a couple sepia/vintage treatments

Elaine

I thought this treatment worked well on these photos. I realize this may not be everyone's cup of tea. I'm not usually into heavy-handed treatments, but...sometimes things work out. I was really bummed that I forgot to turn my flash down when I moved in closer. There's a bit of shadow. :rolleyes But, I'm hoping it's not very noticeable (now that I've pointed it out!).

Scott_Quier

I think the treatment pretty much work. If it were mine to do, I think I would dial down the noise just a bit.

As for the flash shadow, I'm afraid I don't see it. Maybe I'm just blind?

angevin1

not too noticeable
I see your flash shadow...and only because you said it was there...below chin and his face line...nicely done tho. And certainly not too noticeable~
Also happy people are a welcome sight!
cheers, tom

KoryJ

I like the shots and the sepia, I think they really work with how sharp the images are.
The flash does not detract to me at all...

du8die

Very nice
Yeah,

The shadow is much more noticeable in the first shot. Could it be cloned out (carefully)? Eh. I'm going back and forth on that one...

Typically, I'm not a big fan of the Sepia, but it works here. I don't know if all the noise is intentional or not, but I really like it in this case.

Travis

I like the treatments. I don't know if it was intentional but the shadows appear to be grainy(noisy), especially in the second one. Not that it detracts from the image - I just didn't know if it was what you were looking for.

shatch

Elaine, these are fun! The content and emotion far outweigh the flash shadow. Very nice.

Scott_Quier

shatch wrote:

Elaine, these are fun! The content and emotion far outweigh the flash shadow. Very nice.

- after seeing the clues left by others, I can now see the shadows. Obviously, for me they don't detract/distract. Well done!

Elaine

Thanks, all! I did try some cloning of the flash shadow, but I didn't feel it was going very well, so I let that one go. These were shot at ISO 640, so they are not high noise images to begin with. That came on with the treatment and I just didn't mind it one bit, so I guess you'd call it intentionally left alone. The possibilities are endless!

Thanks for all the feedback!

Travis

Elaine wrote:

Thanks, all! I did try some cloning of the flash shadow, but I didn't feel it was going very well, so I let that one go. These were shot at ISO 640, so they are not high noise images to begin with. That came on with the treatment and I just didn't mind it one bit, so I guess you'd call it intentionally left alone. The possibilities are endless!

Thanks for all the feedback!

In all honesty Elaine, I think the noise adds a bit of texture and nostalgic feel to the photos.

Elaine

Travis wrote:

In all honesty Elaine, I think the noise adds a bit of texture and nostalgic feel to the photos.

Thanks, Travis! That was my thought as well.

crockett

Shadow: Personally, I feel your spending waaaay too much time thinking and fretting over that shadow which is most notable in the first photo. I've seen several of your posts and I understand being a photographer can cause us to focus in on a small element of a photo and tweak and tweak until we are insane.

I feel your train of thought in this case should have been....awwk, that shadow, should of turned down the flash, oh well, next time, it is fine. End of thoughts.

You have talent, focuse that energy on being talented and marketing.

Finally, how do the clients feel about these. I'm guessing these won't go over with clients at all but I have a huge fear of presenting photos that aren't traditional. This doesn't mean I don't like them, I do but I'm curious as to the clients reactions more so than other photographers. Did they order prints of these?

zoomer

Nice photos.
I think you hit your goal perfectly. Nice treatment on the photos and well done with the flash, just the right amount. Don't sweat the small shadows, if you hadn't pointed them out no one would have noticed probably.

Maybe...before you did the noise and sepia a slight softening of the faces...for me anyway would have put these over the top...but very nice as presented.

I bet the couple LOVED THESE!!!

SitterS

Elaine I really like the feel of these. Mom and dad look so relazed and having fun. Great job!!!

One thing I did notice is the spot on his neck below his ear. For some reason my eyes went straight to this. Maybe adding the noise and the color of the sepia brought this out more. Looks maybe like a patch of irritated skin or something. Not a show stopper for sure and the shadow I didn't even notice.

Elaine

crockett wrote:

Shadow: Personally, I feel your spending waaaay too much time thinking and fretting over that shadow which is most notable in the first photo. I've seen several of your posts and I understand being a photographer can cause us to focus in on a small element of a photo and tweak and tweak until we are insane.

I feel your train of thought in this case should have been....awwk, that shadow, should of turned down the flash, oh well, next time, it is fine. End of thoughts.

You have talent, focuse that energy on being talented and marketing.

Finally, how do the clients feel about these. I'm guessing these won't go over with clients at all but I have a huge fear of presenting photos that aren't traditional. This doesn't mean I don't like them, I do but I'm curious as to the clients reactions more so than other photographers. Did they order prints of these?

Thanks for the feedback! My train of thought wasn't too far off what you said it should have been. My apologies if I gave the impression I was uber stressed about that little shadow. I've let it go.

When you say you "have a huge fear of presenting photos that aren't traditional," do you mean to imply that these shots are not traditional in pose/composition and/or treatment? If they were normal color, like their family photos, would that feel more traditional to you, or still not?

The clients have just seen the results of their family shoot this week and we have not discussed their order as of yet. I'm not certain they'll order these, but if they don't I would guess the reason being that they weren't necessarily after shots of just them. I have a couple other ones of just the two of them that are more traditional, so we'll see what they think. I know she said that they were after "casual, traditional" family photos, but I did push them a little out of their comfort zone (and mine!) to get these, and I'm very happy with them.

Thanks for your comments!

Elaine

zoomer wrote:

Nice photos.
I think you hit your goal perfectly. Nice treatment on the photos and well done with the flash, just the right amount. Don't sweat the small shadows, if you hadn't pointed them out no one would have noticed probably.

Maybe...before you did the noise and sepia a slight softening of the faces...for me anyway would have put these over the top...but very nice as presented.

I bet the couple LOVED THESE!!!

Thank you very much! I kinda liked the sharpness, but I can see how slightly softer faces would have contributed to this treatment. I've yet to learn if the couple likes them or not. I hope you're right!

Elaine

SitterS wrote:

Elaine I really like the feel of these. Mom and dad look so relazed and having fun. Great job!!!

One thing I did notice is the spot on his neck below his ear. For some reason my eyes went straight to this. Maybe adding the noise and the color of the sepia brought this out more. Looks maybe like a patch of irritated skin or something. Not a show stopper for sure and the shadow I didn't even notice.

Thank you, Shane! We were all laughing at this moment, which I think did help relax us, but this was a bit of a push for us as well. I'm still nervous about directing and posing, and this wasn't exactly what I was after, but I liked it because their expressions came across so naturally here.

I see what you mean about that skin area. IF they do order these, maybe I'll try to tone that down a bit.

Thank you for commenting!

crockett

Elaine,

I meant non-traditional in the treatment. The comps themselves seem just fine to me.

My biggest hurdle right now is experience. Of course I always present plenty of traditionally post processed images (we call it traditional for a reason) but in the beginning I would present several non-traditionally processed images. None of them would of sell.

It meant

A) My sampling is very small (which it is) and maybe I just ran into 3-4 clients in a row that don't care for that stuff.
My "non-traditional" post processing sucks.

That's why I asked if they sold or not because if you're selling stuff like that then I should keep trying and I probably just ran into a string of conservative clients.

Thanks and keep up the great work.