Thank goodness for Photoshop

[Sweetsomedays]

I was in WA visiting my mother last week and she asked me to take some pictures for her Christmas cards. It was 43 degrees and windy. The kids did NOT want to be there. I am the first to admit I stink at taking pictures of people.
This is the only image where my brother (in the middle) is smiling. Getting him to smile and look at a camera is like climbing mount everist...so we didn't even care my daughters eyes were closed.

I am almost ashamed to post the original it's just shoddy photography. But at least I am getting more comfortable with PS

Before PS

After

 

[just x joey]

i liek how the baby is kinda like rolling her eyes, ya know? haha this is a cute picture!

 

[JimmyJaceyMom]

Awe that is sweet and a nice fix.

 

[JimmyAtlantis]

Good fix. You obviously understand cropping so why not just do it in the camera when you take the shot?

 

[Sweetsomedays]

Uhm....no good reason. I know I can, I have just never done it before Still playing with all the stuff on my camera. Many many things to learn and explore!

 

[Big Mike]

I think by 'in the camera' he just meant getting closer or zooming in. Personally, I like to leave a little room around family shots...because if you shoot with too little space, you might have a hard time when someone wants a larger print with a different aspect ratio like 5x7 or 8x10.

Do you have any shots from a similar angle, with the baby's eyes open? It's actually not all that hard to pull the eyes off of an other image and plant them over top of the closed ones. I had to do that several times with the last wedding I did. That's when I say 'thank goodness for Photoshop'.

Nice shot, b.t.w.

 

[Sweetsomedays]

Oh, well in that case I have no good reason other then I felt like there should be some space around them for room to play with.


I thought about that (the eye thing)....but I don't know how. NO NO...don't tell me I can find a tutorial cuz I bet it's not in my manual hehe.
But thank you for the suggestion.

 

[JimmyJaceyMom]

I think by 'in the camera' he just meant getting closer or zooming in. Personally, I like to leave a little room around family shots...because if you shoot with too little space, you might have a hard time when someone wants a larger print with a different aspect ratio like 5x7 or 8x10.

Do you have any shots from a similar angle, with the baby's eyes open? It's actually not all that hard to pull the eyes off of an other image and plant them over top of the closed ones. I had to do that several times with the last wedding I did. That's when I say 'thank goodness for Photoshop'.

Nice shot, b.t.w.

Yes you will need to leave some room around for the bigger sizes. I learned the hard way - I was filling the frame nicely but then when I go to make an 8by10 - awe crap! Can't get it all in there.

 

[Sweetsomedays]

I still have the origional so I can go back and do it again if need be. It's good for a 4x6 though correct? So far as I know thats the largest she wants.
There is some bird dooky on the bench by my son thats why I cropped it so small...lazy at the time and didn't go and take the unsightly stuff out .

For future refrance how do I tell if enough space is ENOUGH space? I will be needing to make 8X10's of other photo's in the near future. Is there kind of a rule of thumb to go by?

 

[Big Mike]

That is something that you just kind of learn by experience.

4x6 (2:3 ratio) is rather rectangle shaped. 8x10 (4:5 ratio) is much closer to square. With a shot like this, it really depends on the composition of your subjects...this shot looks pretty good with your crop, which is close to 4:5. Some shots won't be as easy. But regardless of what looks the best, sometimes we are asked for prints to fit standard frames.

As an exercise, you can practice on several of your images. With the Photoshop crop tool, you can lock the aspect ratio...so try out a few different ratios on the same image. Pretty soon you will see what you need to do and how much room to leave for different prints.

 

[JimmyJaceyMom]

Well, the way you have it cropped here doesn't look like the 4by6 ratio so what I think will happen is when you go to print the 4by6 it will either cut some of it off or it won't fit the whole print depending on who your printer is. For example if mine is off with Shutterfly they give me the option to cut some off or they will show it all but there will be a white border around the image.
Why do I know this may present a problem to you? Because I struggled and was so frustrated over the cropping and printing issue so bad that I wanted to sell my camera and throw in the towel!!! LOL I looked into it and played around until I figured it out. Big Mike is the one that helped me actually. (thank you!)
My camera is a canon and it takes the picture perfect to print 4by6's with no cropping. But when I do a 5by7 it will cut a teeny bit off and 8by10 takes even more away so I have to make sure I dont get in too close or I might lose fingers or tope of heads and whatnot.
I dont know what editing program you use - photoshop I imagine and I dont have that so I dont know how to tell you what to do, apparently photoshop has a croping tool that you can tell it what size you want to crop in? I dont know about that. What I have to do it crop using the pixels on the sides. Ex: 4by6 is 800X1200 pixels. And 5by7 in editing is 1000by1400, however, straight out of the camera into a 5by7 has to be 1000by1500 - meaning i lose some of the image.

I have no idea if this makes sense what I am saying. I know how to do it but I dont know how to explain it. If I am confusing you further I aplogize. Is the first one the original with no cropping?

 

[Sweetsomedays]

Correct, first is original. Straight from the camera.

Thank you both for explaining. I am going to try that exercise and play around a bit so I am not messing prints up in future.