My Little Man

flow · Jan 9, 2013

Took a few shots of my littlest for his 1-Year-Old pics at the park today. Did a little editing on one of them (color adjustment, sharpening, crop) and here's the result.
How'd I do?

Bram · Jan 10, 2013

The top of his head seems a little blown out, however its not a bad photo I guess. If you're using this to show him when he's a teen or something I suppose its alright. You mentioned color adjustment, could have made them pop a little more I guess. Depends on taste.

laynea24 · Jan 10, 2013

I want to say its a tad green. I'm on my phone though, so it may not be. It also may just be my tired eyes. Perhaps someone on a calibrated monitor can have a look? The top of his head is blown out as mentioned above. I would probably do a levels and curves adjustment if this were my photo.

flow · Jan 10, 2013

Yes he did come out a bit green. He was pink originally, his face was completely magenta and it went greenish when I tried to tone that down. I couldn't tell initially, I thought he just had the greenish cast to my eyes, because I'd been looking at the pink one - but when I came back hours later and looked again, nope, still there.
We tried again today, earlier in the day, so with better angle for the sun (and I remembered to bring the flash this time)....so when he wakes up, I'm going to get them off the card, & hopefully we did better on try #2. Going for no green-alien babies!

jjphotos · Jan 10, 2013

Good shot, but I think it needs more light on his face.
It seems underexposed while the background is blown out.

Derrel · Jan 10, 2013

flow said:
Yes he did come out a bit green. He was pink originally, his face was completely magenta and it went greenish when I tried to tone that down. I couldn't tell initially, I thought he just had the greenish cast to my eyes, because I'd been looking at the pink one - but when I came back hours later and looked again, nope, still there.
We tried again today, earlier in the day, so with better angle for the sun (and I remembered to bring the flash this time)....so when he wakes up, I'm going to get them off the card, & hopefully we did better on try #2. Going for no green-alien babies!

How do you suppose the magenta look got there in the first place? I mean, that sounds kind of,well, odd...

The_Traveler · Jan 10, 2013

Why not post the original - and larger?

flow · Jan 10, 2013

The magenta was my fault - wasn't thinking when I got dressed that morning, in a bright pink shirt.
This one I shrunk because it told me my file size was too big. I don't really get why the edited one was SO much bigger than the original, though.
Here's the original:
View attachment 32114

We tried a new one we tried today while we were out - with wardrobe better attended to, and I used the flash bounced at him off a white card. Now if only I could have got him to smile!
View attachment 32115
Aaaaaand, that one is also saying it's too big so I guess I need to look into uploading a different way.

651stp · Jan 11, 2013

i think throwing a little bit of contrast really helps that 2nd picture

all i did was add contrast and made it a little warmer in color. Hope you dont mind

LaFoto · Jan 11, 2013

Yes, 651stp, and you also cropped most of the tree that's growing out of this cute little one's head, which also helps the photo along much!
That's for you to watch, too, flow: your background. It is nicely out of focus, but the tree still showed very much.
But the clothes and your flash helped his eye colour along greatly!

Granddad · Jan 11, 2013

Stick around, Flow, you can learn an incredible amount from these wonderful people (even though they are not all 100% diplomatic all the time

), when you start getting compliments from them you'll know you've earned them and that is a GREAT feeling!

The_Traveler · Jan 11, 2013

note the deep blue of his sclera; the white balance is way too cold.

Your flash is making tiny catch lights in his eyes.

cgipson1 · Jan 11, 2013

I color corrected and did a little quickie touch up..... just to show you what you can do it post... (pulled cyan and blue, did not touch magenta/green, did a white curves adjustment on the flash highlight, added contrast, did a light white wash on the sclera, and added some light to the eyes.)

Your original for comparison

flow · Jan 11, 2013

I hadn't done anything to it yet, just put it as it came from the camera. So nope, don't mind you doing stuff to it

I did notice the tree coming out of his head, and the blue cast in the eyes ('cold' is the word I was looking for yesterday to describe it, but couldn't think of the best description!), but he was in a snit all morning and I gave up pretty quickly, this was about the only one of a dozen or so that was close.
'People' is not a strong area for me, and post skills are pretty rudimentary too .... but seeing some of the suggestions gives me a target; I think I can probably practice editing better if I have some ideas for comparison of what 'could be' done.

cgipson1 · Jan 11, 2013

Flow,

what I did in post... should be what a SOOC shot should look like, close at least. Your original is underexposed, and the WB is off. You might want to try setting a WB for the type of light you are in... not use AUTO. Maybe try Cloudy WB, as that will be a bit warmer than daylight or flash WB.

What flash do you have? Try setting it manually, instead of TTL.. much more accurate.