Daddy's Little Girl

[mindfloodz]

I took this photograph during a practice shoot with a couple friends and their kids. I really like this picture, so I tone mapped the RAW image of this shot! I really like the way it turned out. Tell me what cha think, other than not liking HDR of people, rather than landscapes.

 

[Provo]

I think what matters the most is that it's a treasured memory for you which is most important
rather then worrying about the image appearance.

We don't know what the original image look's like in comparison to this one so it's kind of hard to judge it that way.
But if you want critique I will say this your right arm has a little blown out area from sunlight & your daughters head as well.
I am sure you can correct this from the raw image you have.Beyond that I would like to see the before & after but as the way
I am looking at the image I don't see where creating pseudo benefited this image looks like a regular shot to me honestly
but as I mentioned what is most important is that you like it and you have the memory of it.

Please don't hold this critique towards me you asked for critique & I gave you my honest opinion which should be respected. Just throwing this out there because people get upset at times.

 

[mindfloodz]

I appreciate your critique, and wouldn't hope it against you what-so-ever. If you had said, "looks like crap", then I might have been a little upset, but you gave me insight as to what I could do to make it better, which is why where all here! I do have the original and will post it. I like the surreal effect of HDR and do it mainly as an artistic outlet. My background was lacking in the original and the tone mapped image make the background really standout. It eliminated shadows and popped the colors a lot. By the way, that's not me in the photo, it's my friend Bobby, with his daughter. Him and his wife asked me to do some family portraits for them. Anyhow, Check out the original:

 

[Provo]

How about this not sure if you would like it or not

 

[mindfloodz]

That's pretty cool!!! That looks insane! How did you do that?

 

[Provo]

That's pretty cool!!! That looks insane! How did you do that?

I will try to remember all the steps taken

Import your original natural image duplicate the layer and uncheck visible the original layer I always do this just in case I need to touch up or go back to step 1
I did a Nik Raw Presharp 43%
Used OnOne photo Tools and added Color Boost Portait preset
then Used Topaz Adjust Psychedelic preset but made some adjustments and under saturated the image
Then duplicated the original layer
Added Nik Color Efex Tonal contrast custom settings applied it
I moved this layer directly underneath the Topaz layer and set the opacity to 60% so both layers are merging.
I then merge down the layers and flatten the image so everything become just 1 layer.
I then used the quick selection tool and went around your friend and the baby and refined the edge
then went to OnOne Phototools PhotoFrame 4.6 and applied one of the frames show above the software renders the image and takes you back to photoshop
I changed the hue of the frame to pink and walla there you have it.

See you said you wanted to know :thumbup:

Total image time 20min

 

[mindfloodz]

I wish I had Topaz and Nik. The programs start to get expensive. I had to save up for my Photomatix, so I don't see myself getting topaz or nik any time soon. I have Photoshop 5.5 wish is old as can be, but it still works, kinda. LOL It gets the job done from time to time and if I knew more about it I could harness it's powers more fully. I am talking a image manipulation class in the fall using Ps C5 and will hopefully learn more than I already know in that class.