My grandchildren

nannabug · Feb 20, 2004

My son's kids in the first and my daughter's son in the second. They were taken about 4 years ago. Looks like my scanner needed dusting on the first one.

Osmer_Toby · Feb 21, 2004

and thus we see the origin of your name. beautiful children, and beautiful shots. lot of innocent love in the first, and alot of moral character in the second.
ever consider working the first one toward a final print, or is that as far as you plan to take it? cleaning up the noise, sharpening, and vignetting would turn this into a stunning portrait.

craig · Feb 21, 2004

Beautiful work! The first frame is so good, I could almost forgive the cartoon hats. Have you tried a tighter crop?

nannabug · Feb 21, 2004

ever consider working the first one toward a final print, or is that as far as you plan to take it? cleaning up the noise, sharpening, and vignetting would turn this into a stunning portrait.

Actually, I have considered making this into a portrait. Suggestions for the best results would be much appreciated. It is a snapshot photo. Would it be best to photograph the picture with my digital camera, or scan again and work within the original?

Beautiful work! The first frame is so good, I could almost forgive the cartoon hats. Have you tried a tighter crop?

If I crop, should I try to cut the birthday hats out altogether? To do so would result in cropping out the tops of their heads, of course. That little bit of chocolate frosting on my grandson's chin... should I try to get rid of that also? Suggestions would be most appreciated.

craig · Feb 21, 2004

Personally, I feel that it is ok to crop the subjects head. It can get tricky to say the least. Exposure has to be dead on and sometimes it just looks weird. Of course cropping should come from the camera. I generally Include only the the subjects forehead and just below the chin.

vonnagy · Feb 21, 2004

lovely portraits, lovely grandchildren

Osmer_Toby · Feb 21, 2004

is there any way you could get this scanned from the negative? if you still have neg, and you dont have your own film scanner, contact some labs and find a good price to have the neg scanned at high resolution. then start your work with the digital file- this will result in crisper final print.

that said, if you have to, re-scan after cleaning scanner glass on your flatbed.

then, you have some work ahead of you in ps. you do have ps, dont you? before i throw a bunch of suggestions at you for ps, let me know 1) if you have it 2) if you want input for this stage of the process

at any rate, i think you can rescue the shot from the clipped party hats via vignetting. if you vignette in just the right way, the outer edge of the photo will be the outer edge of the hats you do have in frame- with a nice fade right to that edge; this will make the absence of the tips of the hats look much more natural and intentional.