How would you process this?

kdspencer

I captured these shots of my 2 year old son when we were in Puerto Rico last week. He insisted on pulling his suitcase through the airport and then into the hotel.

I want to make this look like a classic old photo, but I'm not sure how. I've seen some really good processing by some of you. The only thing I could think of was to add noise, which I did, but it doesn't give it that classically old look that I want. Any tips, suggestions, ideas?

(PS - I'm sure some of you may say to toss the photo, but I really like them both!)

1.


2.


Thanks!

SittingElf

kdspencer wrote:

I captured these shots of my 2 year old son when we were in Puerto Rico last week. He insisted on pulling his suitcase through the airport and then into the hotel.

I want to make this look like a classic old photo, but I'm not sure how. I've seen some really good processing by some of you. The only thing I could think of was to add noise, which I did, but it doesn't give it that classically old look that I want. Any tips, suggestions, ideas?

(PS - I'm sure some of you may say to toss the photo, but I really like them both!)
Thanks!

How bout Sepia toning on #1? Maybe add just a bit of noise to it too.
Might be cool to convert the same pic to vertical by cropping to the pillars. More focus on your son that way.
Just my $.02... nice shot!

zoomer

Levels adjustment, increase exposure, black and white, contrast boost.
That first shot is pretty cool.

fireguy.ed

My try
I hope you don't mind me giving this a shot. I'm not about photo editing on this site, I hope I didn't overstep my bounds.

If I have, please let me know so I can remove the post ASAP.

Anyway, sepia, crop, film grain..

kdspencer

Thank you SittingElf, zoomer, and fireguy.ed.

I don't mind you posting your take on the image, in fact, I welcome it. It helps me see the results.

Anyone else with thoughts on vertical/horizontal crop or how to edit it? What fireguy.ed did feels close, but isn't quite there yet....

Thanks!!

zoomer

Don't like the vertical crop, but then I love pano's.
If you feel the need to crop it just crop enough to take the light out of the top and make it more of a pano.
Then after you do all the other stuff to it put some light vignette around the edges.

Mr. Quiet

fireguy.ed wrote:

I hope you don't mind me giving this a shot. I'm not about photo editing on this site, I hope I didn't overstep my bounds.

If I have, please let me know so I can remove the post ASAP.

Anyway, sepia, crop, film grain..

The vertical crop works great, so does the processing.

photorelive

i think zooming on him and crop the photo would look nice

heatherfeather

zoomer wrote:

Don't like the vertical crop, but then I love pano's.
If you feel the need to crop it just crop enough to take the light out of the top and make it more of a pano.
Then after you do all the other stuff to it put some light vignette around the edges.

Yep, that is what I would do too. I would also set the black and white point to give it more contrast.

D'Buggs

ARRRRGH!

I'm trying something but need to re-boot the computron.....

zoomer

What makes 1 a cool shot is the look of a little guy in a big world from the pano orientation. If you vertical crop it up close the picture loses that, then it is just a snap shot of a little guy dragging a suitcase.

As heatherfeather said it definitely needs a levels adjustment, then black and white and adjust contrast to taste.

D'Buggs

OK, got the cosmo's back in line.

My thinking;

Delete; grabbed the wrong one.... (idiot)


Not finished but it should give the general idea... I played with crop but killing that light, killed the 'frame in frame' thing, IMO.

heatherfeather

I must be really bored... I never edit other peoples photos... But here is my take:


He sure is a cutepie!

zoomer

nice

D'Buggs

This one.

kdspencer

Wow, thank you everyone for your responses. I'm thrilled that you think it's an image worthy to work on. I actually thought people might tell me to trash it, but I think it's a great image!

It's cool that everyone has a different idea of how they would process the photo.

I did take a few photos in vertical format, but I didn't like them as well since it didn't show the size contrast (little Justin in a big world).

D'Buggs, how did you process your image? (by the way, I'm glad I'm not the only one with a computer that crashes)

Taking all of your suggestions, here is what I came up with. Sepia, Levels, Film Grain, more Levels, Vignette. I cropped the top light out and then cloned/patched out the reflection from the upper part of the doorway. I was trying not to lose the top of the door frame. What do you think???




And just for fun... here's a photo of Justin on the beach. This is what he looks like from the front.

topcat374

Good work IMO Kathleen.

I like the PP you've done on the shot without adding too much noise. I have a shot I've been sitting on for over a year now that I'd like to do a similar thing to so may try to replicate what you've done here!

D'Buggs

kdspencer wrote:

.... but I didn't like them as well since it didn't show the size contrast (little Justin in a big world).

D'Buggs, how did you process your image? (by the way, I'm glad I'm not the only one with a computer that crashes)

I hear ya on cropping in; there's a lot of symmetry, depth and space that gets lost. Even losing the light up top and center, digs into it.


All I basically did was some selective dodge/burning after resetting the black point and doing an overall contrast adjustment. In my effort, the kiddy needs more toning down/separation. I (obviously) added a crap-load of noise and a sepia filter. I also did some sharpening... It's all pretty rough and I was just trying to inspire ya.

I really think your rendering would like some noise in order to get the "Old" like you wanted.

zoomer

Your final version is very well done, like it.
If it were mine I would select the little guy and the suitcase and brighten just that part of the photo "VERY LIGHTLY" so he is brighter but does not look out of place. Just ever so slightly make him stand out a little more.
That really is a cool photo.

It's like it needs a bubble where it says "I hope I remembered to lock my car".

Mr. Quiet

I still stick to what I said before about the crop.

Fstoplife

I really like this picture, the composition is great! This is my take on the aged effect.