How would you fix this pic?

[ricepudding]

I think this is the one I'm using for the x-mas pics this year. I have Capture NX but am new to using it as well as photography. I would love opinions on this pic. Does it look professional at all or just ordinary? Anyone know how to cover blemishes like the one below his lip in NX? I've been working on it a little but I'm not getting it done so far. What other recommendations to you have for the photo?

Thanks!

 

[table1349]

Maybe something like this?

Shot at 2007-11-25

 

[ricepudding]

Nice! Howdo I do it? It looks like you sharpened it some but when I sharpen in NX it doesn't come that clean. And how do you cover blemishes? Or at least what tool are you using so I can look for that tool in my software.

THANKS,

Alicia

 

[Joxby]

There isn't a tool in NX that covers blemishes I dont think.
Maybe you need edit software with clone tool in it, or something.

 

[JerryPH]

A few things that I would do are:

- Move the child just a little closer to the center so the left shoulder is not cut off

- Not crop out the hat. Its a santa hat, an important aspect of the pic

- sharpen a little more

- Increase saturation a TOUCH

- Change the white balance to move it towards the red a little more (very slightly)

- The tiny blemishes? Totally up to you... leave or remove. If it is to be used a little more like for your Christmas cards, you could use CS3 and on a secondary layer, soften the face and play with the opacity to taste.

BTW, what a cute smile!

 

[ricepudding]

OK, I touched up a bit. Tried to take advice I could control. None of this pic was a crop and I don't want to re-shoot. We had about three photo shoots with my little man today, inside, outside and all. He was a monster....horrible photo cooperater It was hard to get a smile on his face so composition was tough too. But I do kind of like the "off center" and hat cut off. It looks very similar to a professional photo we got done of his older brother his first X-mas. Anyway, I don't even know how different this looks but here it is. If found the touchup tool, put it on max sharpness although I don't see it.

 

[|)\/8]

I do not know anything about the software you are trying to use, I use Photoshop myself. Was this a crop, if so I have to wonder why you cut the top of his head/hat off? Plus, I understand the Christmas lights and all but find the brightness of them a little distracting which takes the focus away from the main subject, (maybe that is just me, I am easily distracted,:er. Anyway take it for what it is worth, here is an edit I did: I toned down the background, got rid of the blemish, brightened the eyes slightly and did a little sharpening.

 

[ricepudding]

I never noticed the lights being too much. I thought they looked good. Are they really distracting? We had a pic done at Babies R Us of my older son his first Christmas - shown below. You'll see his hat is kind of cut off here too. I thought the two pics looked alike....so that is what drew me toward this years pic. Is it that bad?

 

[|)\/8]

I never noticed the lights being too much. I thought they looked good. Are they really distracting? We had a pic done at Babies R Us of my older son his first Christmas - shown below. You'll see his hat is kind of cut off here too. I thought the two pics looked alike....so that is what drew me toward this years pic. Is it that bad?

I kind of like the lights, it is just that to me they are too bright and it draws my attention away from the main subject, that is why I kind of dimmed them in my edit. Just for comparisons sake, here is another edit of your photo with a black background.

 

[ricepudding]

OK, Remember I'm new. YOU HAVE TO TELL ME HOW YOU DID THE BLACK BACKGROUND!! I was wondering how to insert backgrounds like that. I think I asked that question on here once and someone told me it couldn't be done.....how do you do that? Does it work for white too? Just let me know the name of the tool used for that. I have Capture NX which is Nikon's competitive software to PS so I think/hope they have many of the same tools.

Thanks!

 

[|)\/8]

OK, Remember I'm new. YOU HAVE TO TELL ME HOW YOU DID THE BLACK BACKGROUND!! I was wondering how to insert backgrounds like that. I think I asked that question on here once and someone told me it couldn't be done.....how do you do that? Does it work for white too? Just let me know the name of the tool used for that. I have Capture NX which is Nikon's competitive software to PS so I think/hope they have many of the same tools.

Thanks!

Well in Photoshop there are several ways this can be done. I would think that the software you are using must have some sort of selection tool, like a lasso. You can use the selection tool to either select your background or your subject. I used the quick select tool in PS and selected main subject and created a new layer. I then created another layer and added a black background. The original layer (the selection of just your Son) was then placed on top of the black background, then the layers were flattened.

I did do some additional touchups, red mark on face, brightened the eyes, and did a little sharpening.

I have made a video of what I did, it took about 3 minutes or so. You can download or stream the video from here, I hope you have broadband the file linked to below is about 19MB, I wanted the quality to be decent so you could see what was going on:

http://www.dykstra.us/images/Replacing Background.wmv

Hopefully some of the tools in your software are similar, or someone with more experience with Capture NX can help you. Good luck.

Again here was the end result:

 

[ricepudding]

That is so awesome. I will have to look at it when my kids give me 2 seconds. Just from reading your post I do have a lasso tool but I'm bad at using it I guess because what I select is just boxes right now. I'm not sure how to tell it to select a background vs. a subject. I'll work on it. Thanks for the tips and the video. I really appreciate it! I'll post back when I learn how to do it to thank you again.

 

[JerryPH]

CaptureNX is excellent, but it cannot do anywhere near the amount of things that CS2 or CS3 can do, unfortunately.

 

[ricepudding]

If you are familiar with NX maybe you know how to do this thing with backgrounds then?! A little help instead of telling me that I wasted $130 on NX would be appreciated.