In the hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there. C&C please

[Smitty91]

Taken after my son left some treats for Santa Christmas Eve 2011.


In the hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there by Smitty91845, on Flickr

 

[naptime]

interesting. i think it would have benefitted from the stockings being a little more out of focus.

is that strawberry milk, or is it picking up red from the christmas lights?

 

[Smitty91]

Regular milk picking up the red lights. I should mention the only post processing I've done with this photo (so far) is crop and straighten slightly. Nothing else. With that said, I think the image is slightly "dark" and could also use some sharpening in the least.

 

[photo guy]

It may be a little dark though I like it right now

 

[KmH]

My take:

 

[Smitty91]

Did you jsut tweak the brightness?

 

[KmH]

No.

I made a couple of selections, and several layers with different blending modes.

I used the Screen blending mode to brighten the cookies and glass of milk, and on a separate layer I used the Multiply blending mode to darken the background.

 

[Zydeco]

KmH, your editing is awesome. Hopefully I can learn to better use Photoshop to enhance my photos, you literally made it look Greeting Card quality! Up until now, I've mostly used Photoshop for things other than actual photos. Time to use what I know and apply it to photography, I suppose.

 

[KmH]

Thanks, but I'm no expert. I have a bookshelf full of reference material that I have to routinely consult.

Make a $30 or so investment - Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers: A professional image editor's guide to the creative use of Photoshop for the Macintosh and PC

If you haven't already, join the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) and tap into their tutorials, forums, and other member only perks (lots of discounts).
Here is my NAPP referal link if anyone is interested - Learn Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom and Digital Photography | NAPP

You can also find great tutorials at Adobe TV and by pressing F1 when you have Photoshop open.

 

[Smitty91]

Thanks for the insight Keith.