Technical feedback: overprocessed Vs. just right

schuylercat · Feb 5, 2008

Hi all,

Been experiementing with my new camera for a few months, and now I'm starting to mess with them in Photoshop. Camera is a 40D, lens is almost always the old 28-80 f/2.8L. I tend to get too close to the subject, but it's either my style or a bad habit...

Anyway, I'll be doing some portraits for friends and family while I practice to shoot my stepson's wedding in June. Looking for a soft, romantic, bright look. Here's two images I shot this morning: natural light, aperture 2.8 and shutter unknown. It's the raw capture and the 'shopped one.

So. Too much fuzz and zing? Comment is invited!

Before:

After:

Sideburns · Feb 5, 2008

the only problem is that it looks like there's fog all over her face...especially her eyes.

Arch · Feb 5, 2008

yea its a little too much for my tastes... there is too much fogging effect over the eyes and the hair is more ginger now.
I would tone it down alot... one thing you could do to start is to simply overlay the bottom image over the top and reduce the opacity. Then further tweeking with layer masks would help bring out the important features more.

schuylercat · Feb 5, 2008

That was quick!

Thanks guys. The hair color, by the way, is pretty accurate - she's auburn.

The nature of the shot begs for me to keep those eyes bright, without waching it out fogging it up. I'll kill the soft focus on the face, perhaps try radial softness around her head, and mess with layers.

Cheers!

Rachelsne · Feb 5, 2008

I think the eyes deffinatly need to be left bright and not obstructed, what pp software do you use?

schuylercat · Feb 5, 2008

Cleaned up a blemish on her cheek, used a smidgen of radial blur starting just off her face, and bumped brightness up juuuuust a little.

Thoughts?

Before:

After:

schuylercat · Feb 5, 2008

Hi Rachelsne,

I have an old copy of Photoshop V6.0 It was the last image processing software I could afford...five years ago.

BTW - the subject of the photo is my daughter Rachel.

RowmyF · Feb 5, 2008

This photo looks like you used flash on it.
I tried touching it up in PS, but I don't think it's workable. I think you should do a reshoot in 100% ambient light and try to focus a bit better. Her eyes are too soft.
Are you shooting in manual?

KristinaS · Feb 5, 2008

I, too, played around with this in photoshop. Hope you don't mind. If you do, let me know and I'll take it down. Anyway, if this was more of what you were looking to do, let me know and I'll post the workflow. It was very simple...only took a few minutes.

reconstyle · Feb 5, 2008

I'm a newb, and this is just my personal opinion as just a normal person who knows nothing about photography.....

The first "after" shot you posted was a bit washed out and hazy for my liking.

The second after shot you posted is a little dark and you don't see the color of the hair or eyes as much as I would like to. The subject, IMO, has great eyes and a great haircolor, both of which you should be able to see in the picture. I do like the last one!

schuylercat · Feb 6, 2008

Great feedback, all - thanks!

This was shot in ambient morning light, about 2 feet from an off-white wall. The window in immediately over my shoulder, and despite the fact the window is huge, there's only those little specular reflections in her eyes...looks like flash.

This was ad hoc - there was no intent, no set up, no significant effort - I just took the shot. I haven't bought my lighting yet (looking for a pair of 580EX's with a remote transmitter for studio/wedding work) and I had no reflectors handy. She was saying, as I took it, "dad, I'm gonna be late for school..."

KristinaS - your fix updated everything I would have wanted to: the single hair is scrubbed from her cheek, better touch up on the blemish, eyes are bright (really, their more denim than that, but the idea is there - they're BRIGHT!), the hair color is perfect. It's razor sharp, too - I was looking for softness, but she doesn't need it at her age. I'd love to see the workflow - my PS skill are rusty and sloppy. Oh, and I have an older version of photoshop - 6.0. May matter, may not? I'll be touching up the full image, too, not a 600X400, so the unsharp grit will be lower. Please please please show me?

Thanks everyone!

KristinaS · Feb 6, 2008

Glad you liked the edit! Here's what I did:
>First I duplicated the layer and added a screen to that layer. 100% opacity.
>Flattened the image.
>I used the healing tool to fix the blemish, get rid of the hair in front of her eye and also reduce the red/purple under her eyes.
>I dodged the eyes and then used the saturation sponge.
>I applied unsharpen mask to the entire image using these numbers: amount 130%, radius .7, threshold 0

Rachelsne · Feb 6, 2008

schuylercat said:
Hi Rachelsne,

I have an old copy of Photoshop V6.0 It was the last image processing software I could afford...five years ago.

BTW - the subject of the photo is my daughter Rachel.

Rachel is a great name!!!

I like your second attempt but maybe its a bit to dark, the first attempt really brought out her hair colour