Teething (and need PSE advice)

[~Stella~]

OK, here's the baby. I took this in my master bath this morning - she was leaning into the tub, which has a window over it. Behind her, was, well, the rest of the bathroom, laundry basket, etc - stuff I wanted out. So I took the background down to zero brightness and then did a blur on it, just to be safe and then went around and evened out all the black/baby boundary lines.

I'm fine with all black as opposed to laundry basket, but here's the question, I spent a lot of time trying to make the edges of the baby natural-looking, like it hadn't been highlighted and screwed with. Did I accomplish this adequately or is it still too obvious? Any suggestions?

Second question, see that eczema on her cheek (it's from peanuts - I'm 90% sure she's allergic *sigh*)? What do you suggest to smooth it out a bit? I did a light blur on it, but that doesn't seem like the right approach. thoughts?

Edit:

 

[~Stella~]

Dum de dum de dum....

 

[Mgw189]

Looks pretty good actually. The top right part of her head does look like it was photoshopped. What if anything did you do to the eyes in this shot. They are kinda scary.

 

[~Stella~]

You calling my baby scary? LOL, well she was in very bright morning sunlight and pretty pissed off at the whole tooth situation, so maybe she was a bit scary.

On the PSE front, she had nasty red marks around her eyes from rubbing and I desaturated that, as well as the red blotches on her chin (more eczema). I lightened the shadows about 8-10 points. Oh, I did run a very light touch of unsharp mask on her eyes, but the result wasn't real noticeable, because they were fairly sharp to begin with. I didn't do anything to the color, though. I think that's about it.

I usually jack up the contrast a tad, and I don't recall doing that today, but I couldn't swear to it either way.

I will say, her hair is not reddish and she is more fair than this photo, so I think that's the lighting doing that, but I'm not really motivated to fix it.

So the top (our) right needs work? I can do that.

 

[~Stella~]

Better job on the background in these?

Still looking for baby skin smoothing tips.

 

[dtornabene1]

Why darken the background so much? You have laundry or other distracting objects you do not want in the image. Fine, blur them. It is far more natural and you will not notice the light edges which appear as if a key light was used.

Skin smoothing is easy. This is what the healing brush is all about. As a reference, to fix cheeks, use the forehead, to fix foreheads, use cheeks. If both are bad, use the skin to the outside of the eyes.

-Nick

Post a photograph with the distractions and maybe someone will fix to demonstrate?

 

[~Stella~]

Nick, you have a great point, however, the background had the aforementioned basket of dirty laundry, striped navy and white wallpaper, a baby swing, and a partial, but naked 3 year old. Normally I would blur, but this was really too much to take.

I'll have to work on the skin techniques. I don't really like fooling with baby skin, at all, but this rash is really icky and I don't see the need to document it for posterity.

Thank you both for your input, much appreciated.

 

[Judge Sharpe]

Stella- You have a beautiful baby. I think that you captured her very well and your re-touching is well done. It is after all a baby.
Eczema happens, and is a part of baby/parenthood. As are part naked 3 year olds and laundry.
I little baby lotion will clear it( the eczema) up. As a grand father 2x I think it is just a baby rash, but if you really think it is peanut allergy check with her Doctor.
Another hint for rashes from the old days is to use Black and White film and a light red filter. I don't know if that will work with your digital camera and Photoshop, but you night try a conversion and a red filter effect to erase the red rash before smoothing the skin. After the filter then smooth out what is left.
Judge Sharpe

 

[~Stella~]

Thanks you, JS. I'll check that out...off to look up red light filter. Thank you for the compliments, comments, and advice.

The (naked) 3yo has a severe peanut allergy, as does my father, so unfortunately it's a strong possibility, though I'm hoping that I'm needlessly on edge because of her brother.

 

[dtornabene1]

Nick, you have a great point, however, the background had the aforementioned basket of dirty laundry, striped navy and white wallpaper, a baby swing, and a partial, but naked 3 year old. Normally I would blur, but this was really too much to take.

I'll have to work on the skin techniques. I don't really like fooling with baby skin, at all, but this rash is really icky and I don't see the need to document it for posterity.

Thank you both for your input, much appreciated.

Now if you would have said naked 23 year old.... But seriously, there is no amount of background in which a blur can not fix. Try posting one and let's see if we can work on it, hopefully without the naked 3 year old.

Baby's skin is the best to work on. People expect the skin of a baby to be smooth. If someone is 50 years old and has supper smooth skin, it is too obvious. Not with a baby. They are great for retouch. Make it as smooth as you want. Remember, there is a reason why we say smooth as a baby's bottom. O.K. maybe that's a stretch, but you get the idea.

-Nick