Washed Out Portrait

hes gone wrote in post #16604954
=he's gone;16604954]His arms might have gone from sunburned to a little jaundice :P but I think it works. fighting an odd cast between blue/cyan vs red/magenta is tough because they are opposite on the color wheel. I'm guessing mine is closer to the color of the carpet.

Obviously your best bet is to eliminate the cast to begin with.

Looking at them together, I might have gone with a little more contrast, with darker blacks but not any brighter.

Thanks so much for all the helpful tips! I appreciate the time you've taken to help a newbie like me.

Beautiful boy. I am no expert but I'll give my opinion anyway. I think the background is a tad distracting, I like the lighting, The DOF is just a little bit too narrow and his arm placement is distracting to me.

He has the bluest eyes, I think you should spend some time trying this setup again.

trose710 wrote in post #16599962
I have been playing with this photo in Lightroom and it ends up being washed out or too dark. I can't seem to find a happy medium. Any thoughts would be appreciated. And if I'm just being crazy, you can tell me that, too.

Terri

Based on the edit you posted, I'd say it's a little under exposed. That works OK on the background as it makes it less distracting. You might try using an adjustment brush to raise the exposure on him some so as to seperate him from the background more.

Maybe something like this.

navydoc wrote in post #16607194
Based on the edit you posted, I'd say it's a little under exposed. That works OK on the background as it makes it less distracting. You might try using an adjustment brush to raise the exposure on him some so as to seperate him from the background more.

Maybe something like this.

Good call! Thank you.

Cute kid. Nice pose. I would worry more about the far too shallow depth of field. It's kind of spooky to me that his mouth is the only part of his face that is near to being in focus. Just because you have an f/1.4 lens doesn't mean that you are obligated to shoot at f/1.4. This looks like a set up shot. Next time pick a spot without the busy background. No amount of creamy bokeh can fix a busy background.

The eyes are way to enhanced/ over saturated.