Few tips on an image

[Curry]

Long story short, friend was having a very small wedding (backyard) I asked them if I could "practice" they agreed. Still new and still learning to use the damn thing. Learning about composition as I go as well. Reading whatever I find on here as well.

Here are 2 sets of pics. One edited the other un-edited. I'm sorry the photos aren't the same pic. When I edited I wrote over the original on my laptop and im to lazy to go get the SD card. But you'll get the idea. The image is almost the same.

Thanks in advanced!

Camera was a D3000 stock flash (getting one soon) SB-600? 18-55 VR Lens

Settings: f/ 5.6, 1/60 sec., ISO 200

How most of the pics came out:

After a quick PS edit. Adjusted exposure by +1 and Vibrance by +68

 

[reznap]

Your edits look much better. The originals are a bit on the dark side, so good move on the edits I think.

 

[clanthar]

Your edits are huge improvements, however you can do even better.

You used Photoshop's Exposure adjustment on this image. I'm pretty confident about this: When correcting a photo, Photoshop's Exposure adjustment will in all cases produce an inferior result when compared with other methods. In other words; since a different approach will always be better, any use of Photoshop's Exposure adjustment is a mistake.

The differences can be very subtle. I used Levels to correct your photo. If you compare closely you'll see that the highlights in the white roses are under better control in my version.

I've got the same thing to say about Vibrance with this caveat: I want the photo to look like what I photographed. What Vibrance does that's good is usually offset by what it does that's bad. Your photo had a slight WB error. Vibrance took that error and ran with it. I used Photoshop's soft light blending mode to achieve what I think you wanted without the harm Vibrance typically causes.

I've been using Photoshop since version 2 (1990). When Adobe released version 6, Photoshop had all that it needed to process photos. The trouble with software is that it doesn't wear out like say your shoes. So to keep the revenue stream running software vendors have to keep releasing "must have" updates. After a certain point it gets pretty hard to come up with new and "vibrant" additions to the software -- they start making up cr*p.

Joe

 

[Curry]

Thanks reznap and Thanks Clanthar.

I read over your advice and gave it another shot on the same image. I used only soft light and levels. Not the same as yours but I think it came out better than the original edit. Some of the colors look like the colors I shot.

 

[SrBiscuit]

beautiful henna

 

[Curry]

Yea they did a really good job on it.