C+C my first posed portrait and editting please

[Blackwell]

Much better!

 

[bahandi]

your edit looks great.

your second posed picture looks nice to me. lol.. took me a while to realize what you were referring to as bird poop

 

[dylj]

Well, I started by
1) doing a colour correction and adjusted levels
2) 2nd created a skin softening layer applied a Gaussian blur and layer masked everything but her skin, then merged the layers.
3) Applied an unsharp mask to the eyes
4) Cloned out the fly away hair.

I did do a bit of cloning and blemish removal but that was most of it.

If you wouldn't mind, can you explain step #2? I think I've got the rest down but there seems to be a lot packed into #2. What is layer mask? How do you isolate everything but her skin?

Thanks!

 

[Rachelsne]

DYLJ what editing program do you use?

 

[just x joey]

shoot at f8 and boost the shutter speed. f/11 on the 50mm 1.8 is muddy.

 

[Rachelsne]

Thanks, next time I go out I will remember, I need to experiment more anyway and get a better feel for the lens.

 

[dylj]

DYLJ what editing program do you use?

I'm using Photoshop Elements 6.

Thanks!

 

[tim.bennett]

Sorry this isn't a c&c ish post but i thought it might be useful. If you can find yourself a nice cheap off camera flash. You can build a really simple cheap but very effective softbox.

Mine is back home(Netherlands) but it took 30 minutes to make using cardboard tape and tracing paper. That will give you more useable light to work with. I'll be making one again before the weekend. If i have the time i'll try and write a tutorial.

 

[Rachelsne]

I'm using Photoshop Elements 6.

Thanks!

Ok elements 6 does have layermasks - not sure where you find it but basically see if this makes sense for the guassian blur and layermask steps:

Create a duplicate layer of your image
from the top tool bar click filter, blur and gausian blur
move the slider so your whole image goes blurry-not to much though!
create a layermask
if your layer mask is white use the paintbrush set to the colour black and paint everywhere that you want to reamaine sharp, - eyes lips etc
if you make a mistake, and you paint over the skin that you want to remain blury, change the paint brush to white and paint back over the skin.
Simplify the layer (i do that my right clicking the layer and selecting simplify)
Change the opacity of your layer so that you get the desired effect.

Sorry this isn't a c&c ish post but i thought it might be useful. If you can find yourself a nice cheap off camera flash. You can build a really simple cheap but very effective softbox.

Mine is back home(Netherlands) but it took 30 minutes to make using cardboard tape and tracing paper. That will give you more useable light to work with. I'll be making one again before the weekend. If i have the time i'll try and write a tutorial.

oooh please

 

[NateWagner]

Doing what DYLJ is suggesting is definitely very helpful for portraits, but you need to be careful in making sure that you do not give the skin a plasticky type of look. It needs to maintain some texture. However, the look does definitely help in using portraits.

Nate

 

[Rachelsne]

Doing what DYLJ is suggesting is definitely very helpful for portraits, but you need to be careful in making sure that you do not give the skin a plasticky type of look. It needs to maintain some texture. However, the look does definitely help in using portraits.

Nate

Exactly, Im actually avoiding using blur now, I tried to give her a good makeup base, and experimenting with some other techniques that are more of a pain, but over all look better I think