CC and Edit to YOUR liking

[Rosy]

Hi there, this my my grandbaby Tory, AKA Pudge.
Can you please give me your CC.. I used OCF, camera left at aprx 45 degrees. No PP done.
What would you different - how would you PP to improve these images

1:

_DSC1919.28990749_std[1] by casualapproach, on Flickr

2:

facebook_1037498684 by casualapproach, on Flickr

3:

facebook_1290367367 by casualapproach, on Flickr

 

[luvmyfamily]

Oh how precious he is Rosy! #2 and #3 are great as is in my opinion, other than maybe remove the scratches off his face. #1 I love the expression on his his face, however the background seems a bit grainy. I usually smooth the background to get rid of the grain. This was a QUICK edit, and I probably ruined your beautiful grandson, but just trying to show how I would have edited it. We all have preferences, so it is just a matter of preference.

 

[Rosy]

Oh how precious he is Rosy! #2 and #3 are great as is in my opinion, other than maybe remove the scratches off his face. #1 I love the expression on his his face, however the background seems a bit grainy. I usually smooth the background to get rid of the grain. This was a QUICK edit, and I probably ruined your beautiful grandson, but just trying to show how I would have edited it. We all have preferences, so it is just a matter of preference.

View attachment 6972

better than mine - i like

 

[luvmyfamily]

Oh how precious he is Rosy! #2 and #3 are great as is in my opinion, other than maybe remove the scratches off his face. #1 I love the expression on his his face, however the background seems a bit grainy. I usually smooth the background to get rid of the grain. This was a QUICK edit, and I probably ruined your beautiful grandson, but just trying to show how I would have edited it. We all have preferences, so it is just a matter of preference.

View attachment 6972

better than mine - i like

No, I think I messed up his skin tone a bit. Was a quick edit, just showing how I smooth a background. I have cloth backdrops in my studio. I got so tired of ironing those suckers, got to the point that I would just spray them with wrinkle releasor and then later smooth the background. Is he about 4 months?

 

[Rosy]

Oh how precious he is Rosy! #2 and #3 are great as is in my opinion, other than maybe remove the scratches off his face. #1 I love the expression on his his face, however the background seems a bit grainy. I usually smooth the background to get rid of the grain. This was a QUICK edit, and I probably ruined your beautiful grandson, but just trying to show how I would have edited it. We all have preferences, so it is just a matter of preference.

View attachment 6972

better than mine - i like

No, I think I messed up his skin tone a bit. Was a quick edit, just showing how I smooth a background. I have cloth backdrops in my studio. I got so tired of ironing those suckers, got to the point that I would just spray them with wrinkle releasor and then later smooth the background. Is he about 4 months?

he is 6mos - and he was sitting on a black futon

 

[OrionsByte]

#3 is money.

Big kudos for getting your flash off-camera. Looks like perhaps you were using a diffuser dome of some sort, or your settings were picking up enough ambient light to lighten the shadows - that's good, but at the same time I think I'd personally try for a bit more contrast. I'd suggest getting the flash a bit higher so that it's off axis vertically as well as horizontally; they still appear a little flat - especially #2.

Also, I know with babies (and especially candids of babies) it's hard to have too much control over when and where you're shooting, but if he was farther from the background the shadow behind him wouldn't be as evident (especially if you raised the flash as I mentioned).

Cute kid! My daughter just turned 6 mos this month.

 

[PapaMatt]

I like 2 & 3 the best, ever so cute, nice work

 

[KmH]

3:

The lighting is flat, in that there are no shadows to highlight the depth variances of the child's facial mask. The focus is soft, likely from using an aperture wider than the lens focus sweet spot. There is no EXIF data at Flickr for the photo.
When using flash, shutter speed can be used to control the ambient light exposure, separately from the strobed light exposure, which is controlled with the lens aperture. It is often useful to have a ambient/flash lighting ratio to help separate the subject from the background.

The child was under exposed 3/4 of a stop, so I increased the strobed light exposure that amount using ACR. I determined the under exposure by sampleing a facial highlight in ACR. Caucasian facial highlights should be exposed so they are between 235 and 240 in the red channel.
Then in Photoshop (CS5) I reduced the background exposure 1 stop.

I selected the childs eyebrows, eyes, nose, and mouth area, feathered the selection 8 pixels, and used the UnSharp mask filter twice. Once to enhance local contrast (Amount 10, Radius 200, Threshold 3 - 10, 200, 3) and the second time to sharpen (100, .4, 3).
I also cloned out some distracting catchlights, and put a thin black border around the photo. I left the reddish blemish on the childs forehead alone.

 

[Rosy]

The lighting is flat, in that there are no shadows to highlight the depth variances of the child's facial mask. The focus is soft, likely from using an aperture wider than the lens focus sweet spot. There is no EXIF data at Flickr for the photo.
When using flash, shutter speed can be used to control the ambient light exposure, separately from the strobed light exposure, which is controlled with the lens aperture. It is often useful to have a ambient/flash lighting ratio to help separate the subject from the background.

The child was under exposed 3/4 of a stop, so I increased the strobed light exposure that amount using ACR. I determined the under exposure by sampleing a facial highlight in ACR. Caucasian facial highlights should be exposed so they are between 235 and 240 in the red channel.
Then in Photoshop (CS5) I reduced the background exposure 1 stop.

I selected the childs eyebrows, eyes, nose, and mouth area, feathered the selection 8 pixels, and used the UnSharp mask filter twice. Once to enhance local contrast (Amount 10, Radius 200, Threshold 3 - 10, 200, 3) and the second time to sharpen (100, .4, 3).
I also cloned out some distracting catchlights, and put a thin black border around the photo. I left the reddish blemish on the childs forehead alone.

Thank you so much for your feedback