First Halloween Pic

[petriej]

This is my first halloween portrait that I PP'd. I cropped and tried to adjust colors, but he is fair skinned that I couldn't get nice skin tones without turning his brown monkey suit into a black blob.


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2490/4062472543_5fe4927012_o.jpg


Anyone have an easy tip trick to get nicer flesh tones?

All C&C appreciated.

Thank you,


J

[Oxford_Matt]

This is my first halloween portrait that I PP'd. I cropped and tried to adjust colors, but he is fair skinned that I couldn't get nice skin tones without turning his brown monkey suit into a black blob.

Anyone have an easy tip trick to get nicer flesh tones?

All C&C appreciated.

Thank you,


J

I use the following trick on photoshop.

I can get the Skintones spot on using this wirhout even looking at the image!! Try it.

http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/3487/skintone.jpg

Let me know what you think.

Tip: Do not use the eyedropper on the brightest part of the skin. Find a area somewhere in the middle.

[Oxford_Matt]

I will just say, This is a strange one because you have a Blue locker on the right and orange on the left. They are casting a colour on his face.
But here is my quick attempt:

http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/791/colourcorrected.jpg

[Robert_Lay]

There is a simple explanation of how this picture was sabotaged.

The image was overexposed and detail was lost in that the highlights were hard clipped.

I could be completely wrong about all of that, but my experience tells me, that is what happened.

Any attempt to recover that lost detail in a jpg is going to be fraught with difficulty. It really has to be re-shot. If you want to give yourself a better chance of success, you will shoot in RAW and try to avoid overexposing.

[petriej]

Thank you for the tips. What about composition? Had the exposure been correct and maybe if I didn't have the color reflections on the face, would it work then?
I've been mulling over shooting RAW + JPG, but haven't pulled the trigger.

Again, much appreciated on the C&C.


J

[rw2]

Here is anothr try.
Decreased the blues and yelows and increased reds with a curve adjustment.
Shadows highlights and them ran it through Noise Ninja.

[petriej]

Cool. I took some shots in RAW, but I cannot get photoshop to open them. I have PS 5.5 and it says it will open RAW, but does not recognize the CS2 extension. I know that I need to upgrade, but is there anyway to make it backward compatible for the meantime?

Thank you,



J

[juskonig]

Wow, great shot...Chris Orwig is the man!

[Robert_Lay]

Cool. I took some shots in RAW, but I cannot get photoshop to open them. I have PS 5.5 and it says it will open RAW, but does not recognize the CS2 extension. I know that I need to upgrade, but is there anyway to make it backward compatible for the meantime?

...


Several separate issues here.

1) In the two attempts above to correct the Original Post, each failed by leaving a noticeable blue-green pallor to the left side of his face.

2) Older Photoshop may not be able to accomodate newer RAW formats. However, some of the problems will be resolved by first using the free program "DNG" to create a universal RAW format version of the original RAW file. Then, subsequent to that, you will take your most current RAW program and see if it will open the DNG file. That has resolved many such problems, but may not work for you.

3) I would not consider using the RAW + JPG mode because it serves no earthly purpose to store both in the camera, provided you have a working RAW program like Adobe Camera RAW plugin for Photoshop. Of course, if you do not have any way to convert your RAW to JPG, you must wait until you are so equipped.

4) Meanwhile, let me remind you that the program, "Digital Photo Professional", free with all Canon EOS cameras does open and edit the RAW files.

[rw2]

Several separate issues here.

1) In the two attempts above to correct the Original Post, each failed by leaving a noticeable blue-green pallor to the left side of his face.


Don't know if this is any better. I do enjoy learning. And trial and error are my best teachers.
Like Robert said give DPP a try.

[lundgrenj]

Anyway to photoshop out the candy stick in his hand? Though maybe thats a part of the fun, but took me a bit to know what it was.

[rw2]

clone it out.

[petriej]

Robert,
Thank you for your advice as your posts here bring tomes of information. My currently HP laptop will not recognize the DPP CD that came with my camera. I am currently looking at upgrading back to a Dell and upgrading PS to CS4. In the meantime, I will try to use DNG to manipulate raw images.

Thank you,



J

[petriej]

Everyone else,
Thank you for all of the tips and tricks, it is always fun for me to see how far you can go with PP'ing.