How can I improve this? Niece Portrait

Damo77 wrote in post #6223209
If this were an car enthusiasts' forum and the OP said "I have a car that I love, how can I make it unique so it stands out?", and somebody said "drive it into a pole so the front end is all smashed up - then it will be unique" ... of course that's unwise advice. I would expect you, Swift1, and everybody else to point it out.

I know exactly what you mean. I see it happen all the time, all the time. I don't try to hurt feelings about pointing it out though. Sometimes I say "I don't care for that users edit, but here's my take on it..." You should put up on edit of the original, Damo77. Let's see what you can do . I'm not trying to accuse you or anything, I'm just interested.

Swift1 wrote in post #6221838
He never posted a new edit. The photo he has in his post is the same as the OP's photo. Check the links.

You had me thinking that I'd mistakenly uploaded the original rather than the edit. Both shots are hosted on Flickr (because of the attachment file size restrictions), but are separate images. Here they are again. Notice the girl's face is a bit brighter and the background a bit darker. Her eyes have more sparkle as well. It's a mild edit to be sure though. There's just so much you can do with a small jpeg without bumping a color channel, you know.

original

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Redirected to error image by FLICKR

HTTP response: NOT FOUND | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Redirected to error image by FLICKR

My take - pump up the contrast, without pushing the color saturation. Subtle retouching on the face (lips, eyes, eyebrow) and clean up on the little plastic house. Crop out distracting peripheral elements.

Note: My edit might look just a tad blown out on some monitors. Looks good on my particular monitor profile...

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klynam wrote in post #6226525
My take - pump up the contrast, without pushing the color saturation. Subtle retouching on the face (lips, eyes, eyebrow) and clean up on the little plastic house. Crop out distracting peripheral elements.

Note: My edit might look just a tad blown out on some monitors. Looks good on my particular monitor profile...

Your edit does look way blown out on my monitor (calibrated two nights ago).

ipschoser1 wrote in post #6224769
You had me thinking that I'd mistakenly uploaded the original rather than the edit. Both shots are hosted on Flickr (because of the attachment file size restrictions), but are separate images. Here they are again. Notice the girl's face is a bit brighter and the background a bit darker. Her eyes have more sparkle as well. It's a mild edit to be sure though. There's just so much you can do with a small jpeg without bumping a color channel, you know.

Oh! Sorry about that. I barely noticed a difference, but now that I see them side by side, I do notice that you increased contrast and did some minor changes.

yeah - I was afraid of that...

Swift1 wrote in post #6224680
I know exactly what you mean. I see it happen all the time, all the time. I don't try to hurt feelings about pointing it out though.

I think you should. Better for somebody's feelings to be hurt now, for free, than to get a large print done and then find out they've murdered a channel or whatever.