How can I make this more dreamy?

What you guys think? I like this idea, but it doesn't look right to me for some reason. Want a softer look. Raised the blacks in tone curve. Using LR, what else should I do? Lower clarity? Also should I crop off the top/bottom for a wider shot?

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/o4Pr​FW

You took the shot in mid-day sunlight, I'm guessing. That's like the evil opposite of dreamy. The other improvement would be if his arm wasn't obscuring part of his face. So you missed the moment. If you took two steps to the right, you could probably have gotten out of the frame whatever it is off his left shoulder that draws the eye.There's dead space on the left that does not contribute substantially to the image. Study your setting. Position yourself and your subject to best effect. Don't shoot at high noon.

Note that all of these recommendation are directed at the instant that you took the exposure. Post processing puts in the finishing touches. It doesn't "fix" what should have been in the original capture.

joedlh wrote in post #16990416
You took the shot in mid-day sunlight, I'm guessing. That's like the evil opposite of dreamy. The other improvement would be if his arm wasn't obscuring part of his face. So you missed the moment. If you took two steps to the right, you could probably have gotten out of the frame whatever it is off his left shoulder that draws the eye.There's dead space on the left that does not contribute substantially to the image. Study your setting. Position yourself and your subject to best effect. Don't shoot at high noon.

Note that all of these recommendation are directed at the instant that you took the exposure. Post processing puts in the finishing touches. It doesn't "fix" what should have been in the original capture.

Ok. This was more of a snapshot than anything. Was at a birthday party and someone turned the bubble machine on and this kid went bananas trying to karate chop all the bubbles. Was trying to be patient, but couldn't nail a shot, lol. I guess I wasn't patient enough.

Thanks for the input.

p00kienrayray wrote in post #16990772
I guess I wasn't patient enough.

Take a shot. Then look for "the" shot. Then take some more. It's not as if you have to pay for film, no? ; )

I would lower the blacks rather than raise them. Basically lowering the contrast, and turning the saturation down as well. A dreamy look to me is softness + lower contrast + muted tones. Some vignetting could help as well.

PhotosGuy wrote in post #16990795
Take a shot. Then look for "the" shot. Then take some more. It's not as if you have to pay for film, no? ; )

Good point.

cedm wrote in post #16990802
I would lower the blacks rather than raise them. Basically lowering the contrast, and turning the saturation down as well. A dreamy look to me is softness + lower contrast + muted tones. Some vignetting could help as well.

I may be mistaken here. When I say raising blacks on tone curve, it's washing them out, or desaturating them. Is that what you mean, or does lowering them mean deepening them?

p00kienrayray wrote in post #16990883
I may be mistaken here. When I say raising blacks on tone curve, it's washing them out, or desaturating them. Is that what you mean, or does lowering them mean deepening them?

Yes, that's what I meant: less black, less contrast.

crop, and then blur out the background around him, maybe even darken it. you could sepia the entire phot and or make it black and white.

that would change the entire feeling of the shot

Is this what you are thinking of when you say "Dreamy?"

Radtech1 wrote in post #16992578
Is this what you are thinking of when you say "Dreamy?"

Nice! What'd u do? Lower clarity?

It all depends on your definition of dreamy. I personally think that you didn't miss the shot. It's a great "in the moment" image and captures the joy of being a kid and playing with bubbles. Broad sun does not bother me in the least bit. In fact, it can sometimes work to your advantage, like the image you posted.

I tend to think of dreamy as timeless so you can play with curves or convert to black and white. Even in a quick shot, you can make something great. These are my quick edits. The BW is a bit contrasty, but I think it works well.

Original:

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Redirected to error image by FLICKR

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Redirected to error image by FLICKR

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Redirected to error image by FLICKR

p00kienrayray wrote in post #16993735
Nice! What'd u do? Lower clarity?

In photoshop elements 2.0, I duplicated the layer and then ran a gaussian blur at about 20 to 30 pixels.

I then duplicated the blurred layer,so now there are two blurred layers and one untouched layer.

On one of the blurred layers I set the blending mode to screen, and set the other to soft light.

I then adjusted the opacity on each one until I was happy. If I remember correctly, I think the soft light was opacity 50% and the screen opacity 30%.

Rad

short_wave wrote in post #16993896
It all depends on your definition of dreamy. I personally think that you didn't miss the shot. It's a great "in the moment" image and captures the joy of being a kid and playing with bubbles. Broad sun does not bother me in the least bit. In fact, it can sometimes work to your advantage, like the image you posted.

I tend to think of dreamy as timeless so you can play with curves or convert to black and white. Even in a quick shot, you can make something great. These are my quick edits. The BW is a bit contrasty, but I think it works well.

Edit 1

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Redirected to error image by FLICKR

I really like what you did with edit 1! Do you mind sharing what you did?

short_wave wrote in post #16993896
It all depends on your definition of dreamy. I personally think that you didn't miss the shot. It's a great "in the moment" image and captures the joy of being a kid and playing with bubbles. Broad sun does not bother me in the least bit. In fact, it can sometimes work to your advantage, like the image you posted.

I tend to think of dreamy as timeless so you can play with curves or convert to black and white. Even in a quick shot, you can make something great. These are my quick edits. The BW is a bit contrasty, but I think it works well.

Edit 1

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Redirected to error image by FLICKR

I like #1 as well. To me dreamy means soft, magical, almost fantasy-like (if that is any better description).

Radtech1 wrote in post #16993958
In photoshop elements 2.0, I duplicated the layer and then ran a gaussian blur at about 20 to 30 pixels.

I then duplicated the blurred layer,so now there are two blurred layers and one untouched layer.

On one of the blurred layers I set the blending mode to screen, and set the other to soft light.

I then adjusted the opacity on each one until I was happy. If I remember correctly, I think the soft light was opacity 50% and the screen opacity 30%.

Rad

Arghh I don't have PS. I have Paintshop Pro X6, but rarely use it bc it's complicated compared to LR and it runs kinda slow on my desktop.

Axion23 wrote in post #16994170
I really like what you did with edit 1! Do you mind sharing what you did?

Thanks!

It was mainly using a curves layer and adjusting the RGB curves individually as well as the master curve. I lifted the blacks and brought out the mid-tones on the master. As for the RGB curves respectively, it was to my taste, but I adjusted all three just a little. A little goes a long way, so as you play around just bring in a hint of color.

I then used the saturation layer and desaturated a little bit and added some contrast. I normally do color correction in LR but since the image is a jpeg, I just adjusted it in PS.