Please give your opinions on the PP job.

[eric-holmes]

I was asked by a friend to do some PP of her photographs. I did have permission by the photographer to do these edits. She is not well versed in photoshop. I am no expert by any means either. Please give your opinions.

Original

1st edit

2nd edit

 

[Dallmeyer]

(IMO) the contrast is a little too high in the edits.. the brightness of the bust of her dress and the deep blacks of the iron hinges and handles. They could both gain from a slight reduction in contrast. And the blue/turquoise color looks more natural to me as it is SOOC. I assume some of that is due to the raised contrast but the color saturation looks increased as well.

 

[AndreaB]

I like it, but I think you need to try and enhance the slight catchlights in her eyes, it will make her look more alive.

 

[eric-holmes]

I guess I don't see what you are saying about the deepness of the blacks in the hinges.

 

[Dallmeyer]

ok. Maybe it's just personal perception. I'm pretty sure my monitor is as calibrated as normally the case. The hinge to her left. I get the impression there's more detail lurking there and likewise across the picture that could be lifted out a little by knocking down the contrast a couple/few clicks. The darker area of her hair on the right side of her face (her right), the skin tones around her right side collarbone. lessening the contrast a tiny bit would decrease the brightness of the light reflected off the left bust of the dress. Maybe thats natural and its very bright material.? It looks to me like an effect of high contrast adjustment. There seems a kind of radially applied mask/blend to give the slight fall-off/vignette effect to the framing. Is that manually done or the result of a plug-in/filter generated over several layers? Perhaps its connected to what i'm trying to describe.

Anyway i like the picture! but the fabric of her dress has more detail/texture however it can be termed, in the original image.

 

[Dallmeyer]

..Hey i just noticed you cloned out the hair blowing in the breeze. Just wanted to add that is nicely done!

 

[SwissJ]

The last edit looks good to me. The 1st edit looks a bit too bright to me.

 

[vtf]

Where you cloned her hair out in 2 and 3, there is a dark line now above the hinge that doesnt match the line on the other side of her head. Not sure why that would be added. Imo they are a little oof. I'd say probably motion if it was a breezy day but maybe its my glasses. Keep it coming.

 

[KmH]

Fix the distortion - the not vertical line on the extreme right.

Here's how to do it with Elements.

Drag out a crop box the same size as the original image. Hover the cursor near the upper right corner and it wll become a curved double arrow. Rotate the crop to the left till the edge is parallel to the line in the image. OK the crop. Crop away the white leftover bits. I'd make it closer to a square crop

Clone out the black hardware, particularly the piece that looks like it is about to enter her skull.

For the clone of her stray hair you should use the left hand door for your clone source. You don't allow editing images so I can't show you exactly where to source your clone. As VTF mentions the line in the door on the opposite side of her head doesn't match making the edit very noticable.

She has a slight double chin. Carefully dodge the underside of her chin to minimize the shadows it causes, since Elements doesn't have the Liquify tool.

While your at it, zoom way in and dodge the whites of her eye's too.

The dodge tool is a part of the bottom tool icon (Sponge, Dodge, Burn).

To dodge or burn: Click on Layer>New>Layer. When the dialog box opens change the "Mode" to Soft Light and put a check mark in the box under that, that now says "Fill with Soft-light-neutral color (50% grey). I usually make a dodge llayer and a separate burn layer if I'm going to do both.

In the tool options bar select a soft edge brush. The brush mode should already be set to "Desaturate". That's what you want it to be. You can use the open bracket and close bracket keys to change the size of the brush.

 

[gigiphotography]

Ok Eric...what is pp? lol!

 

[KmH]

Ok Eric...what is pp? lol!

It stands for Post Processing and is shorthand for image editing.

 

[P3 Photography]

I like the second edit best. Maybe sharpen and bring out the color in her eyes a little. Just a thought...

 

[eric-holmes]

Fix the distortion - the not vertical line on the extreme right.

Here's how to do it with Elements.

Drag out a crop box the same size as the original image. Hover the cursor near the upper right corner and it wll become a curved double arrow. Rotate the crop to the left till the edge is parallel to the line in the image. OK the crop. Crop away the white leftover bits. I'd make it closer to a square crop

Clone out the black hardware, particularly the piece that looks like it is about to enter her skull.

For the clone of her stray hair you should use the left hand door for your clone source. You don't allow editing images so I can't show you exactly where to source your clone. As VTF mentions the line in the door on the opposite side of her head doesn't match making the edit very noticable.

She has a slight double chin. Carefully dodge the underside of her chin to minimize the shadows it causes, since Elements doesn't have the Liquify tool.

While your at it, zoom way in and dodge the whites of her eye's too.

The dodge tool is a part of the bottom tool icon (Sponge, Dodge, Burn).

To dodge or burn: Click on Layer>New>Layer. When the dialog box opens change the "Mode" to Soft Light and put a check mark in the box under that, that now says "Fill with Soft-light-neutral color (50% grey). I usually make a dodge llayer and a separate burn layer if I'm going to do both.

In the tool options bar select a soft edge brush. The brush mode should already be set to "Desaturate". That's what you want it to be. You can use the open bracket and close bracket keys to change the size of the brush.

Ok, I changed my option to where, "It is OK to edit my photos" lol.

So I believe I fixed the distortion you were talking about? I found tilt in the image but I wasn't sure what you meant by distortion.

I fixed the place where I cloned her hair out and messed up.

I tried to dodge the underside of her chin to make it more appealing. I also dodged the whites of her eyes and cropped a little more square.

I have never dodged or burned on solid color layer like that. It seems to be easier. Apparently I have been doing it all wrong. But what is the purpose of that? I have just always dodged and burned directly onto the image. And what did you mean by using the soft edge brush? I just used the actual tools themselves because I could not find the desaturate option on my brushes.

 

[KmH]

I have never dodged or burned on solid color layer like that. It seems to be easier. Apparently I have been doing it all wrong. But what is the purpose of that? The purpose is so you can see where in the image you have edited. Dodge is white, Burn is black. I have just always dodged and burned directly onto the image. And what did you mean by using the soft edge brush? I just used the actual tools themselves because I could not find the desaturate option on my brushes.

A screen shot of the PSE7 Edit workspace:

 

[Dallmeyer]

Just a tip: it's beneficial closing the curtains/blinds/drapes and turning off the lights to work on image enhancements, if you can manage it.