A little disappointed...editing help please?

TenaciousTins · Oct 25, 2013

A couple of weeks ago, I did a photoshoot for a family and thankfully, they had low expectations. They just wanted one nice picture together and the rest was all gravy. Well I got some great pictures, but the first pictures I am finding difficult to edit. It was a VERY dark, cloudy day and we went out to a dam and the dam bridge I had them sit on was great for leading lines and stuff. But I just cannot get the white balance right. I do have the original RAW file, and was going to upload it, but I noticed that for whatever reason, it looks as though it's been edited. I don't know why. Anyway, here is the jpeg which I saved off Lightroom...this is what I am working with on every single picture. I used a custom white balance with a grey card while I was there, but still messed up on the exposure, apparently. Since it is RAW there's a lot I can do but I am finding it difficult to figure out. Any ideas? FWIW, the sun was not behind them as it appears, but rather it was behind me, not that there was any sun to begin with. This was probably the 3rd or 4th picture in so focus is screwy and stuff but it's a good idea of what I"m working with.

TenaciousTins · Oct 25, 2013

It was shot at ISO 400, f 4.0, 24mm, 1/400sec. I later changed up the settings as I went along (hence the later ones being better) but I couldn't have a much slower shutter speed because that little girl was extremely bouncy...as are most 3 year olds!!! They were a blast to photograph and I'm overall not disappointed in the shoot, just feeling lackluster with my results of editing.

jowensphoto · Oct 25, 2013

This is quick and dirty (note the bad masking), but it should give you an idea.

I made a curves layer, pulled up the center. Apply a mask to that layer and mask out the bg so it isn't blown.

runnah · Oct 25, 2013

Best I could do with such a small file.

amolitor · Oct 25, 2013

Do the following:

- a curves adjustment to lift the middle tones. Grab the exact middle of the curve and lift straight up.
- adjust color temperature to warmer color temperatures, to taste

It will look much better in 30 seconds. I don't know what photo editing software you're using, so I cannot help you with the details of how to do these two thing, but that's what you want to do.

bogeyguy · Oct 25, 2013

A quick fix.

TenaciousTins · Oct 25, 2013

Thanks everyone! I apologize for the small file size. I am using Lightroom 3 and I do have Photoshop Elements. I mainly work in Lightroom though. This is what I had come up with:

runnah · Oct 25, 2013

You lost alot of the clouds which added more of a dynamic feel. Lower your highlights. I would ad some vibrance as well.

DiskoJoe · Oct 25, 2013

The location here could be better. Nothing about this say family to me. There is a real lack of sharpness here too. That is the biggest problem imo. Definitely do what you can to keep more of the clouds. Layer if you need to. The blown out sky really just draws more attention to the boring location.

TenaciousTins · Oct 25, 2013

Yeah, I totally agree about the location. It was their choice, and after we got done there, I requested that we move to a grassy spot where we shot more family pictures that were more...family oriented. The lack of sharpness that you see is likely the small file as it is quite sharp (other than the mother, who was out of focus due to the aperture...that got changed later) when it's blown up.

Thank you all for your input! It's very valuable to me. I want to make this the best I can for them and I am still learning my way around proper editing. I am currently reading a few books on it as well, but I thought I would get input from others directly regarding one of my photos, just to see what the possibilities are.

TenaciousTins · Oct 25, 2013

Runnah, I would be interested to know what process you used?

And Booey, I adore the way you did the bridge! That looks so cool.

It is so clear to me that I completely lack in the editing department.

The_Traveler · Oct 26, 2013

Sky too bright, people too dark and flat and cold
Selected and moved a copy of the people to a new layer - used curves and color balance layer then sharpened.
The light is from above thus they have raccoon eyes; you needed flash or reflector fill light for this.
Darkened and added (too much of) a vignette to the background.

I suggest you use elements rather than LR to select and manage discrete areas.
LR is a blunt tool for this kind of stuff.

TenaciousTins · Oct 27, 2013

Thank you so much. It was such a strange shoot. Once again just another learning experience all the way around! The sun was behind me...but there really was no sun, and I'm actually kind of confused as to how the clouds got to looking like that because it was lightly sprinkling and almost completely gray cloud cover...but that's what happened and, well, such is life! I will look into Elements more for the selective work as you have mentioned. I am more familiar with LR than I am with Elements but am in the very early stages of learning about both of them. So I will look into learning some techniques! Thankfully the family is in no rush to get the pictures as I have sent them a few (not from this part of the shoot) that they are happy with until I can get them all of the finished edits.