Another from tea day...

thoth

rutt

Nice

michswiss

That is one excellent image. The best of yours I've seen.

thoth

rutt wrote:

Nice

Thanks

thoth

michswiss wrote:

That is one excellent image. The best of yours I've seen.

Wow, thanks Jen. I'm glad you like it!

thoth

We seem to have had a lull in activity last week so I'd like to give this one another shot at life. Anyone who missed it have any opinions?

Thanks!

bdcolen

thoth wrote:

We seem to have had a lull in activity last week so I'd like to give this one another shot at life. Anyone who missed it have any opinions?

Thanks!

Yup - Excellent. The contrast between those expressions and the little princess outfits is very nice - I agree with Jen's comments - one of your best.

Patti

It's a terrific capture Travis. I adore the expression on the little girl's face. I can just hear the whine in her voice as she says a disappointed awwwwwwwwwwww.

rutt

Travis, this is very nice.

I wonder if you can eke a some highlight detail into the boas and the hand in the lower right?

rutt

rutt wrote:

I wonder if you can eke a some highlight detail into the boas and the hand in the lower right?

Actually I know you can and I think it looks even better if you do.

thoth

bdcolen wrote:

Yup - Excellent. The contrast between those expressions and the little princess outfits is very nice - I agree with Jen's comments - one of your best.

Thanks, B.D. I guess we never know where our best will come from. An enterprising person would probably learn a lesson here...

thoth

Patti wrote:

It's a terrific capture Travis. I adore the expression on the little girl's face. I can just hear the whine in her voice as she says a disappointed awwwwwwwwwwww.

Thanks, Patti!

thoth

rutt wrote:

Actually I know you can and I think it looks even better if you do.

I'm sure you're right, Rutt. I'll play with it a bit more in a bit and post the update.

thoth

Here's the edited version. I modified the upper end of the curve, rather than burning in just the scarves. How did I do?

rutt

This looks OK. I did better with Shadow/Highlight and a layer mask (just to keep it off one of the girl's cheek.) Look at the hand.

If (as here) there are some very burned out parts of the image (or very plugged shadows) shadow/highlight before curves is your friend. It can open up the image details in a way that makes it easier to write the curves that restore the exact look you want while retaining the detail. In this case, you'll set the highlight threshold very low, maybe all the way down and leave the amount high. Do it on a layer and then adjust a bit. Then curve and I predict you'll be happy.

thoth

rutt wrote:

This looks OK. I did better with Shadow/Highlight and a layer mask (just to keep it off one of the girl's cheek.) Look at the hand.

If (as here) there are some very burned out parts of the image (or very plugged shadows) shadow/highlight before curves is your friend. It can open up the image details in a way that makes it easier to write the curves that restore the exact look you want while retaining the detail. In this case, you'll set the highlight threshold very low, maybe all the way down and leave the amount high. Do it on a layer and then adjust a bit. Then curve and I predict you'll be happy.

Ok, that makes sense. It sounds like I should reprocess this one from the beginning, then, and see what happens. Honestly, I think I lost a bit of the highlights during processing so it may not take much to keep them if I start over. I'll rework and post it as soon as I can.

Thanks, Rutt.

bdcolen

thoth wrote:

Thanks, B.D. I guess we never know where our best will come from. An enterprising person would probably learn a lesson here...

You mean always carry a camera, and never stop shooting?

thoth

bdcolen wrote:

You mean always carry a camera, and never stop shooting?

Maybe something like that. :photo

thoth

Alright, here's take 3. This one feels like it could be lacking a bit of contrast but I think that's just because my eyes are burnt in from the previous versions. What do you all think?

Patti

I like the last one. It looks like it has more contrast to my amateur eyes. The one before looks a bit over exposed to me.

rutt

Very nice.

thoth

Patti wrote:

I like the last one. It looks like it has more contrast to my amateur eyes. The one before looks a bit over exposed to me.

Thanks, Patti. I took a break from photos for a few hours and it looks much better after coming back to it. Like I said before, I think my eyes had become accustomed to the blown highlights of the previous version and thought this one was flat.

thoth

rutt wrote:

Very nice.

Yay, you added a 'very.'

rutt

thoth wrote:

Yay, you added a 'very.'

"Nice" is actually a very high compliment. I only use it when I hear myself say it, almost outloud. "Wow" is better. "Very" usually gets added by my left brain because I want to emphasize a comparison with something, often other nice shots in the same post or recent work from the same photographer.

In this case I added the very because of the improved post. And I did use "very" in my second post in this thread (because I wanted to emphasize that some added post would be worthwhile.)

thoth

rutt wrote:

"Nice" is actually a very high compliment. I only use it when I hear myself say it, almost outloud. "Wow" is better. "Very" usually gets added by my left brain because I want to emphasize a comparison with something, often other nice shots in the same post or recent work from the same photographer.

In this case I added the very because of the improved post. And I did use "very" in my second post in this thread (because I wanted to emphasize that some added post would be worthwhile.)

No explanation necessary man. I knew it was a good thing. My reply may have sounded a little sarcastic but I was being sincere!