First, thank you everyone for the feedback! It was very helpful. Fortunately, I wasn't planning to deliver the photos until tomorrow, so I had the chance to incorporate many of your suggestions.
For the 1st shot, maybe something like this ...
I use PS CC, my steps were:
1. Curves:
First point: Input-186/Output-196; 2nd point: Input-200/Output-221
2. Levels: 15/1.07/245
3. Gradient: Light Spectrum; soft light 19% opacity
4. Vibrance & Saturation: Vibrance (-5) Saturation (+20)
5. Selective Color-Red
Black (-21)
Yellow (+21)
The last two steps were to add some warmth to his face. He was a tad grey/blue.
Hope this helps!
That was very helpful, thank you! I'm using LR5, so I wasn't sure if your values translated directly, but with your edit, I saw what you were going for.
Like them all. My favortire though is #3. I bet they are happy. Would parents be ok ih you photoshopped baby's chapped face in #5
Thanks! I thought about removing the chapped skin, but I haven't settled on it yet. I still may..
The fleshtones have the look of people who are very cold. It looks accurate, and real, and believable, but not especially appealing. All of the snow on the ground has made a massive fill-in reflector, so the lighting is pretty low in contrast. It's not that these look bad or anything, it's just that they look cold, and ever-so-slightly uncomfortable.
Thanks Darrel. Now that I think about it, it makes total sense how the snowy day can reduce contrast, and thus reduce the richness of the color tones.
I played with these.. I don't normally edit on this PC though so take them with a giant grain of salt. lol
FWIW.. I bet this family is thrilled with them.. they look a bit cold, but I'm guessing they ARE and I think that's ok. I personally would warm them slightly.. to more go with the happiness you can clearly see in the photos. Watch for the branches growing out of dads head in the one and I 2nd maybe fixing the chapped skin on the boy in the last.
Thanks for your edits, it helps me see the end result, or potential, in my photos. We were definitely all cold... The outfits were entirely up to them, so I was surprised to see they were willing to brave the cold in what they were wearing. We took a couple breaks back at the warm cars, so that helped, but still..
Ok, so overall, what I was hearing was to bring up the contrast, colors, and return some warmer skin tones to them. Here's what I came up with. I removed the CA, and adjusted the red and orange channels to bring some skin tones back to fleshy. I bumped the vibrancy by a fair margin, and I pulled the darks and lights apart a tad with tone curve adjustments. I think it made a big difference, making them pop more without feeling like I overcooked them. But, I'd like to hear any thoughts on the re-edits. Good? Bad? Right direction? There or almost there?
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And one more of the baby that I liked..
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