Johns Hopkins University graduate

Congratulations are in order for my lovely wife. She recently graduated from The Johns Hopkins School of Education with a Masters degree in Special Education. Here is the shot I had in mind and it actually looks like I wanted it to! Holy crap! Congrats are in order to myself for that one. Anyway, here is the picture. It looks even better at full size/resolution. The only thing I dont like about it is that it looks crooked because of the lens distortion of the stairs just behind her. Any way to fix that or am I being over critical?

Congrats to you both.

As you had 'image editing ok' turned on I took the liberty to do so

I used ACR to correct the distortion and level the horizon. I also warmed it up, increased black levels, and bumped saturation a hair.

In lens correction I went +11 on the distortion.

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Congrats.

BTW - The shot needs lot more ambient.

Thanks guys. NG7 Its funny you made it warmer as I usually make my pictures warm but always think it looks wrong and too warm. Perhaps I went too cool on this one though for some reason, it looks warmer on PS than it does here. Thanks for the lens correction. I knew it was possible.

Bobbyz. Thanks for the congrats. She and I both thought the the clock tower back there lit up at night. Well, it doesnt. HAHA By the time we figured it out, I was at 1/25 at ISO 400. Thats as high and ISO as I like to go in the dark on my T1i and 1/25 is slower than I would have wanted though it is still tack sharp. (Thanks Sigma 17-50 OS) That was about as bright as I could get the ambient. I kinda like it though. I like the light through the top of the tower and the detail in the grass. Id start the shoot a little earlier next time but I dont think her or the newborn are up to a reshoot. Thanks again!

I also want to thank everyone on the forums that has helped me be able to create images like the above in what I consider to be a fairly short time.

Don't be afraid of higher ISO. I have old 1dmk2 and when using flash even ISO1600 looks quite nice in 16x20 prints.

I like it =) and I bet it look 100x better print and framed !!!

Nice shot.

Here is one I took a bit earlier in the evening.