Working on editing

Looking for some CC on my daughters picture. I know the eyes are kind of soft..what else can I do to improve and what did I do right. Thanks!

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/qCiE​QH

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/pXLD​FJ

Your processing looks good. Be careful not to soften a child's skin much if at all as it is already so soft/smooth that it is easy to go over board.

It looks as though she was nervous in front of the camera, i am too . i think you did a good job capturing a natural look for her.

One thing to keep in mind when photographing and having snow in the image is that after you get proper WB, you may have to up your whites (lightroom) and possibly the exposure.A +10 - +20 should be ideal with the white slider.This is one of the few times i use the histogram in LR, to check and make sure that the whites are close to the right edge (255). These images are just a little dark to me. +.5 or so to the exposure would help. If shooting in AV or shutter priority, you could use exposure compensation to make the scene about +2/3 stop brighter for a good starting point when working with snow.

As far as shooting. She has some catch light in her eyes (i am assuming from the snow), but it doesn't look like she had quite enough light in her face. Consider using a reflector or a speed light on a tether if a one person show to get a little direction of lighting. This would also brighter her eyes.

Micro5797 wrote in post #17396568
Your processing looks good. Be careful not to soften a child's skin much if at all as it is already so soft/smooth that it is easy to go over board.

It looks as though she was nervous in front of the camera, i am too . i think you did a good job capturing a natural look for her.

One thing to keep in mind when photographing and having snow in the image is that after you get proper WB, you may have to up your whites (lightroom) and possibly the exposure.A +10 - +20 should be ideal with the white slider.This is one of the few times i use the histogram in LR, to check and make sure that the whites are close to the right edge (255). These images are just a little dark to me. +.5 or so to the exposure would help. If shooting in AV or shutter priority, you could use exposure compensation to make the scene about +2/3 stop brighter for a good starting point when working with snow.

As far as shooting. She has some catch light in her eyes (i am assuming from the snow), but it doesn't look like she had quite enough light in her face. Consider using a reflector or a speed light on a tether if a one person show to get a little direction of lighting. This would also brighter her eyes.

Thank you so much for the feed back. She is not nervous, just annoyed that I take so many pics of her , that mixed with a 4 year olds fake smile makes for a lot of forced looks in pictures ...humph.

Darn it I was not thinking and should have brought out my reflector.

Thanks also for the input on the WB..I did not mess with that at all and will have to read more on it.

taking pics of your own 4-6 year old is incredibly difficult. Trust me, I know!

i think both are good captures and imo, are not underexposed. The shadows are a little deep in the eyes, but that is just due to the light and can be fixed.

if you have a longer lens, you might try that. I tend to try and sneak up on the kids. Rather than have them pose i just let them do their thing and then have my eye to the camera, focus ready and call their names to look up when i'm ready to snap a pic.

always look for an alternate crop. this hides her hands and maybe makes her look like she's leaning on something rather than the awkward pose you usually get with little kids. I have a lot of head shots with weird arm and hand gestures cropped out.

Left Handed Brisket wrote in post #17397086

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forum: Critique Corner

I was just about to suggest this same crop. You could make it look like she is posed on a table by taking away the hands. I actually quite like the "pose" in #2. Feels natural to me and she is damn cute. The WB between #1 and #2 appear slightly different to me. The first looks slightly too yellow, and the second slightly too magenta. FWIW, I probably wouldn't have noticed if I was viewing each picture individually, but side by side, I can tell a difference.

I take a ton of pictures of my kids and I almost always prefer the ones where I "caught" them rather than posed them. I think that there is something so wonderful about those little moments when kids are just being themselves. That is just my preference however. I think that the lighting and background are better in 2, it's also a better "concept" if that is the right way to put it. Her fleece is sharply in focus, but her eyes are a little soft, which you already knew. Did you mask in post? Or just adjust curves? I can't be sure but it looks like you warmed up Number 1 there is some yellowing on her forehead, and a little haloing at the hairline.

Thank you everyone for the feedback...every little bit helps me get better!


As far as masking goes..I am sorry I do not know what you mean?

I watched this video and did step by step what he did.

https://www.youtube.co​m/watch?v=iYxu17-R_wQ

good call on the crop..thanks for pointing that out!

It kind of looks grainy to me and I am not sure why. But here is a pic I just took of her while she was playing dress up.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/qDPY​JU

Ahhhh, I'm not that familiar with lightroom. From the video it looks like you are adjusting by adding masks. I think you did a fantastic job not overdoing it which is often the tendency in post. I also like the final shot where she is playing dress up, very cute and you definitely "caught her." One question on the final shot, did you add that vignetting or did that come off the camera that way? I don't think you need it if you added it, and in BW that makes the photo a little darker than it has to be.

I did add it...I will take it away and repost! Thanks for your help!

Overall, very nice captures. But you're missing focus by a hair. Choose single-point focus, place the focus point directly on the eye and then recompose.

As mentioned you're also underexposed by 1/2 a stop in the first two, and probably more than 2 stops on the last. My guess is the graininess on the last shot was caused by shooting at ISO 500 and then boosting the exposure in post, which will always increase the noise. But still I would have boosted a bit more, then worked with noise reduction on the grain. It also appears you dodged the face in the last photo and there's some uneveness/blotching in the face and halo around the head. Instead of dodging the face I'd increase the overall exposure as needed for the desired skin tone then mask and burn the window. Finally, either ditch the vignette effect or correct if it came that way SOC.

Shooting backlit and snowy scenes is probably one of the most difficult shots to expose properly. A reflector or fill flash would definitely help. Also, try spot metering on the face and add 1/2 to 1 stop for fair-skinned subjects, -1 to -2 for dark-skinned.

Thanks for posting.

I do use single-point focus (Last picture I had the camera on auto as I wanted the flash cause we were inside and it is dark)

I do see where her skin is blotchy/uneven. what causes the halo? I will have to take a look at masking and burning, I use Lightroom and I am just really starting to learn more about editing, so not sure what you mean when you say mask and burn.

Thanks again!

mamaof2 wrote in post #17400243
Thanks for posting.

I do use single-point focus (Last picture I had the camera on auto as I wanted the flash cause we were inside and it is dark)

I do see where her skin is blotchy/uneven. what causes the halo? I will have to take a look at masking and burning, I use Lightroom and I am just really starting to learn more about editing, so not sure what you mean when you say mask and burn.

Thanks again!

Is the halo in the original file? LR provides limited masking capabilities, just linear and radial masks. Burning is selectively darkening an area and dodging is selectively lightening an area. A more advanced editing package (think Photoshop CC or gimp) will allow you to select specific areas of the image, copy them to a new layer then adjust the exposure or burn/dodge those layers without affecting the rest of the image. Then you can blend the new layer on top of the old one for a smooth transition.

If you can upload the original file, preferably in raw, I can make some quick adjustments and explain what I did. FWIW, a Photoshop + Lightroom subscription from Adobe is only $9.99/month, not a bad deal IMO.