A little help please

Higgmeister

Well, I kinda did a Yuri (wishful thinking). I shot some candids around a local fountain area, people pictures are a real weakness for me. I though I got a few decent shots of this little guy running through the water so I struck up a conversation with his parents. Well, I offered to share any good shots with them but find that my shots were mostly blured or OOF.
To get to the point, I have 2 shots I'm looking at possibly sharing with them. Here is the first one that I have worked.
Any comments on how to improve it would be appreciated. I've lightened it, desaturated some of the red and applied a dubious amount of sharpening.
I'll be removing the photo once I get some feedback.



Thanks in advance,
Chris

gpgold

Higgmeister wrote:

Well, I kinda did a Yuri (wishful thinking). I shot some candids around a local fountain area, people pictures are a real weakness for me. I though I got a few decent shots of this little guy running through the water so I struck up a conversation with his parents. Well, I offered to share any good shots with them but find that my shots were mostly blured or OOF.
To get to the point, I have 2 shots I'm looking at possibly sharing with them. Here is the first one that I have worked.
Any comments on how to improve it would be appreciated. I've lightened it, desaturated some of the red and applied a dubious amount of sharpening.
I'll be removing the photo once I get some feedback.



Thanks in advance,
Chris

Chris,

This shot is a very good capture. The parents will be delighted. Afterall they will be looking at a fun shot of their child, a wonderful memory. The tech stuff doesn't enter into the equation. Sharing something like this with them is a gift they will enjoy - if not treasure.

Technically speaking (and we know I'm not an expert) I might selectively reduce the red on his feet and lower leg. Hope this is helpful.

regards,

gary

lynnma

Hi Chris.. I'm no expert for sure.. I think I would crop some of the top out putting him closer to the right third of the shot. I would also sharpen it in lab mode as per Rutts technique right here. I'ts a lovely shot that I think you could make even better with some curves, sharpening and a crop. Just my 2 cents!

lynnma

lynnma wrote:

Hi Chris.. I'm no expert for sure.. I think I would crop some of the top out putting him closer to the right third of the shot. I would also sharpen it in lab mode as per Rutts technique right here. I'ts a lovely shot that I think you could make even better with some curves, sharpening and a crop. Just my 2 cents!

hope you don't mind but I messed with it a bit.. I think Rutt could help out a lot here, this kind of thing is right up his alley.

rutt

I think this is a nice shot the way it is. The parents will be happy and you should be as well. But if you post the original before any PS work, I'll see if I can improve somehow.

ginger_55

The critiques done here fly out the window when people are looking at themselves or their children, unless they paid a gazillion dollars to get just that high key effect in the window of the upscale (expensive) photography place.


We can do the greatest technical photo possible, but don't make a woman look "fat","wrinkled", etc................and that will be decided by her self esteem.

On the other hand, give her a photo of her kid, especially one not being snapped by everyone else who have great cameras, it is the best photo in the world.

(I wonder if I should give my birds photos)

ginger

Look at Rutt's gorgeous kid, teenager, nothing suits........
yet the ugliest baby, it can bring great joy.

Higgmeister

Thanks for the replys and help
I had worked this for 2 hours last night and lost perspective. You are all right in the fact they they would probably be happy even with the lesser shots. This is my first time doing this and I can be so @n@l about my own shots.

Gary, I see Lynn kicked it down some and it looks better. I'll try and get it to match the upper body better. I'm thinking the strong shades were caused by the light reflecting off the ground water. The sweet light was a little too sweet I guess as there were shot just at sunset.

Lynn, I like your crop. It was cropped quite a bit before, but your crop makes more sense and looks better. As for sharpening, I did use Rutt's 1st technique. I spent a good long time and several different attempts at it, but since it was my first try I know it can be done better. I used curves for shading and contrast, hue/sat to bring down some of the reds and then applied LAB sharpening. ...I remember why I cropped as I did. The size was 8x10, std. print size. I'll resize down and over and try to keep some diagonal water along the left edge.

Rutt, I'll get up a post once I get home tonight. Did you want a cropped, non-ps version or the whole picture. I'll post a link to my pbase account. The original has a soft focus on the face, but the boys shorts look sharp. Not sure what happened there.

Ginger, You are absolutely right. They would probably be happy with the untouched original. Since I usually don't shoot people, this is a great learning experience for me. I'm also doing stuff in PS that I hadn't attempted before so I'm the winner here and the parents get the benefit of my learning. This is why I appreciate all comments.

The biggest joy so far was when I offered the shot to the parents, providing they came out. They were thrilled and taken back by the offer. It was a lot of fun and I can see why Yuri and others do this. Very rewarding personally. Now I'm looking forward to giving them the shots.

Thanks again for all your help and comments, I know I've learned a lot from this shoot.

Chis

lynnma

Higgmeister wrote:

I had worked this for 2 hours last night and lost perspective. You are all right in the fact they they would probably be happy even with the lesser shots. This is my first time doing this and I can be so @n@l about my own shots.

Gary, I see Lynn kicked it down some and it looks better. I'll try and get it to match the upper body better. I'm thinking the strong shades were caused by the light reflecting off the ground water. The sweet light was a little too sweet I guess as there were shot just at sunset.

Lynn, I like your crop. It was cropped quite a bit before, but your crop makes more sense and looks better. As for sharpening, I did use Rutt's 1st technique. I spent a good long time and several different attempts at it, but since it was my first try I know it can be done better. I used curves for shading and contrast, hue/sat to bring down some of the reds and then applied LAB sharpening. ...I remember why I cropped as I did. The size was 8x10, std. print size. I'll resize down and over and try to keep some diagonal water along the left edge.

Rutt, I'll get up a post once I get home tonight. Did you want a cropped, non-ps version or the whole picture. I'll post a link to my pbase account. The original has a soft focus on the face, but the boys shorts look sharp. Not sure what happened there.

Ginger, You are absolutely right. They would probably be happy with the untouched original. Since I usually don't shoot people, this is a great learning experience for me. I'm also doing stuff in PS that I hadn't attempted before so I'm the winner here and the parents get the benefit of my learning. This is why I appreciate all comments.

The biggest joy so far was when I offered the shot to the parents, providing they came out. They were thrilled and taken back by the offer. It was a lot of fun and I can see why Yuri and others do this. Very rewarding personally. Now I'm looking forward to giving them the shots.

Thanks again for all your help and comments, I know I've learned a lot from this shoot.

Chis

Its a lovely shot, the parents are gonna love it

Khaos

Great shot.

Ted Szukalski

Lights and water, camera, ACTION!
Superb capture. Lynn's crop idea also works very well. The parents would be delighted with either the cropped or the original version.

Higgmeister

Thanks Kaos and Ted
I appreciate the feedback. At first I was thinking these were just candid snapshots, but with some work, they have become more.


Thanks for the comments,
Chris

Higgmeister

Hi Rutt, Here is an originl but cropped
Hi Rutt,
I appreciate you looking at this. On the previous attempts, I did try your method #1 and the result is the first one posted above. I shoot with a 20D with parameter #2 which means nothing is turned up. Sharpening is neutral as well as contrast and saturation.

Here's a link to the 300K picture. I would post it here but it's not resized and is rather large, even after a 60% crop.
http://www.pbase.com/higgmeister/image/45280230

Thanks again for looking at this,
Chris