Candid - wife on the beach

We took our kids to the beach last night, my son's first time actually, and in the midst of capturing some pictures of the kids, I rotated and caught a candid shot of my wife watching the kids.

Lovely. That evening sun is magical

Nice capture, makes for a great memory! The only real critique I would offer would be in the area of:
- either set a custom WB during sunset hours, or be prepared to edit afterwards
- bring up shadows, especially if you are shooting at low ISO, where there should be no real issues to deal with
- general post processing items

I did the following:
- used the level tool to set the midpoint of the leveling to the gray on her tank top rear strap, this toned back the red hues a bit
- used USM to add contrast
- used Photoshop's shadow tool to bring up shadows
- used smart sharpening to sharpen
- added a tinge of saturation when it was all done

This produces the following before/after. This is a subjective edit, you may want less or more of any of these steps.

The original looks better IMO

Gungnir wrote in post #18178247
The original looks better IMO

Absolutely......couldn​'t agree more.

I very much prefer the original.

Here is a question, are both of you using calibrated monitors, ie. used a calibration tool to set the profile? I can just about guarantee you that if you print that image, it will be dark and the reds will pop a bit.

There is indeed post processing to be done on the images, how much and what kind is the subjective part. The content and candid nature is great though.

Hey TS. I'm using a calibrated monitor and honestly I prefer the original as well. I think the reddish hues/cast gave the picture more of a context and lifting the shadows removed a lot of contrast (that I found worked) making things look a little flat. Like you say though, it's subjective so just really my subjective opinion.

Cool, just curious. There is so much discussion around the look of an image, unfortunately the breadth of display mediums, like phones, tablets, and monitors makes these discussions moot unless you have some form of commonality, like calibrated equipment.

TeamSpeed wrote in post #18179242
Here is a question, are both of you using calibrated monitors, ie. used a calibration tool to set the profile? I can just about guarantee you that if you print that image, it will be dark and the reds will pop a bit.

There is indeed post processing to be done on the images, how much and what kind is the subjective part. The content and candid nature is great though.

Yes, I am.

Gungnir wrote in post #18178247
The original looks better IMO

So her teeth are yellow in the original, and the image bleached in the 2nd version. Neither one works for me. But I don't think it would take but a couple minutes for more palatable.

I like the composition and expression.

Yellow/golden light

Agreed. Original is a bit yellow but that's more in keeping with the light at the time.

The edit removed the golden hour glow

Definitely prefer the original photo with the much warmer colours.