What can I do with this? PP?

I have now tried a few shots of my son playing with the water in the bath. But non of them seem to have that special something. Can anyone who is good with PS give me some ideas for giving this shot some zang?

Mal

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I had a bit of a play, hope you don't mind. Google the name of the effect, they're all free actions for photoshop. "YervantEffects" and "Virtual Photographer" are the main ones I used. PM me if you can't find 'em.

#1 - general interest glow
#2 - virtual photographer, photocopy effect.

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#1 - sharpened using CS2 smart sharpen.
#2 - ethereal glow (one of my favorite actions).

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What kind of look are you going for? I like the soft focus look, but I think Tim's version is a little too much. I don't know how his action works, but if you just add a blurred, semi-opaque overlay on your sharpened layer it works well. I would lower the opacity of the blurred layer a bit. A little of that diffuse glow is nice, but I think too much is distracting.

You could go in and manually colorize each of the drips of water on the baby's skin. Kind of like the sweat in those Gatorade commercials. Maybe think of a cute caption for the picture, something about showering after a tough day of baby stuff (tummy time?)... whatever works with the parents' interests maybe.

You could apply a mask to the background and darken it up a bit. Maybe just with the burn tool. Or you could use a hue/saturation layer on the background to make it a subtle, monochrome. The foreground really pops out then. Attached is a quick example of a friend's kid. With the background blurred and monochrome, the foreground really attracts the eye. I like it, anyway.

Good luck with it.

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I agree, I was mainly demonstrating what a few actions I have can do with a single press of a button. If it were my photo i'd have done it manually, with layers, masking, and all the guff. Takes too long to do it well though.

LOL. Yeah, I know what you mean. But when it's your baby, no amount of time is too much. My wife thinks I'm crazy, but I spend a lot of time trying to get the baby pics perfect. Well, being unemployed helps. LOTS of time to fiddle around in photoshop.

Of course, when it's your baby spending half a day to make a great photo is no problem at all... except for all the experiences and photos you miss because you're on the PC

No idea about PS but must say he is a cute little thing.

tim wrote:
Of course, when it's your baby spending half a day to make a great photo is no problem at all... except for all the experiences and photos you miss because you're on the PC

Yeah. When he's napping I could run out and have some great experiences. But in reality, you have to be a responsible adult and take care of the baby. So when I have free time while he's napping, I spend it in photoshop instead of in front of the TV. He's 9 months old and I have just under 4,000 pictures of him. Believe me, I'm not missing any opportunites to take pictures!

I've learned a lot in the last 9 months. I find that going back to some of the less-than-perfect pictures from the first month or two can be really exciting. With some new techniques under my belt, I can really improve on some of my earlier attempts. So instead of letting those old ones (that I didn't like at the time) sit around gathering digital dust, I can give them new life and really make the most of photo opportunites that will never come again.

I know a lot of people don't like Photoshop much, and think it's cheating or not "pure" somehow. But I think if it's a once in a lifetime shot, and you can make it better, why not?

MCB wrote:
Yeah. When he's napping I could run out and have some great experiences. But in reality, you have to be a responsible adult and take care of the baby. So when I have free time while he's napping, I spend it in photoshop instead of in front of the TV. He's 9 months old and I have just under 4,000 pictures of him. Believe me, I'm not missing any opportunites to take pictures!

I've learned a lot in the last 9 months. I find that going back to some of the less-than-perfect pictures from the first month or two can be really exciting. With some new techniques under my belt, I can really improve on some of my earlier attempts. So instead of letting those old ones (that I didn't like at the time) sit around gathering digital dust, I can give them new life and really make the most of photo opportunites that will never come again.

I know a lot of people don't like Photoshop much, and think it's cheating or not "pure" somehow. But I think if it's a once in a lifetime shot, and you can make it better, why not?

i agree!
photoshop is an art unto itself!

Just had a couple of minutes.

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B&W always does baby photos justice.

Here's my attempt.

The picture looks a bit washed out, which can be fixed with levels.

There's a yellow cast, which I discovered could be removed with Image-Adjustments-Selective Color.

Finally a good dose of contrast and about 100% usm.

Alright.......I'm wasting time at work too, but hey it's Friday, so I thought I'd throw some basic ones out there........

#1 - standard quick mask selection with desaturation. Super quick just so you get the idea!
#2 - standard sepia with some diffuse glow.

Edit - ARGH! No attachments......tryin​g again!

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Young jedi and his lightsaber eh?


Nice sepia-ish version though. I like it alot.