Candid of my daughter - C&C welcome

This is my daughter kinda staring into space. I've been shooting digital for a few months but new to photoshop so c&c is appreciated.

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Looks a little underexposed on my monitor. I would try to use fill to brighten her up a little bit. A the very least dodge and sharpen her eyes. I like your composition.

Seamus69 wrote in post #12399783
Looks a little underexposed on my monitor. I would try to use fill to brighten her up a little bit. A the very least dodge and sharpen her eyes. I like your composition.

Thanks! I'll have to look on another computer cause on my big monitor she looks bright. Yes, the eyes. I did a lot of PP on this one...I cloned out her ear sticking through her hair and scars on her lip piercing and enhancing the background while masking out her and the the fence. I did dodge her eyes a bit but was afraid to overdo it.

Thanks for your advice! I am striving to improve and your feedback helps a lot.

Great advice. I looked at my capture on other monitors and it was lacking. I updated the photo to brighten her face and whitened/sharpened her eyes as suggested (though I may have overdone it). Thanks.

yeah, i think the you overdid the eyes a bit. bringing up the exposure all around might help. otherwise, i do like the shot. also i would have brought her over more to the left on the crop, but that's just my preference.

You're eye touch up is sloppy to be honest.. I can see the brush strokes around the edges and the whites are much toooo white. I'm not sure what method you're using to touch them up.. But if you're using something like a screen mode adjustment layer; try lowering the opacity after you brush over them..

She's very pretty, but the image itself is way over processed. The eye's look like something from a horror movie poster. If you're working in photshop, you should work on a layer and reduce the opacity after you make the adjustments

Thanks all for the advice! I am using photoshop, but not correctly as I am learning. I didn't use a layer when I did the eye work. Here's a cleaned up version though I know I have to go back to square one to do this correctly. Live and learn.

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frankk wrote in post #12409844
Thanks all for the advice! I am using photoshop, but not correctly as I am learning. I didn't use a layer when I did the eye work. Here's a cleaned up version though I know I have to go back to square one to do this correctly. Live and learn.

Are you boosting the saturation too. Can you just post one without any processing, except conversion and resizing ?

I would be willing to help you with your technique if you like ?
Over processing and over saturation are the most over used image processing techniques. I use to do the same thing, but finally learned it makes the images look worse

the eyes are better in 2. It does look a bit saturated as well. I tend to think portraits look better a little muted. Lovely girl.

drdiesel1 wrote in post #12410783
Are you boosting the saturation too. Can you just post one without any processing, except conversion and resizing ?

I would be willing to help you with your technique if you like ?
Over processing and over saturation are the most over used image processing techniques. I use to do the same thing, but finally learned it makes the images look worse

Thanks for the offer. Here is the original. No processing, just resized.

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frankk wrote in post #12411201
Thanks for the offer. Here is the original. No processing, just resized.

Great.

Now we can start to sort things out.
What software are you using to import your images ?

Are you shooting RAW ?

Here's a quick and dirty edit.

I think you should use fill flash when shooting outside, even if it's daylight.
You can expose for the BG and use the fill to light the subject. Here's a non human example.

See how the sky is properly exposed and the subject is too. Also make your images that you post here to 1024 x whatever they come out at based off the 1024 width.

You should be shooting RAW as far as I'm concerned, because shooting jpeg limits your post processing ability. The images are edited in the camera before you download them.

I cheat with images like this with this particular camera. It's a Nikon D40 that I use in shutter priority around 200 with the popup flash.
It just takes the best random daytime shot of any camera I own. I swing it up, pop it off and get great looking images like this one. It's insanely simple. I don't even look through the viewfinder.

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The second edit is much better, the eyes in the original post were freaking me out

drdiesel1 wrote in post #12411813
Here's a quick and dirty edit.

Great suggestions. Thanks. I see what you did to brighten things up but have to ask how you dealt with the redness in her eyes? Her eyes look really clean in your version.

BTW - I shoot raw typically let PS handle the conversion though I used DPP to convert the one I posted.