This hole is RIDICULOUS!

cuezombies · May 10, 2011

A spontaneous sort of shot of my grandmother (98). She has trouble seeing to thread her needle anymore, but she put that quilt together- with a purchased quilt top- before she retired from sewing and was pretty annoyed by that darn hole. :lmao:

It has some technical issues- the background, for one thing (hers is the house of extraneous chairs and other clutter) and the OOF hand.

Aaaand of course I'd love to hear about anything else you see that's wrong with it. :lol:

But please tell me how to fix it, either in post or a reshoot- thanks so much! I'm just beginning to fiddle around with RAW files and Photoshop, having been a dedicated GIMPer all this time, so if the post is just total balls please help me out there.

Thanks in advance, everyone!

j28 · May 10, 2011

I like that is tells a story. It will be one you pull back out twenty years from now that still makes you smile. You are right about it having some technical issues, but I think the memories is captures outweigh those.

480sparky · May 10, 2011

This image is a great example of what you can do with raws. I doubt you could have gotten those great colors shooting in jpeg.

tirediron · May 10, 2011

This image is a 'moment in time' even the technical "issues" will bring back memories. I'm sure in 20 - 30 years, you'll be able to look at this and remember the curtain in the background, or watever. Well captured!

fokker · May 10, 2011

Unicorn farts photography.... I'm speechless

As for the photo, her face has a very odd texture to it - it almost looks as if you've gone in very heavy-handedly with the lightroom noise reduction tool and sapped any natural texture from the image - her skin looks like wrinkly plastic. It also appears (to me on my monitor) to have a slight green tint to it.

vtf · May 10, 2011

Can that be my grandma too. I'm way too emotionally attached to this photo to make a comment. :hug::

Trever1t · May 10, 2011

She has lots and lots of character and would make for a great model to continue study with. As you've already deduced the shot is busy, the chair and background distracting but it's a good start, keep at it!

cuezombies · May 10, 2011

j28 said:
I like that is tells a story. It will be one you pull back out twenty years from now that still makes you smile. You are right about it having some technical issues, but I think the memories is captures outweigh those.

Thank you!

480sparky said:
This image is a great example of what you can do with raws. I doubt you could have gotten those great colors shooting in jpeg.

I think you're right. I'm still a little afraid of them, but I doubt I'll go back. I tend to be a little heavy-handed in post if I don't watch myself (there really ought to be an attachable joy buzzer option for the burn tool) and since you can edit RAW SO much more... *flails*

tirediron said:
This image is a 'moment in time' even the technical "issues" will bring back memories. I'm sure in 20 - 30 years, you'll be able to look at this and remember the curtain in the background, or watever. Well captured!

Thanks so much.

fokker said:
Unicorn farts photography.... I'm speechless

As for the photo, her face has a very odd texture to it - it almost looks as if you've gone in very heavy-handedly with the lightroom noise reduction tool and sapped any natural texture from the image - her skin looks like wrinkly plastic. It also appears (to me on my monitor) to have a slight green tint to it.

Yeah, well, I was going for something to offset the pretentiousness of creating a fan page as a rank amateur (or, uh, watermarking these photos at all). :lol:

It's a safeguard against taking myself too seriously. Wait until you see my new watermark... it has a fart cloud.

You're absolutely right about the nose- thanks for pointing that out! I was frustrated with the noise and finally had an outburst and yoinked the slider all the way over. I'm going to revisit this one in the next couple of days (my eyes are a little sick of it :greenpbl

and change that as well as check out the green tinge you're seeing. I bet I messed it up fiddling around. I'll post the new edit to this thread when it's done- I hope you'll come back and tell me what you think!

vtf said:
Can that be my grandma too. I'm way too emotionally attached to this photo to make a comment. :hug::

She'd take you, believe me! The woman's babysat or babysat FOR every couple in town at some point. She has at least a gazillion unofficial bonus grandkids! :lol:

cuezombies · May 10, 2011

Trever1t said:
She has lots and lots of character and would make for a great model to continue study with. As you've already deduced the shot is busy, the chair and background distracting but it's a good start, keep at it!

Thank you! I'm hoping to get some better shots this weekend. I was going to take my neat old wing chair out there and place it against her house with a sewing machine table end table and maybe a lamp... but I managed to trip and bust a leg off of the chair last night. None of her chairs are quite as appropriate, so I'm rethinking my props.

KmH · May 10, 2011

It's unfortunate we can't see her eyes, the windows to the soul of a person.

Consider using some kind of fill lighting.

cuezombies · May 10, 2011

Off the top of your head, do you know of any particularly good sources for lighting information on the internet? Just as a place to start- I've sort of blown my photography budget for the month. :lol:

Thanks so much for the help!

vtf · May 10, 2011

cuezombies said:
Off the top of your head, do you know of any particularly good sources for lighting information on the internet? Just as a place to start- I've sort of blown my photography budget for the month. Thanks so much for the help!

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