Help Me Salvage These

jandrewnelson

I've been working on these tonight and feel like I'm "close", but just not "there" yet...any help and suggestions would be appreciated.

Here's the first one:



And the second one is:



Again, thanks for the help.

Jerry
www.meesoon.smugmug.com

Mr. Quiet

I will let someone else help you on the first one, but I think I can help you a little bit with the second one.

1) The reflection on the first guys glasses on the right need to be taken care of.

2) IMHO, your over all flash is too strong. It needs to be a bit softer I think.

3) Your composition on the second one is very good!

Kinkajou

yeah, #2 is definitely the stronger shot. have you played around with levels and curves yet? that might help work some of the flash issues out.

i'll be curious to see what the result is!

InsuredDisaster

Are you shooting in RAW? I think you could bring down the flash levels without too much trouble, and #2 is pretty cool shot. #1, I'm not sure I'd spend too much time on that one. If you do, perhaps darken the line between guys 3 and 4. I just think the light fall off is pretty bad in #1.


I hope this is what you were asking for, but here's my take on #2. I feel most comfortable in lightroom, so that's what I used, It might not be the best edit, but I'm a bit blind when it comes to skin tones anyway.


What I did was decrease exposure about 1.3 stops. This might have washed the faces out a bit much. Not sure. I added some fill light and I increased the contrast with the curves tool in LR2 and upped the blacks slightly to bring the coats back up a bit. In photoshop (and I'm not a wiz) I cloned the flash areas, then drew the missing pieces of the glasses frame back in on a seperate layer. I applied about 0.5 points worth of gaussian blur. I was moving rather fast, so I can tell its not perfect by far.

I probably didn't do as good a job as many of the others on this site, but maybe this will give you some ideas about what else to try?

jandrewnelson

Kinkajou wrote:

yeah, #2 is definitely the stronger shot. have you played around with levels and curves yet? that might help work some of the flash issues out.

i'll be curious to see what the result is!

Is this heading in the right direction?

adbsgicom

I think either edit is a big boost to the image. Your edit recovers the natural look of the image. The other edit works because its high contrast creates that edgy look that the angle and their wardrobe convey.

InsuredDisaster

Is this a band by the way? I certainly think your low angle on #2 and their appearance brings to mind a band.

adbsgicom

InsuredDisaster wrote:

Is this a band by the way? I certainly think your low angle on #2 and their appearance brings to mind a band.

After your processing, they should be getting a record deal even if they aren't.

marikris

jandrewnelson wrote:

Is this heading in the right direction?

Yes, but I'd go more into evening their skin tones. Some are a little on the red side while others on the browns. Group pictures are a real challenge for me too.

Racerx7734

jandrewnelson wrote:

I've been working on these tonight and feel like I'm "close", but just not "there" yet...any help and suggestions would be appreciated.

Here's the first one:



And the second one is:



Again, thanks for the help.

Jerry
www.meesoon.smugmug.com

Call me strange, but I actually like the second one. It is a tad to washed out, but I think that lends to the "rockstar" type of vibe, bright lights, superstars and such.

Maybe just clean up a few minor details like the glasses, and drop the contrast down a little.

My 2 cents