C&C Help!!

I have been working on my PP trying to improve, but I could use some additional help. I have attached an original unedited (SOOC converted to jpeg from RAW) picture and my edited version of it. I have been trying to emulate the pictures from this photographeras I love her work. Her pictures are so clear and vibrant and I feel that mine are just kinda flat! She is a wonderful photographer and I would like to emulate her processing and give it a few touches of my own. Any help would be appreciated or at least a point in the right direction. Also feel free to give it a go with the original as I would love to see others take on this.

PS - I have already got my B&W conversions down pretty well, but color just seems to be giving me issues right now! Also I had to lower the quality to get the pictures to upload on here, so they aren't the greatest

EDIT: I replaced my edited picture with something more appropriately colored since my first edit was on an uncalibrated monitor.

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I will say first off, the image looks like the focus is on the chair, and the baby is out of focus. AWesome chair thou. I think the color is much closer to right in the first image. However the first one is too cool the second one is way too yellow. A way to fix it in photoshop is to create a curves layer, use the white eye dropper on a white area of the picture, change the layer properties to color and if need be, adjust the opacity. That will often give you a pretty good color improvement.

2 one is great just tone don the yello just a tiny bit

Here's a really rough edit with the small file. Tried to replicate the work in the link you posted. I'd be happy to share the PSD if you think it would help.

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Thanks for the help so far. Sorry about the yellowish cast to the edited version, but I was on my work computer and it isn't the best monitor in the world to PP on. This picture was a quick capture during my daughter's 9 month session as she stood up on the chair and started clapping. I know the picture isn't in perfect focus, but it was all I had at the moment to practice on. I am just mainly looking for tips and tricks to push my processing to be more like the other photographers.

And Andrea, I appreciate the edit, but the grass is definately a shade of green not found in my yard

jdharris wrote in post #5622189
And Andrea, I appreciate the edit, but the grass is definately a shade of green not found in my yard

Obviously, the shades of any color in any image can be adjusted. You could make the grass purple if that's what you wanted. I was just matching it to the shade in the site you posted. Sorry. :::shrug::::

Flat images is caused by too even lighting. Color combinations also play an important part. I looked at the photographer's link you included - nice stuff. It would appear that aside from good lighting she is using heavy saturation and contrast in many of them. That does sometimes result in unrealistic colors. Her style is nice but not my style.

BTW - cute child and beautiful chair.

It looks like the focus fell on the chair right in back of her face/head. Honestly, that is distracting enough. But it also has WB issues as well.

Super cute baby and awesome chair. I think it's definitely worth trying again.

Anrea - my apologies. I didn't mean my comment insulting, but it is just the grass looks a little too surreal rather than just a bump in saturation. I would still like to see what you have done to achieve this as I am willing to work on my editing. I will send you a PM here shortly.

Thanks again for the comments. I think I picked a cute picture, but not the best one. While we were shooting outside, a cloud came over causing the even lighting which resulted in this picture. Let me upload another that would have better lighting and a more focused picture.

This is a really cute photo. I think it could use a re shoot for this picture so that you can get the focus to fall on the beautiful girl..

Here is my play with this photo.. I don't think it is any better then what has already been posted though. Thanks for sharing. I LOVE the idea..

Awesome idea

Here is my attempt to re-create the style on the link provided. It is hard wish such a small file.... Let me know what you think!

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Heather - that is a nice conversion as well, but it seems a little dark. I am at work again so it could just be my lovely monitor here

sideeffects I would like to see what you could do with a larger file as the smaller one is along the right path!


Thanks again for the comments on the idea. I had this idea in my head for quite a while, but I just needed to find the right chair for it. Once I got the chair I just had to put it into action! I ended up with quite a few shots using the chair, but I found that a lot of them wouldn't make the cut as my assistant who was holding the reflector was just having some trouble holding it right for me.

Here are a couple of other pictures with one a little more closeup. These haven't had any processing on them other than applying a custom ACR profile for my 40D. You could say these are basically SOOC. I need to start digging to find a better closeup to experiment with...

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Did a somewhat quick edit on the last image you posted up... Let me know what you think? It is a really great shot very sharp!

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