New to forum

StraightUp · Jun 18, 2014

Hey everyone! I am new to the site and have recently started taking things a bit beyond just a hobby. I'd love some CC on 2 specific photos. The first is a pic of my daughter that I took and would love suggestions on how to avoid the shadows in the mirrow if i'm not using an off camera flash?

Second photo i've had many people tell me that they love it and others that don't like it at all, but can't elaborate on what they do/don't like so i'd love any CC I can get on it.

Thanks in advance everyone!

IzzieK · Jun 18, 2014

Welcome to this forum.

Looks like a shot of a mirrored reflection -- the shadow of the hat is distracting in this first shot.
On the second shot, selective colouring, there are a few overexposed parts.

robbins.photo · Jun 18, 2014

StraightUp said:
Hey everyone! I am new to the site and have recently started taking things a bit beyond just a hobby. I'd love some CC on 2 specific photos. The first is a pic of my daughter that I took and would love suggestions on how to avoid the shadows in the mirrow if i'm not using an off camera flash?

Second photo i've had many people tell me that they love it and others that don't like it at all, but can't elaborate on what they do/don't like so i'd love any CC I can get on it.

Thanks in advance everyone!

Ok, well first photo you could either add an additional light source to lessen or remove the shadows assuming you can reshoot, if not then a lot of editing programs (I use photoshop myself) have the ability to adjust shadows/highlights, it's a very useful feature in a photo like this where you have a specific area you need to remove or reduce shadows. I generally copy just that area to a new layer, make the adjustment using the shadow/highlight sliders and then the eraser tool to blend it back into the layer below, flatten and save.

The second image, well I'll be honest I am not a fan of selective coloring at all so I may not be the best person to ask here. I guess if you were going to do selective coloring it would make more sense to me to leave the boys faces/hair/hands in color and BW the rest rather than the other way around. Also I think the composition just looks a little - well off really. The crop is pretty close to the knees - and there is a lot of space above the boys heads that really doesn't add a whole lot to the photo IMHO. I think this might actually benefit a lot from being shot vertically as opposed to horizontally.

Just my 2 cents worth of course, hope that helped.