One shot from first ever senior session - love some c&c

Ajay · Mar 3, 2008

Had my first ever senior session today. This is the first shot I've processed from the bunch. Still don't feel qualified to post on the pro gallery, but I'm getting paid for this so here goes...

Here teeth really were that white already...should I tone them down a bit?

Thanks!

NJMAN · Mar 3, 2008

Pretty good Ajay.

One thing to keep in mind (Im still learning and by no means an expert), if you are going to include the legs and arms, either include them whole or not at all.

The lighting is good, her eyes are lit up nicely, but there is a lack of contour and dimension on the face that would normally occur with some natural shadows. What did you use for lighting?

The skin tone looks natural, on the warmer side, which is fine for outdoors. The grass looks on the cooler side though (quite blue). Maybe that could be a little brighter green so it looks more natural.

IMO, I would leave the teeth. If she normally has very white teeth, then you catured her well.

Other than that, I dont know what the rest look like. You might want to post them in a series to get some feedback.

Nice job.

NJ

Ajay · Mar 3, 2008

Thanks for the feedback NJ!

The lighting was all natural. We were under a small covered pavillion. The grass was in the shade too which I think might have something to do with the colder hue. I wanted to adjust that, but I'm not sure how to go about doing it without messing up the girl - layer masks...or something else?

Does her face look too pink? I didn't think so before but after coming back and looking I'm thinking it might be.

I'm going to post some others once I get the bulk of the processing done.

NJMAN · Mar 3, 2008

Ajay said:
Thanks for the feedback NJ!

The lighting was all natural. We were under a small covered pavillion. The grass was in the shade too which I think might have something to do with the colder hue. I wanted to adjust that, but I'm not sure how to go about doing it without messing up the girl - layer masks...or something else?

Does her face look too pink? I didn't think so before but after coming back and looking I'm thinking it might be.

I'm going to post some others once I get the bulk of the processing done.

You can do a layer mask, yes. What I do is make a lasso selection around an isolated object if I need to, and with the Hue/Saturation filter, do some selective saturation or desaturation with the separate color channels. You can do that with the grass area only if you make a good enough selection.

And now that you mention it, I see a blue tint in her hair also, on the top. You might want to try making a selection around her hair and reducing the blue and/or cyan channels for that area. It takes a little bit of practice.

No, I dont think her face looks too pink. It has a nice warm tone, which is good.

Anelle · Mar 4, 2008

I love her natural smile! I would also not tone down her teeth... afterall that is what they look like

She looks a little pink to me, and I think this pic would look better with another crop. Would you mind me playing with it?

Anelle

The_Traveler · Mar 4, 2008

Removed some blue in highlights and midtones and lower saturation overall

Ajay · Mar 4, 2008

Wow, Traveler that looks great! Did you have to make any selections to do that? If not, I didn't realize it was that easy. Thanks again!

Anelle - thanks and feel free to play away!

The_Traveler · Mar 4, 2008

Ajay said:
Wow, Traveler that looks great! Did you have to make any selections to do that? If not, I didn't realize it was that easy. Thanks again!

Anelle - thanks and feel free to play away!

Nope, just overall.
She still looks a little tan to me and the halo around her head is more pronounced but this is a start.

Ajay · Mar 4, 2008

The_Traveler said:
Nope, just overall.
She still looks a little tan to me and the halo around her head is more pronounced but this is a start.

The halo might be due in part to cloning. I cloned the grass from the tip of her head up because it wasn't in the shade and got blown out. Will have to fine tune that a bit.

Here's another question - I'm still working on the rest of her shots and we took these photos over a 3hr period from say 2:30-5:30 so the value of the light changed quite a bit from start to finish. Am I supposed to be able to match her skin tones from the first to the last shot? Is it even possible? The ones we took later in the day are quite a bit warmer, and then there were also shots taken in open shade with a lot of light which look warmer and some taken in shade where the sun wasn't warming things at all.

Really need to learn to set a custom white balance I know...that is next on my list.

Thanks for all your help.

Anelle · Mar 4, 2008

Ajay, did you shoot RAW? If so it should be easy to tweak the WB!

Ajay · Mar 4, 2008

Anelle said:
Ajay, did you shoot RAW? If so it should be easy to tweak the WB!

I understand that, but do I want them all to look the same?

Ajay · Mar 4, 2008

Ok, here is my re-edit, trying some of the things Traveler mentioned. Also, I let the girl see a preview of a couple images and she asked me if I would do some retouching on her skin, so feedback on that would be appreciated too. Also noticed my levels were off so I brightened her up a tad too.