Ut - Oh

[Holly]

A game of peek a book turned into a gam eof Ut Oh when he peeked... Had to get some pictures while he was acting silly... One of my favorites from this fun *in home shoot*

 

[Holly]

No one has any thoughts they want to share?

 

[woodsac]

The little girl is cute. And you caught a cute expression.
The overall image appears very flat to me. I think a levels adjustment may help. For me, the selective doesn't work here. Maybe it's because the rest of the shot is so flat, but it makes the blue look artificial. Like it was added in ps?

 

[liveinsurrealism]

Wow your kids eyes are amazing. This is a good picture the eyes really stand out.

 

[MommyOf4Boys]

It is a cute photo..adding some contrast would really make it pop more and maybe desaturating the blue in the eyes a bit would make them look more natural?

 

[woodsac]

It is a cute photo..adding some contrast would really make it pop more and maybe desaturating the blue in the eyes a bit would make them look more natural?

I agree with the desaturation :thumbup: Maybe about -15?
My only concern with a contrast boost, is that there are some minor hot spots on the face that have the potential to become major hot spots with a contrast boost. But I think we both agree that if the black/grays were darker it would help.

 

[AprilRamone]

I completely agree about desaturating the blue. It just looks so unnatural. I think a more subtle blue would look a lot nicer. Cute picture

 

[MommyOf4Boys]

I agree with the desaturation :thumbup: Maybe about -15?
My only concern with a contrast boost, is that there are some minor hot spots on the face that have the potential to become major hot spots with a contrast boost. But I think we both agree that if the black/grays were darker it would help.

The hot spots could be easily managed, perhaps by layers/mask/removing hot spots...or curves or levels would probably be the best way to go.

 

[Holly]

Thanks for your comments.. Im not sure as to HOW much more contrast I can do... What I did was covert to black and white then copy as a new layer over the color... Used teh eraser tool to erase the eyes back to color.
HIs eyes are natural Blue.. Here is the original

HERE is the black and white again WITH a SLight added contrast... Didnt add much because of the hot spots on his face..

 

[woodsac]

Holly, do you mind if I give it a shot?

Boy...he does have some beautiful blues!

 

[Holly]

Nope I dont mind at all If I like I may email you the LARGER photo to do So I can have it printed

 

[Rob]

Here's a quick attempt at a rebalance of the colour image to make it more gentle. Let me know if you like it.

Rob

 

[Holly]

O I do like it! Did you use photo shop??

 

[Rob]

Yep.

Warming filter, quick fiddle with the levels to darken slightly, up a bit on contrast, down a bit on brightness, quick burn to the eyes and a slightly closer crop.

If I were doing a proper job, rather than a dirty quick one, I'd probably multi-layer it and even the skintones using a gaussian, cut out the eyes and leave them original (same kind of thing as your desat). It'd look virtually the same, but be a bit smoother. I'd also take the crop a little tighter as it's moderately unflattering at the top of the head where a touch of barrel/pincushion type distortion has made it look a bit bigger.

In my opinion, kids do look better in colour than in B&W as they don't have any cragginess to their faces and they go a bit flat otherwise. I tried a gradient map B&W, but it wasn't worth posting really, came out too flat. Sepia effect might work, with a elipsoidal marquee to give a vignette effect.

Do I make any sense? lol

Rob

 

[Holly]

Yes you make sense... and again Thanks! I will also try to play with it too...