Before & After Editing

[flashbackpat]

What criteria do you use when editing a mediocre or just plain bad picture? This is a photo I took this weekend at a B'day party. The subject is very uncooperative about having his photo taken and though I've tried repeatedly, I never get a good shot of him.

I wanted to edit out the blemishes on his face in case he sees the picture some time in the future. My editing skills (and software) leave much to be desired unfortunately. The end result of hours of work was this simple black & white.

I'm not displeased with the final result. I'm just curious about what those with more experience would do with a photo of this nature. Do you have an end result in mind before you begin? Is it trial and error until you're satisfied? Perhaps you wouldn't have bothered at all.

 

[Mgw189]

For starters its kinda tough to get a good pic of someone who is uncooperative. As far as the other issues go. Try GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program its like photoshop elements but is free. You did a pretty good job at touching up the "blemishes" though.

 

[ShutterSpeed]

i would leave color, edit out the blemishes and add some lighting effects to drown the background out a tad. I would maybe even desaturate that 'noisy' background.

 

[Samanax]

If you do decide to give GIMP a try, here's Grokking The GIMP to help you get started.

 

[Mgw189]

my quick edit

 

[tsaraleksi]

Converting it to black and white is not something I would have done for this image-- the conversion makes him look a bit "shiny" in a not-so-flattering fashion.

I'd run a clone brush over him, take off the 'stache and clean up the under-eye area. I assume you are ok with posting examples?

It'd look a bit better given more time.

 

[flashbackpat]

Thanks for the input everyone. You've given me plenty to think about. Back to the drawing board & off to download a new toy.