MrChevy wrote:
This is right out of the camera, just resized and posted. How can I improve it with post processing? It is a photo of my wife Ani. She commented it doesn't "POP". How do I make it do that?
Hi Ken,
I wouldn't done anything except that you asked... and I'll preface any change with a disclaimer that we all have our own tastes and approaches. Ani is lovely (and she can cook and photograph), so any improvement in this photo is bound to be minor.
Here's my version...
... and what I did...
1. I don't know Ani's skin color but I have a feeling it's not quite as red as the original photo, so I used a classic S-curve in Curves to lighten the highlights and darken the shadows slightly ("slightly" being very important). Alternatively, you can go to Hue/Saturation, set the mode to Reds and lower the Saturation slightly. Either way, the S-curve is important to increase contrast and offset Light Ani from Dark Background.
2. Then I sharpened her... I tend to make things pop by pushing sharpening to the limits. In this case I used Ultrasharp Quick Sharp 50, which sharpens detail and leave areas of no detail (the background in this case) untouched. Alternatively, you can use Photoshop's Unsharp Mask at 150, 0.3, 0 and then again at 120, 0.2, 0.
3. Flattened the layer and used the Sharpen Tool at 12% and clicked twice on the highlights in her eyes. (Which you won't have to do if you're using Unsharp Mask by itself, as above.)
4. Cropped off a bit of the top and left side so that she's more centered and the white feather on the left is cut away.
5. Used a 125-pixel Burn Tool (Midtones at 50%) set at maximum dispersion and then darkened what little white remains on the left-hand side and top-left corner.
And there you are. Again, skin tones might not be right.
Personally, I wouldn't worry about her teeth. They're beautiful and natural and this isn't Vogue... it's a real-person photo.
Having said that, you can select them if you want (I use Quick Mask and a brush to select them), call up Hue/Saturation. Select Yellows and reduce Saturation to -70 or so, and then select Master and bump the Lightness to 10 (as I said, minimal). You'll get this...
The best way to look at the changes for me is not side-by-side, but to use ACDSee Classic, make one photo full-screen and then use PgDn and PgUp to switch back and forth between two photos. Details that have changed will be immediately apparent, unlike viewing both photos at the same time.
Anyway, there's one man's opinion. It's mainly the more aggressive sharpening that works for me in this photo. The eyes now pull you in which they didn't before.
Cheers to you both,
Don
P.S. I'm happy with the original darker background, but her she is against a slightly lighter background...
Someday I hope to be able too if I keep at it. An ugly job of me doing that (what you said: lighten the background) is here: [I only lightened ½ of the background so you can see I didn't lighten the whole photo]
down, so try again.
