more realistic color balance.

2. I created a duplicate layer and used the Dodge Tool on the eyes. After dodging the eyes, I turned that layer down to 35% opacity. This brightened the eyes, just a tad. She has beautiful eyes... I wanted to really accent them.

3. I created another duplicate layer and used the Burn Tool on the lips to darken them, a tad. I turned the opacity of this layer to about 17% or so. The opacity values will change to your taste in this step, as well as step 2.

4. I merged the layers together.

The process is a LOT quicker than it sounds while describing it... the edit took me all of 3 minutes, or so. =]

There is another way of color balancing when you don't have skin to adjust to:

1. Open a Threshold adjustment layer.

2. Slide the Threshold slider all the way to the LEFT until everything is white. Then, move the slider one click at a time back to the right, until you see the first black dot appear.

3. 'SHIFT + left mouse click' to place a color marker on this black dot. This is the darkest part of your photo.

4. Slide the Threshold slider all the way to the RIGHT until everything is black. Then, move the slider one click at a time back to the left, until you see the first white dot appear. This is the brightest part of your photo.

5. Click CANCEL on the Threshold dialog.

6. Create a new Curves Adjustment Layer.

7. Doing the same for all channels (Red, Green, and Blue), adjust the curves so the lowest value is "10" and the highest value is "245". Click OK on the curves dialog when the adjustment is made for all channels.

Now, the photo should be pretty close to color corrected.

Again, I sure hope this makes some sort of sense. That is one of many ways to color correct with Photoshop. This is the most reliable way I have found, thus far. I'm sure there are better ways, though! =]

[agernega]

Absolutely! I just hope my explanation makes sense...

1. Portraits can be color adjusted to the color of skin (in Photoshop).
a. open a new adjustment layer for curves.
b. 'SHIFT + Left Mouse Click' on the cheek (or any other nicely lit part of the skin). This will place a color marker on the skin.
c. In the INFO dialog box, click the eye-dropper menu by the RGB values of your marker. Change the info from RGB to CYMK for ease of editing.
d. To make the skin color more accurate, the value for 'C' should be about half of the 'Y' value and the 'M' value should be about 10 more than the 'Y' value. This will give the skin a more true-to-life color, usually bringing the rest of the photo to a more realistic color balance.

2. I created a duplicate layer and used the Dodge Tool on the eyes. After dodging the eyes, I turned that layer down to 35% opacity. This brightened the eyes, just a tad. She has beautiful eyes... I wanted to really accent them.

3. I created another duplicate layer and used the Burn Tool on the lips to darken them, a tad. I turned the opacity of this layer to about 17% or so. The opacity values will change to your taste in this step, as well as step 2.

4. I merged the layers together.

The process is a LOT quicker than it sounds while describing it... the edit took me all of 3 minutes, or so. =]

There is another way of color balancing when you don't have skin to adjust to:

1. Open a Threshold adjustment layer.

2. Slide the Threshold slider all the way to the LEFT until everything is white. Then, move the slider one click at a time back to the right, until you see the first black dot appear.

3. 'SHIFT + left mouse click' to place a color marker on this black dot. This is the darkest part of your photo.

4. Slide the Threshold slider all the way to the RIGHT until everything is black. Then, move the slider one click at a time back to the left, until you see the first white dot appear. This is the brightest part of your photo.

5. Click CANCEL on the Threshold dialog.

6. Create a new Curves Adjustment Layer.

7. Doing the same for all channels (Red, Green, and Blue), adjust the curves so the lowest value is "10" and the highest value is "245". Click OK on the curves dialog when the adjustment is made for all channels.

Now, the photo should be pretty close to color corrected.

Again, I sure hope this makes some sort of sense. That is one of many ways to color correct with Photoshop. This is the most reliable way I have found, thus far. I'm sure there are better ways, though! =]


Thanks :D I will try it right now....

[710 Studio]

Thanks :D I will try it right now....

You mean that made sense to you?!? YES!!!

I'm terrible at giving directions... =]

[agernega]

You mean that made sense to you?!? YES!!!

I'm terrible at giving directions... =]

Kinda.... step c & d doesn't really make sense..... :o

[710 Studio]

Kinda.... step c & d doesn't really make sense..... :o

Steps c & d may depend on what version of Photoshop you have. I'm using CS3 Extended. It also depends on how you have your workspace configured.

I'm using the default workspace for CS3 Extended. At the very right of the screen, there is a area that has 3 tabs: NAVIGATOR, HISTOGRAM, and INFO. If you click on the INFO tab, you will see the color values of your sample points created in step b. By the sample point you created on the skin, you will see a value for R, G, and B. Just to the left of these values, there will be a very small eye-dropper icon. Click that eye-dropper icon for a menu. From the menu, you will see CYMK. Click the CYMK option. At that point, steps c and d should make more sense ( I HOPE!!!).

Good luck!

[710 Studio]

Wow... actually, I just realized that, while doing color correction on a photo, I left out a couple of details. What I should do is attempt to make a video of my color correction technique and post it on YouTube. I think I'll work on that, today... =]

[Kimmy T]

Wow... actually, I just realized that, while doing color correction on a photo, I left out a couple of details. What I should do is attempt to make a video of my color correction technique and post it on YouTube. I think I'll work on that, today... =]

I'd love to see your video!!

[Kimmy T]

I think she is a beauty and has the most amazing eyelashes I have ever seen.

[daviddavid_007]

Beautiful little girl. Awesome blue eyes

[bobbyz]

Would it be better to do a custom WB and not spend time in pp trying to fix skin colors?

The pp shot looks more greenish on my calibrated monitor.

[Skrim17]

I find the edited shot green as well.

OP you should make sure you are working in (and saving) RGB while in photoshop, could be why your edited image looks different than the posted one.

[agernega]

Wow... actually, I just realized that, while doing color correction on a photo, I left out a couple of details. What I should do is attempt to make a video of my color correction technique and post it on YouTube. I think I'll work on that, today... =]


I would love to see you video... i learn better by looking at something... :)

[agernega]

I think she is a beauty and has the most amazing eyelashes I have ever seen.

Thank you... she is a beauty:D

Beautiful little girl. Awesome blue eyes

Thanks :)