Diffcult reception

[davidfig]

Wedding was at the justice of the peace. Two days before the reception the bride asked me to take pictures. . . I know, never do this for friends. But I'm a sucker. I was looking for help with the attached picture. With difficult grounds to work with I came up with a shade tree and a semi harmless background. I'm interested in what I could have done to make this better.

Ok, now I feel retarded. I attached a jpg picture and it does not show. Help!

Well for now go to this link (http://home.comcast.net/%7Edavidfig/Reception011.jpg)

[drisley]

I think it looks good already. I would probably bump up the saturation and contrast slightly though.
Another good tip is to use a flash (preferably external) for fill so you can have a properly exposed background and foreground when in the shade.

[Fujifilmnut]

Last evening, I had a similar issue, a red-headed, very fair skinned woman and her husband was darkly tanned and appeared to be from a middle-eastern background. What I had to do was shoot from a slightly angled position with the camera in portrait position and the flash to the side of the man. This evened out the skin color nicely.

[crusher420]

I don't know if they original composition could have been done any better. The photo is actually quite nice. I think that some extra post-processing would make it really nice though.

I am not sure if this is what you were going for but here is something that I like to do with photos like this.

http://home.comcast.net/%7Edavidfig/Reception011.jpghttp://www.bkpromotions.ca/photography/recfix.jpg

In the latest photoshop I just brought up the exposure a bit. Played around with the contrast and saturation. Finally I added some effects using a basic filter called Diffuse Glow....may have gone a bit overboard with the last part but I think it looks not too bad.

[BlueTit]

No offence Crusher, but I prefer the first one, or maybe one somewhere in the middle.

[crusher420]

Yeah. You are probably right. I think that at the very least some extra saturation would be cool. I tend to go overboard....LOL!

[MCB]

I like Crusher420's version. Maybe a little dodge/burn to retain the details around the flowers, though. Or less exposure adjustment? But it's heading in a good direction for sure.

Maybe it's cheating, but a little selective coloring of the flowers wouldn't hurt. Or just selectively increase their saturation.

[crusher420]

You are so right about the burn tool. I am sure that someone on here will do a better job on this one!

[drisley]

I love the skin tones on crusher's version.
If you could keep the flower detail of the original, and combine with the skin tone on crusher's, I think it would be perfect.

[karusel]

overboard

First thing that popped in my mind as I saw your PS'd version. Personally I'd put your version over the original and just move the opacity slider in the top layer and stop when it looks best. I often do that with my images too.

[mgbeach]

I added a duplicate layer on Overlay blend mode at 24% opacity. A slight levels adjustment, USM, and Neat Image.

[drisley]

Now that is impressive!

[GyRob]

great job mgbeach imho.
Rob.

[crusher420]

I added a duplicate layer on Overlay blend mode at 24% opacity. A slight levels adjustment, USM, and Neat Image.

Showoff!! LOL!!

Actually that is a very nice job....see...I knew someone would come up with something better!

[davidfig]

Thanks guy! good input.

I printed the original and it looks great. I like what mgbeach has done, which is a meld of alot of input. I guess I'm to much of a traditionalist that wants to get it right out of the camera, like the old film days.

I did like the original because it is fairly true to the look and color she had. But after the mgbeach post I can see that I could have improved it with some saturation. I'm not sure about the blur, I tried it and thought her makeup was already giving her that hollywood look. I found out later that she had it professionally done. I'm still need to work on blur, I always seem to put to much on it.

During a wedding one might shot in excess of 400 pictures. Do I want to spend a lot of time on PS? I guess I still want to get it right in the shot so I don't have to do much later.

Also, after I printed it, I though I should have PS'd the mustach area of the groom. Oh well, live and learn.

Thanks again to all for your input.

[davidfig]

I think it looks good already. I would probably bump up the saturation and contrast slightly though.
Another good tip is to use a flash (preferably external) for fill so you can have a properly exposed background and foreground when in the shade.

It has fill flash. I was using bounce of a card and figured out later that I was only getting about 1/2 power. Stupid me. Maybe its time for a defuse box.

[Dante King]

MGBEACH! will you do all MY Post Prosc work? DAMN! you rock. Nice capture by the way!!!

[mgbeach]

MGBEACH! will you do all MY Post Prosc work? DAMN! you rock. Nice capture by the way!!!
Thanks, that's very nice of you to say. Bottom line is that you have to start with a good image to really get anywhere with post. That's what we had here. That Overlay layer really knocks the haze out of images while boosting the contrast. The trick is to not go overboard when the original is already very good.

[Keiffer]

Michael, You do rock my man. You think you can explain exactly how you did that, I'm still learning:-)

[mgbeach]

I like to keep it nice and simple. this one took about 3 minutes. First, duplicate the background layer (ctrl+J). Change its blend mode in the layers palette to Overlay. Then reduce the opacity of the duplicate layer until the contrast looks about right. On this one it was around 25%. Then I added a Levels adjustment layer. I didn't record the exact input settings, but I slid the black slider a little to the left, the grey slider to the left, and the white slider to the right. I added a gaussian blur to the duplicate layer (had to apply a pretty strong one because of the reduced opacity) then erased back down the original background layer. I ran an Unsharp Mask on the bottom layer at settings of amount 220, radius .3, threshold 0. Made sure it was converted to sRGB profile and saved for web. Then ran it through Neat Image. Let me know if you have any questions at all. I'll help any way I can.

[shoot_a_star]

MGbeach. Yo are da man! I always love your work. Very impressive!

[Keiffer]

I like to keep it nice and simple. this one took about 3 minutes. First, duplicate the background layer (ctrl+J). Change its blend mode in the layers palette to Overlay. Then reduce the opacity of the duplicate layer until the contrast looks about right. On this one it was around 25%. Then I added a Levels adjustment layer. I didn't record the exact input settings, but I slid the black slider a little to the left, the grey slider to the left, and the white slider to the right. I added a gaussian blur to the duplicate layer (had to apply a pretty strong one because of the reduced opacity) then erased back down the original background layer. I ran an Unsharp Mask on the bottom layer at settings of amount 220, radius .3, threshold 0. Made sure it was converted to sRGB profile and saved for web. Then ran it through Neat Image. Let me know if you have any questions at all. I'll help any way I can.
Thanks Michael, By the way where did you learn PS? I really think, no change that LOL I know I need a class or something. When I get into layers I get lost and seeing the wonderful work you do I know I need to get a full grasp on PS.

[mgbeach]

Thanks Michael, By the way where did you learn PS? I really think, no change that LOL I know I need a class or something. When I get into layers I get lost and seeing the wonderful work you do I know I need to get a full grasp on PS.

I've never taken any classes or anything. I have read a few books by Scott Kelby. They're very easy to understand and very informative. Also, if you join NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals, $99/year) you get a subscription to their awesome magazine and a website full of great video tutorials.

LOTS of trial and error is the key. I think the most important things are to get a real good working knowledge of how Curves and Levels adjustment layers are used and the intricacies of layers and blend modes. After a while you get a feeling for the quickest and easiest way to adjust a given photo. I think there's a definite turning point where I stopped playing with all the "artistic" filters in Photoshop and started trying to make the final image look good without looking like it was heavily edited.

Forums like this one are great for fine tuning your abilities. Try posting an original with your best shot at editing. Get some feedback, and try again. Maybe put in the body of the message that you're not looking for other people to edit it for you but rather to give you advice on what is needed. Keep at it until you get a winner. Do that a few times and I guarantee that the number of revisions you need to do will get smaller and smaller.

Thanks,
Michael

ps. Sorry for getting this thread off line!

[exposingmyself]

crusher-i know i should be looking at the photo but i'm a girl and love her make-up, ps or not. :D