first photo edit ever comments welcome

This shot was taken at the spur of moment, to start my learning curve of photo editing. It was shot in raw and edited with canon dpp . Comments and pointers welcomed.
before editing

Anyone?

did you desaturate or go from standard style to portrait? i ask because the collar is a deep blue in original and almost a teal in edited. the photo itself should have more background in it. the sky is not very interesting. you should brighten it up maybe a half to one stop. raise shadows one notch so eyes are little brighter. maybe use the stamp tool and get rid of the few smaller hairs across her face. leave the larger bang over her left eye. i actually like the colors of the first image better, it has more pop to it. maybe reset to original settings and brighten up a little or add contrast or saturation to what you edited. now i think i see a catch light. did you use a flash?

Dont be afraid of the sharpening slider.

Oh, and shoot tighter.

face needs a bit of lightening and lessening of the magenta cast...Can do that with Dodge and burn in PS or fill light or burn in in lightroom. Like background though. Next time dont be afraid to use fill flash on the face

Back lit shots can be a bit tricksy at times but this one is great for this little move. Try this, make a copy of the background layer and then add a curves adjustment layer. Target the mask and go to IMAGE/APPLY IMAGE. apply the green channel to the mask and then invert it. Now lighten the image with the RGB curve. To automatically add a little sharpening blur the mask a bit, 3 or 4 pixels for low rez and 25 to 36 pixels for a high rez image. This move assumes you start with a properly WB image.

For the very first attempt it's a nice one. Most go way oveboard just because they can.

clipper_from_oz wrote in post #11827224
face needs a bit of lightening and lessening of the magenta cast...Can do that with Dodge and burn in PS or fill light or burn in in lightroom. Like background though. Next time dont be afraid to use fill flash on the face

MrAl wrote in post #11827584
Back lit shots can be a bit tricksy at times but this one is great for this little move. Try this, make a copy of the background layer and then add a curves adjustment layer. Target the mask and go to IMAGE/APPLY IMAGE. apply the green channel to the mask and then invert it. Now lighten the image with the RGB curve. To automatically add a little sharpening blur the mask a bit, 3 or 4 pixels for low rez and 25 to 36 pixels for a high rez image. This move assumes you start with a properly WB image.

For the very first attempt it's a nice one. Most go way oveboard just because they can.

Did you guys bother to read the first post? The OP said he used DPP. He didn't say he has PSCS or LR.

Not bad. Flash would've improved this image significantly, and there's too much empty space. Pay more attention to hair, it's not practical to fix later. Here's 10 seconds of work in ACR - probably slightly overdone, with a halo 'cause I was working with a large brush.

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btw please go into your profile and choose "image editing ok". Otherwise the mods might smite me. If you'd like me to remove the image just PM me.

The background overpowers the subject. I'm not sure what editing software you have, but you need
something that can make localized adjustments so you can edit the background and subject
separately: less luminance in the background, more in the subject.

tzalman wrote in post #11827663
Did you guys bother to read the first post?

To answer this question, yep.

tzalman wrote in post #11827663
The OP said he used DPP. He didn't say he has PSCS or LR.

Didn't say he didn't have either but did ask for pointers and tips. I would have posted an edited version but the OP did NOT have "ok to edit images" turned on, something I think more should respect.

It is ok to edit image...Thanks for the response. This shot was taken real quick without pre planning. It was so cold I was freezing my a-- off....lol. All I have to edit with is the dpp, and the only knowledge I have about editing is from watching the videos on canons site. My idea was to make the background alittle more interesting and to lighten her face a bit. I did use flash , but it was the 7d's built in flash , and she was too far away. prease do edit away , however my limitations are that I only have dpp at the moment.

here is another I did , but I think it is too much

In regards you actual picture, any reason you chose 1/3rd a second and F10? That's too slow a shutter speed for a not perfectly stationary subject which leaves the image feeling a little blurry and F10 isn't really necessary for this type of shot.

"Image editing ok" is something you turn on in your user settings OP, not just by giving your verbal(in case textual) authorization. FYI. Notice some people have "Image editing OK" written under their name. This is what you should turn on.

And yes, that most recent edit made her skin purple.

Peano wrote in post #11827731
The background overpowers the subject. I'm not sure what editing software you have, but you need
something that can make localized adjustments so you can edit the background and subject
separately: less luminance in the background, more in the subject.

how did you do that?

Sdiver2489 wrote in post #11828187
In regards you actual picture, any reason you chose 1/3rd a second and F10? That's too slow a shutter speed for a not perfectly stationary subject which leaves the image feeling a little blurry and F10 isn't really necessary for this type of shot.

"Image editing ok" is something you turn on in your user settings OP, not just by giving your verbal(in case textual) authorization. FYI. Notice some people have "Image editing OK" written under their name. This is what you should turn on.

this pic was taken by me jumping out of the car freezing , snaping the pic and getting back in the car....I just wanted something to edit