My First C&C

[JackandSally]

F/11 ISO 400

I shot this photo of my daughter last week. This photo is post editing. The original was really cool so I attempted to warm it up a bit. What do you think?

(PS, I am new at this so I hope I get the photo to show up correctly.)

 

[tirediron]

Moving to the People Gallery.

 

[tirediron]

A couple of things strike me... first is that the focus seems slightly soft, but in fact, it looks very noisy up close. There's sort of an odd band of yellow just above her eye; not sure if that's an editing artefact, or what. The main issue however is that the background is very distracting. You've done a good job of isolating the child with selective focus, but there's still too much detail.

Just my $00.02 worth - your mileage may vary.

~John

 

[JackandSally]

Yeah, I softened the background to attempt to fade the people out. We were at a very busy at the pumpkin patch. And now that I look at it, I see the yellow line you're talking about. I'm trying to figure out if that was where she had had a bruise recently (attempting to walk).

Thanks for the input, it's very appreciated. I don't want to scrap this photo because I love how clear her eyes are. I'm afraid if I try to edit it anymore than I have, I'm going to lose the clarity of her eyes.

 

[imagesliveon]

As already mentioned, the background is ver distracting especially the guy on the right. I'd say the light is slightly too strong loosing detail on the right side of the youngsters face!

Eyes look good!

IMHO

Regards

 

[batmura]

Can you explain why you set your ISO at 400? Thanks.

 

[JackandSally]

I had been in a "barn" shooting my other daughter, and when I came out, I hadn't changed my settings. That was an error on my part.

 

[JackandSally]

I should be able to crop the guy to right out. And you're right, my eyes go right to him. He needs to go.

 

[yeobt1]

Hi

Your daugther looks cute . I felt the picture looks bright and a tint of yellowish. You can use Photoshop to create a warm look, which I believe her face and especially the beautiful eyes will turn out well.

 

[JackandSally]

I have elements 8. And that's what I attempted to do. I may add that I'm new at this. I'm working on my skills, it's going to take awhile since as many times as I read this ISO for that, that shutter speed for this... etc, it's not sinking in unless I play and see the results.

 

[amolitor]

This looks too warm, to my eye.

There's also a slightly odd set of artifacts on her lips, which feel like some levels/curves adjustment gone awry in editing.

The colors are slightly too saturated for my taste.

You could try selecting or masking the guy on the left and simply de-saturating that area, and maybe doing some dodging or other levels adjustment to make him less eye catching.

 

[JackandSally]

Thanks for the advice amolitor! I'll see what I can do. I'm really new at all this stuff. (I did learn on a 35mm Minolta in HS over 13 years ago, but cameras have come a long way since then as has editing - I learned to edit in a dark room - and I have a ton to learn to "catch up").

 

[paigew]

Can you share exactly what you did to your edit? I agree the lips seem weird...over saturated or something. I would try adding magenta to even out the yellow.

 

[JackandSally]

:blushing: I just used an action. I wish I knew how to use elements without them, but I'm trying to work on both skills at the same time - focus is however, on the photography.

 

[ceejtank]

So much yellow. Why does everyone at your party have jaundice? Also - watermark on a family photo is distracting.. i don't think anyone is going to try and steal a photo of your daughter.. and if someone is.. then you probably have bigger problems then watermarking it.

The yellow everything on this really distracts me. It reminds me too much of an instagram filter. Composition wise it's ok, you've isolated the girl with blur pretty well, but at the same time, it's kind of a bland photo.

It's a picture of a kid who's a - not smiling - b - not looking at the camera - and c - it's just of the face. It's uninteresting if you ask me. Granted since it's your child it has sentimental value, but as for subject matter from an objective standpoint, it's kind of bland.