Head shot of child-comments?

kidzmom

Hi all!
So I'm new to wanting to take "good" portraits...not at all new to taking "snapshots". I have recently been trying to move away from the snapshot realm, into the more artistic-expressive realm. I bought a 15 mp Canon strapped on a 50mm f/1.8 lens have been playing with it now for a month or so. Any input on this picture? How I could make it better...what this would rank on good to great scale? How could I improve? THANKS. I'm hoping to get better and better!
Kelly

angevin1

Hi,

I like this photo. For me, it does not even compare to the Kaitlyn photo from the other thread you posted. I like it just the way it is, though a tighter crop would also work. letting only her frame the photo, versus having some of the BG off to the right. And of course, you could still process this more if wanted for varieties sake...looks to me you've already improved!

adbsgicom

Really nice picture IMO.

Couple little things I noticed (I'm not a pro so feel free to ignore...):
I'm a little distracted by the different color of her eyes (one is much darker than the other). Is that naturally how they are, or how they picked up the ambient light? She has lovely eyes either way....

The depth of field is a bit shallow (I do this all the time). What did you use (f-stop, lens focal length) to shoot this? Her eye to camera-right is a bit softer than the very sharp left eye. Overall it still works, though.

She has a wonderfully pleasant expression, and you captured that very well, which counts so much more.

kidzmom

I'm very pleased to hear you like this. I just bought Adobe 7.0 and usually use the auto contrast feature and sometimes up the saturation or temp...but I am a complete novice on adjusting pictures. This is why I am here. Do you have any specific adjustment suggestions for this in the processing realm? I like the idea of cropping a bit, so I'll do a version of that too! I just thought it was already so tight (this is untouched). It is wonderful to have input from someone such as yourself. I looked at your photography site. Amazing! I'm flattered to hear that you actually liked one of my pics!! This makes my day! Thanks for the input and critique.

BTW, I also entered this one in the contest and to prove my point, of my 4 kids, this one is scoring the LOWEST! I know I entered the contest, so I "asked for it" but I just don't like getting voted down because people don't want this picture to win (or score well). I agree with you that this picture is better than the Kaitlyn one. Kaitlyn is 3 and very hard to get sitting still, let alone capture a moment. My eldest will sit for me so she makes it super easy.

Thanks again!

angevin1 wrote:

Hi,

I like this photo. For me, it does not even compare to the Kaitlyn photo from the other thread you posted. I like it just the way it is, though a tighter crop would also work. letting only her frame the photo, versus having some of the BG off to the right. And of course, you could still process this more if wanted for varieties sake...looks to me you've already improved!

kidzmom

THANK You for your input! It is so neat to get other people's view of things. I'm just getting into photography and I can already tell that I'm learning to look at things more critically. You are right, her right eye is much darker. I took these in a forest earlier today and it was pretty dark down there. We had to go and escape all of the ambient rays falling all over. If you look at her arms you can see the sunlight patches poking through the trees. That is what bothered me most about this pic actually! I didn't even notice the eyes. I imagine that it was just from the shadow being a bit stronger in the crook of the arm..and yes it was hard to get a good focus. I got an AF focus light on her left eye and then saw the expression she on her face and just instantly snapped it. It was the most realistic of the shots I got...although some of the others were a bit more focused. Anyway, I was using a 50 mm fixed lens with a f/1.8. A nice little lens that gets my legs working. I need to learn more about depth of field...I'm a complete novice in knowing how to get the shot. I just keep shooting until I get it. THANK YOU!

adbsgicom wrote:

Really nice picture IMO.

Couple little things I noticed (I'm not a pro so feel free to ignore...):
I'm a little distracted by the different color of her eyes (one is much darker than the other). Is that naturally how they are, or how they picked up the ambient light? She has lovely eyes either way....

The depth of field is a bit shallow (I do this all the time). What did you use (f-stop, lens focal length) to shoot this? Her eye to camera-right is a bit softer than the very sharp left eye. Overall it still works, though.

She has a wonderfully pleasant expression, and you captured that very well, which counts so much more.

marikris

HI, Kelly! Would it be possible for you to show the original photo SOOC (straight out of the camera)?

adbsgicom

kidzmom wrote:

. Anyway, I was using a 50 mm fixed lens with a f/1.8. A nice little lens that gets my legs working. I need to learn more about depth of field...I'm a complete novice in knowing how to get the shot. I just keep shooting until I get it. THANK YOU!

Just the quick primer:

Depth of Field (DOF) = amount of room in front of and behind (it isn't quite symmetric) the focus point that will also be in focus.

Wider apertue (smaller f-number) -> shallower DOF
Longer Focal Length of the lens -> shallower DOF
Closer you are to the subject -> shallower DOF

If you have your camera f/2 and are about 5' away (I'm guessing you were a bit closer) you have about 1.4 inches of depth. At 3' away you have 0.5" of depth. I extracted this from a website someone once posted (50mm/Canon 40D body):

http://www.dofmaster.com/doftable.html

THis generates a ton of data, so don't get mired in it or really worry about it at this point. Just wanted you to know that I don't know numbers like I cited off the top of my head....

kidzmom

marikris wrote:

HI, Kelly! Would it be possible for you to show the original photo SOOC (straight out of the camera)?

This is the untouched version. It was a bit blue, so I upped the temp and contrast...Did auto on sharpen and that was that!

Thanks for any tips on how to best adjust this image...as well as any other advice. Hints!

THANKS so much, gang. I turned this in for a photo contest today *see my earlier post on voting...It is getting the least amount of votes of my 4 kids' shots. OH well. If I win I get a free portrait shoot of the winning child at a Paris studio (we live in France) and 12 free photobooks! I'm not holding my breath, but maybe this time next year I will be better Thanks to y'all!

kidzmom

I will be needing a lot of primers! THANK YOU! Since the lens is a fixed 50 mm I was pretty darn close...Maybe 2.5 ft max. It is a f/1.8 lens...I can't do math! Thanks for the link.

adbsgicom wrote:

Just the quick primer:

Depth of Field (DOF) = amount of room in front of and behind (it isn't quite symmetric) the focus point that will also be in focus.

Wider apertue (smaller f-number) -> shallower DOF
Longer Focal Length of the lens -> shallower DOF
Closer you are to the subject -> shallower DOF

If you have your camera f/2 and are about 5' away (I'm guessing you were a bit closer) you have about 1.4 inches of depth. At 3' away you have 0.5" of depth. I extracted this from a website someone once posted (50mm/Canon 40D body):

http://www.dofmaster.com/doftable.html

THis generates a ton of data, so don't get mired in it or really worry about it at this point. Just wanted you to know that I don't know numbers like I cited off the top of my head....

adbsgicom

It isn't a fixed f/1.8 lens though, so if you can slow your shutter or increase your ISO, you can close the lens down some to f/4 or f/5.6 and get more of her face in sharper focus.

kidzmom

Right...of course. I just checked the file and it was taken at 1/80 and f stop of 3.5. ISO was 100. You are going to get me to take much better pictures aren't you?!!! THANKS!

adbsgicom wrote:

It isn't a fixed f/1.8 lens though, so if you can slow your shutter or increase your ISO, you can close the lens down some to f/4 or f/5.6 and get more of her face in sharper focus.

marikris

adbsgicom wrote:

I extracted this from a website someone once posted (50mm/Canon 40D body)

That was me

kidzmom wrote:

Thanks for any tips on how to best adjust this image...as well as any other advice. Hints!

I'm not sure what one can or cannot do in PSE 7 since I have CS3. First, I offer this alternative processing just to show another way of doing it. Your own artistic interpretation might be different, but also, when you enter a contest, it becomes more of what other people like than what you as a photographer like. I have to remember this, too, to be true to myself even as I grow in my craft.



I did this pretty quickly so there's a lot of room for improvement, but what I like is the warmth of the image and that you can see the textures of her skin because they are not blown out. Basically I tried to readjust the white balance using a combo of curves and color balance. I brightened up the midtones using curves after I set the white and black points in Levels. A very little bit of saturation boost. I don't know if you are able to achieve all these changes in PSE, so I'm terribly sorry for not helping if not.

If you can, pick up a gray card to help set your white balance in camera. Just take a picture of it where your subject would be and making sure to zoom so it dominates or covers all four corners. Then go to your camera setting, click Custom White balance, then assign the picture of the card as the source. This will help a lot.

Also, be aware of grass and trees giving your subject a color cast as well. Notice she starts looking a little green in some areas. I bought a skylight filter from Overstock.com for ~$15 (It could be cheaper for smaller filter size) but I haven't had the time to use it yet. It claims to reduce color cast thrown by objects onto the skin. Just a caveat since I have never used it myself (yet) so I can't validate that (yet). But you want to get as good a quality pic in camera before processing.

Hope this helps and please don't hesitate to holler.

kidzmom

marikris wrote:

That was me




I'm not sure what one can or cannot do in PSE 7 since I have CS3. First, I offer this alternative processing just to show another way of doing it. Your own artistic interpretation might be different, but also, when you enter a contest, it becomes more of what other people like than what you as a photographer like. I have to remember this, too, to be true to myself even as I grow in my craft.



I did this pretty quickly so there's a lot of room for improvement, but what I like is the warmth of the image and that you can see the textures of her skin because they are not blown out. Basically I tried to readjust the white balance using a combo of curves and color balance. I brightened up the midtones using curves after I set the white and black points in Levels. A very little bit of saturation boost. I don't know if you are able to achieve all these changes in PSE, so I'm terribly sorry for not helping if not.

If you can, pick up a gray card to help set your white balance in camera. Just take a picture of it where your subject would be and making sure to zoom so it dominates or covers all four corners. Then go to your camera setting, click Custom White balance, then assign the picture of the card as the source. This will help a lot.

Also, be aware of grass and trees giving your subject a color cast as well. Notice she starts looking a little green in some areas. I bought a skylight filter from Overstock.com for ~$15 (It could be cheaper for smaller filter size) but I haven't had the time to use it yet. It claims to reduce color cast thrown by objects onto the skin. Just a caveat since I have never used it myself (yet) so I can't validate that (yet). But you want to get as good a quality pic in camera before processing.

Hope this helps and please don't hesitate to holler.

REALLY nice! I love the skintone and the hair (this is actually more representative of her golden cast of hair.) Thank you for showing me what CS3 can do...and why perhaps it costs about 10x what PSE 7.0 does, lol! But honestly if I knew PSE beter I might be able to do more. I've only had it a few weeks now. I WILL make-do, !

Good point on the grey card and the filter. I currently only have a UV filter. The skylight is worth looking into....and I definately must get a grey card. For sure. Thanks again. It was fun seeing your interpretation. Very elegant!

Mitchell

I'm no expert, but this photo is more than just a snapshot. I'd say you are making the leap from snapshots to portrait quality work.

I like the composition, posing and froming. The nice eye contact and pleasant smile make this a lovely portrait.

I'm not sure you have to stop down much. Both eyes seem reasonably sharp to me. Your first edit looks a touch blue.

craig_d

It's a nicely-framed shot, but it feels slightly over-exposed to me; the upward-facing parts of her skin look a bit flat and lacking in detail. You could probably fix this by pulling the upper part of the tone curve down a little.

Focus is good, but I think DOF is a bit shallow. Closing down one stop would have helped.

I would be tempted to crop a bit off the right to see what that does to the composition. Not too much, though; I'd leave a bit of green past the end of her elbow. It may be that that would move her face too close to the center. There's really nothing wrong with the framing as it is.

JimM

Absolutely adorable!

toddb

very nice
Great capture. Really shows off her eyes. I like your version and the more colorful edit -- would be happy with either depending on where/how I plan to display the picture.

I'm self-teaching in photoshop and photoshop elements and have found a couple of Scott Kelby's books to be very helpful. He has one related to photoshop elements and digital photography that I think explain things in a very simple, straightforward way.

OhEddie

Don't give up on PSE.

I made several changes in less than 2 minutes in PSE-5 and got this...




First, I set the black point. Ctrl+L - Google "levels in photoshop elements" to find some tutorials.
You tube is also a great resource for tutorials.

Then I reduced the highlights using the "Shadows & Highlights" tool. From the menu bar choose - Enhance/Adjust Lighting/Shadows & Highlights
Just play with the sliders to see what happens.

Then I selectively reduced the "red channel" saturation levels just slightly in the Hue & Saturation dialog box. Ctrl+U. You can select different color channels in the drop down box. The default is set to "Master" which means all color channels are effected. And after I reduced the reds, I went back and slightly increased the overall saturation with the "master" setting.

Then I used the "Spot Healing" tool to remove the one large freckle on her right cheek.

Then I added color to her skin tone with the "Adjust Color for Skin Tone" tool from the menu bar. Enhance/Adjust Color/Adjust Color for Skin Tone.

I still wanted a little more warmth so I went back to the menu bar and selected - Filter/Adjustments/Phot Filter. In the photo filter dialog box I chose the "filter" option and in the drop down I selected "Warming Filter 81" with the "Density" set to 25%. You can play around with this slider and see your changes take effect if you have the "Preview" box checked.

It is a great shot of a beautiful young lady. It deserves to be framed and displayed with pride.

kidzmom

OH(My GOSH)Eddie ! I love what you managed to do in PSE! I am going to print out what you wrote and make sure I learn to do what you can do! I'm also going to buy a book (that was previously mentioned). I really want to take full advantage of PSE. I have 7.0 but I'm assuming all of this is still possible (you said you had 5). I WILL print this picture. I hadn't planned on it but you absolutely convinced me. My daughter is going to be so happy with this.

One other thing that I noticed that perhaps you can help me with... In my original shot (it was requested that I post the untouched shot) the eyes and focus are so much softer. Did you sharpen up the image? Her eyes really jump out in your rendition. I don't like what the "sharpen" seems to do to the shot when I play with it on Quick Edit. It really seems to bring up so much other grain that I'm not fond of seeing! I also find that my larger file seems softer overall than the one that I reduced to 800x500 for posting..that shouldn't be the case?

I really love that I can achieve this with PSE!!! THANK YOU for inspiring me to figure this out.

OhEddie wrote:

Don't give up on PSE.

I made several changes in less than 2 minutes in PSE-5 and got this...




First, I set the black point. Ctrl+L - Google "levels in photoshop elements" to find some tutorials.
You tube is also a great resource for tutorials.

Then I reduced the highlights using the "Shadows & Highlights" tool. From the menu bar choose - Enhance/Adjust Lighting/Shadows & Highlights
Just play with the sliders to see what happens.

Then I selectively reduced the "red channel" saturation levels just slightly in the Hue & Saturation dialog box. Ctrl+U. You can select different color channels in the drop down box. The default is set to "Master" which means all color channels are effected. And after I reduced the reds, I went back and slightly increased the overall saturation with the "master" setting.

Then I used the "Spot Healing" tool to remove the one large freckle on her right cheek.

Then I added color to her skin tone with the "Adjust Color for Skin Tone" tool from the menu bar. Enhance/Adjust Color/Adjust Color for Skin Tone.

I still wanted a little more warmth so I went back to the menu bar and selected - Filter/Adjustments/Phot Filter. In the photo filter dialog box I chose the "filter" option and in the drop down I selected "Warming Filter 81" with the "Density" set to 25%. You can play around with this slider and see your changes take effect if you have the "Preview" box checked.

It is a great shot of a beautiful young lady. It deserves to be framed and displayed with pride.

kidzmom

Thank you. I really feel "lucky" getting this shot. I usually just take so many that I ultimately end up with one I like...I wish I could just learn how to take pictures so well that only a few would suffice. Thank goodness digital media is cheap! I always seem to find that with this lens Canon 50mm f /1.8 I have trouble getting BOTH eyes in perfect focus. I always get an AF light on the eye closes to the camera. Beginners problems I'm sure. Thanks!

Mitchell wrote:

I'm no expert, but this photo is more than just a snapshot. I'd say you are making the leap from snapshots to portrait quality work.

I like the composition, posing and froming. The nice eye contact and pleasant smile make this a lovely portrait.

I'm not sure you have to stop down much. Both eyes seem reasonably sharp to me. Your first edit looks a touch blue.

kidzmom

THanks! I had contemplated getting a book on PSE. THank you so much for the suggestion!!

toddb wrote:

Great capture. Really shows off her eyes. I like your version and the more colorful edit -- would be happy with either depending on where/how I plan to display the picture.

I'm self-teaching in photoshop and photoshop elements and have found a couple of Scott Kelby's books to be very helpful. He has one related to photoshop elements and digital photography that I think explain things in a very simple, straightforward way.

kidzmom

I have a LOT to learn for sure!! I'm happy to get all of this great feedback...I really want to take my pictures to a new level. DOF will take a lot of work for me and I conpletely see the over exposed forehead---although that is almost entirely removed in OHEddie's edit! Impressive.

craig_d wrote:

It's a nicely-framed shot, but it feels slightly over-exposed to me; the upward-facing parts of her skin look a bit flat and lacking in detail. You could probably fix this by pulling the upper part of the tone curve down a little.

Focus is good, but I think DOF is a bit shallow. Closing down one stop would have helped.

I would be tempted to crop a bit off the right to see what that does to the composition. Not too much, though; I'd leave a bit of green past the end of her elbow. It may be that that would move her face too close to the center. There's really nothing wrong with the framing as it is.

ERue

I just did a quick clean edit. Warmed her way up, and clean up her arm a little. Just selected her arm because you were getting a green color cast, then adjusted in the color balance. Then cloned out some of the breakthrough sun that was making her skin look kinda blotchy. Then a quick levels layer, and a ROT crop.
On my private Flickr since I can't seem to figure out how to upload pics on here.

kidzmom

Wow, that is neat that you got those rays off of her arms! Those were bugging me! It looks magical now! THANKS!!! Good to know that I'm not the only one who couldn't figure out the 1 limit the pic thing.

ERue wrote:

I just did a quick clean edit. Warmed her way up, and clean up her arm a little. Just selected her arm because you were getting a green color cast, then adjusted in the color balance. Then cloned out some of the breakthrough sun that was making her skin look kinda blotchy. Then a quick levels layer, and a ROT crop.
On my private Flickr since I can't seem to figure out how to upload pics on here.

adbsgicom

kidzmom and erue, the one pic limit is if you use the attach tool. If you do links, there is no limit. You have to have a webhost to link to, so flickr or smugmug work well. I started w/ flickr and migrated to smugmug (which isn't free but I like it enough to pay for it). From SmugMug, you can just select one of your pictures, right mouse, select copy, and then paste into a message the [IMG][/IMG] tags get handled for you. Else youse the image icon in the editor (the little mountain) to set up the link. Look in the stickies on the support forum for more posting info.