Pretty please help me try to achieve this type of PP!

Hello to all you PP experts out there,

I am trying to achieve a certain type of PP for my portrait shots. If you go here and scroll down to blog date May 13, you'll see the vibrant colors and sharpness I'm trying to achieve with my own photos, but have not been able to emulate. Any help would truly be appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

It doesn't look like they've done too much out of the ordinary. Make sure your initial shot is well exposed and your white balance is on, then it looks like they just bumped up the probably the contrast and saturation/vibrancy to taste.

It's hard to say if any post processing was done to the skin or anything since kids have such clear skin to begin with, but I'm guessing there probably wasn't that much done.

Really it just comes down to spending time post processing, the more time you spend at it the better you get, there certainly wasn't anything too out of the norm done to those photos.

Kurt

Twitch1977 wrote in post #3226265
It doesn't look like they've done too much out of the ordinary. Make sure your initial shot is well exposed and your white balance is on, then it looks like they just bumped up the probably the contrast and saturation/vibrancy to taste.

It's hard to say if any post processing was done to the skin or anything since kids have such clear skin to begin with, but I'm guessing there probably wasn't that much done.

Really it just comes down to spending time post processing, the more time you spend at it the better you get, there certainly wasn't anything too out of the norm done to those photos.

Kurt

Thanks so much, Kurt! I just can't seem to achieve that level of vibrancy and sharpness, yet. I've tried...I can't give up, though. I will practice some more.

If anybody else have some tips/suggestions on steps I need to get there, please help!

Thanks again!

JennB, you might want to post an images you are working on and also post what you have done so far. May be others can do better and show you some tricks.

i'd say another factor that is important is the type of lens that was used, and whether any lighting equipment was used too. better lens equals sharper images and better color. what type of equipment do you have?

Baadil wrote in post #3227173
JennB, you might want to post an images you are working on and also post what you have done so far. May be others can do better and show you some tricks.

Here's a sample image:

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fatalimage wrote in post #3228997
i'd say another factor that is important is the type of lens that was used, and whether any lighting equipment was used too. better lens equals sharper images and better color. what type of equipment do you have?

I almost always use my XT and fave lens, Tamron 17-50 2.8. I do have other lenses, but hardly ever use them since I got the 17-50.

Jenn,

You image looks good. Just add a tiny bit contract and saturation. The main reason you are think your image is not as good as the website is probably becuase they are using very bright colors in those image. In your case, little girl is wearing white and has dark eyes. you are also cropping tight so even if there were other colors, they are not there any more. Try taking some shots with brights colors, they will be good

Baadil wrote in post #3229074
Jenn,

You image looks good. Just add a tiny bit contract and saturation. The main reason you are think your image is not as good as the website is probably becuase they are using very bright colors in those image. In your case, little girl is wearing white and has dark eyes. you are also cropping tight so even if there were other colors, they are not there any more. Try taking some shots with brights colors, they will be good

Thank you! I've been experimenting a bit more and think the sample image I just posted is a bit too contrasty and saturated. What do you all think of this one? Better? Worse?

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A bit too bright, but more neutral I'd say.

René Damkot wrote in post #3229322
A bit too bright, but more neutral I'd say.

Thanks, Rene...I'll fix the brightness. BTW, is neutral good or bad?

I like your first version much better. The second one looks just a tad cold and flat to me.

Good glass is the secret (apart from good technique) to take really sharp and vibrant pictures. PP can do much but with really good glass you can spend more time behind the camera instead.

By the way i think your shot looks great. The images on the blog looks more vibrant mostly because of the rich colors that are in them.

Post the original so others can see the difference in PP and also others can try to PP it and let you know how it was done.

i think i prefer the first one. it is warmer than the second one. i think it gives it character. Second one looks more pale.

In some of the Secret Blog shots it also looks like they are burning in the edges of the photo so it fades to darkness around the subject of the happy kid. By contrast the kid is in a glowing area of light.

You can create this in PS by adding a curves layer and pulling the very top point of the curve straight down the edge of the graph. This darkens the whole shot. Lower down is darker.

Then come back to the layers palatte and put a black circle gradient in the middle of the curves layer mask. Adjust the gradient and now you have the darkening effect only on the outside of the pic.

It would be less valuable on your tightly cropped shot because the shading would be on her face and body unlike the SB shots. But would be valuable if you did a wider shot.
Good shooting.