Friends at the beach

SquarePeg · Jul 30, 2017

Just a snap of my daughter and her friends at the beach. I couldn't get them to be serious long enough for anything posed. My daughter wants to print this one for her wall. Too heavy on the vignette?

SquarePeg · Jul 31, 2017

Wow looking at this for the first time on my big screen monitor their legs look orange. I guess I need to stop editing on my 5 year old tablet. Been lazy lately when it comes to post processing.

Tasks for today - recalibrate monitor, re-edit this photo, price out an iPad pro!

jcdeboever · Jul 31, 2017

I think the vignette is a little strong. Nice image. That one would look good in Acros simulation

SquarePeg · Jul 31, 2017

jcdeboever said:
I think the vignette is a little strong. Nice image. That one would look good in Acros simulation

Thanks. I'm going to back off the vignette a bit and fix the wet shorts on the girl in the middle. I just recalibrated my monitor and the colors look better now. It was way too warm. Looking at the before and after photo on ColorMunki there is a very noticeable difference. Not sure how it got so out of line but it has been a while since I calibrated so it was definitely overdue. Now I have to go back to re-look at some stuff I posted on our softball league Facebook and Instagram last month and see if it needs to be fixed. Not that anyone would care or notice except me...

terri · Aug 2, 2017

I think it's a sweet shot of your daughter hanging with her friends - a little work on the flesh tones and you have a winner. The vignetting doesn't bother me at all here; it does what it's meant to, which is dim the less consequential corners of a frame so your attention is forced on the subjects.

smoke665 · Aug 2, 2017

Great shot, reflecting a carefree life that they will one day miss. I could go either way with the vignette not sure that it helps or harms. Because of those long legs, I wish there was slightly more space under the feet. If you decide to fix the wet shorts, you might look at the shadows on the backs of the legs of the girl on the right, they seem a little odd. I also wouldn't rule out a conversion to B&W on this. I did a little experimenting with it, add a little graininess and it takes on a whole new look.

SquarePeg · Aug 2, 2017

terri said:
I think it's a sweet shot of your daughter hanging with her friends - a little work on the flesh tones and you have a winner. The vignetting doesn't bother me at all here; it does what it's meant to, which is dim the less consequential corners of a frame so your attention is forced on the subjects.

Thanks for the input. I'm going to start fresh with this when I get a chance. I'll see what I can do with it in PSE since I still am waffling on if I need to switch to something new for Fuji.

If I talk myself into that iPad Pro I may go with the Affinity software - it looks like it's what I'm looking for.

smoke665 said:
Great shot, reflecting a carefree life that they will one day miss. I could go either way with the vignette not sure that it helps or harms. Because of those long legs, I wish there was slightly more space under the feet. If you decide to fix the wet shorts, you might look at the shadows on the backs of the legs of the girl on the right, they seem a little odd. I also wouldn't rule out a conversion to B&W on this. I did a little experimenting with it, add a little graininess and it takes on a whole new look.

I would love to see your take on this (or anyone else's for that matter). I rarely think of b&w. Not anything against it just not something I find myself leaning toward.

smoke665 · Aug 2, 2017

SquarePeg said:
I would love to see your take on this (or anyone else's for that matter). I rarely think of b&w. Not anything against it just not something I find myself leaning toward.

As you've already noted there is a WB issue, in LR I sampled the white of the pocket on the girl, making the following adjustments. Surprisingly there was a substantial bump in overall brightness when I did.

I tried a couple of different options in Silver Efex Pro, this being what "I" thought looked best. The odd shadows on the backs of the legs of the girl on the right are more noticeable in the B&W, and if I went this route would probably work on those and the girl on the left, to even out the skin tones, before I converted.

I'm really envious of your exposure as the historgram shows a great capture with a lot of data to work with. By making a few adjustments to the color version with what I call OrangeAid, it gives it another look, like what you might expect at that point in the transition from day to night. When you get that warm orange glow, and the colors tend to desaturate. Same comments regarding the shadows on the legs. Anyhow, great image that will look great no matter what you do with it!!

SquarePeg · Aug 2, 2017

OMG just realized the "shadow" that you guys are talking about is actually paint that didn't quite wash off. Before we went to the beach, they were painting each other's legs with acrylic paint - a flower, a jellyfish and on the girl on the right, some type of night scene with blue background and stars and moon on the back of her leg. Don't ask - it's a teen thing that is sweeping Instagram in our area. They paint themselves then post pics of it for each other to see. I guess it's better than the make your own slime phase... barely. When they washed off the paint the dark blue had stained her leg and would not all come off, lol. Mystery solved. I guess I'll fix that too when I fix the wet shorts.

Of the two you've posted, I much prefer your second take on it. I guess I just don't appreciate b&w the way others do. It's nice to see other people's ideas! Thanks.

smoke665 · Aug 2, 2017

SquarePeg said:
When they washed off the paint the dark blue had stained her leg and would not all come off, lol. Mystery solved. I guess I'll fix that too when I fix the wet shorts.

Of the two you've posted, I much prefer your second take on it. I guess I just don't appreciate b&w the way others do. It's nice to see other people's ideas! Thanks.

I am so glad you cleared that up. You wouldn't believe how it had me scratching my head trying to figure out why I couldn't raise the shadows! Left over paint/stain, would have never been in my possibility list LOL Even more confusing is that none of the shadows that I saw on the left or right were on the center girl.

I actually like all of the possibilities including the original with color corrected (and the paint removed :biggrin:

). As I said you nailed a great exposure. Your original represents an accurate take on the scene, the B&W I think changes the scene to a more overcast/winter type day, and the last to a hazy dusk look. Same image three different looks. A classic example of the need to evaluate an image from many angles.