CC's please...I do not do this kinda stuff.

jimqjr

When all things could go wrong. A friend asked if I could take a picture of his family for Christmas. His son slept to late and the sun was below the houses and of course the flash worked once....sweet one picture to work with.

adbsgicom

Nice shot. I think I'd crop it in a bit to lose the skin in the LL and the child's belly button showing.
If you have time/tools for PP, bring up the whites a bit (brighten the image), and at least this image could use a bit of sharpening. Depending on taste, you may want to soften some of the lines below the eyes.

Mike J

adbsgicom wrote: »

Nice shot. I think I'd crop it in a bit to lose the skin in the LL and the child's belly button showing.
If you have time/tools for PP, bring up the whites a bit (brighten the image), and at least this image could use a bit of sharpening. Depending on taste, you may want to soften some of the lines below the eyes.

+1 on the crop. You caught nice expressions on all of them and all are looking at the camera. This looks a little soft (hence the previous suggestion to sharpen). What were you focus settings?

jdryan3

Agree on being soft, especially Mom. Blurry background shows a shallow DOF, and it seems that the boy is fairly sharp, so I am guessing he was the focus point, even though he is further back than either parent.

jimqjr

Mike J wrote: »

+1 on the crop. You caught nice expressions on all of them and all are looking at the camera. This looks a little soft (hence the previous suggestion to sharpen). What were you focus settings?

I shot one point of focus. 58mm F5 1/200 at 1,000 iso. I assume that is what you mean. I have lightroom 3 so can I just use the sharpen slider to do the work? I struggle with this stuff because I do not understand I guess, which is exactly why I posted the pictures. So the more you tell me the more I learn.
Thanks.

jimqjr

jdryan3 wrote: »

Agree on being soft, especially Mom. Blurry background shows a shallow DOF, and it seems that the boy is fairly sharp, so I am guessing he was the focus point, even though he is further back than either parent.

The boy was the center point of focus I believe his face. Should I have used more than one focus point when taking a shot like this? It was shot at f5 I always thought for 3 people that was more than enough though parents are soft.
Thanks for the comments
I can use all the help I can get.

jimqjr

adbsgicom wrote: »

Nice shot. I think I'd crop it in a bit to lose the skin in the LL and the child's belly button showing.
If you have time/tools for PP, bring up the whites a bit (brighten the image), and at least this image could use a bit of sharpening. Depending on taste, you may want to soften some of the lines below the eyes.

Thank you for the comment. So I cropped the belly button out and tilted the picture so that I won't cut off Mom's hair. I brightened the image a little, there is a difference between what I am looking at in Lightroom and what gets published on Smugmug and Dgrin, seems a little darker always. I also sharpened the image. When it comes to softening the lines below the eyes....sorry I have photoshop and I know how to open it beyond that it is an expensive program that sits in the computer.

jimqjr

This was the other photo I got - background sucked though
So this I got and my lens stopped focusing and the sun disappeared alot lower iso at 250 though we were out of light within minutes...

adbsgicom

I'd stay with the first image (cropped). The b/g in the second is more of a distraction and offsets any gain in IQ, IMHO.
Given the purpose is a Christmas card (not a 16x20 wall hanging), I think you are close enough (and time is ticking....).

I don't things sharpened much between the two images.
What version of PS are you not using? What final resolution are you going to use: 1800x1200 for a high-quality 4x6?

There are a bunch of ways to deal with the area under the eyes: clone stamp, healing brush, patch tool. Do the work in a new layer, adjust the opacity to keep some of the texture and call it day. If you want, I can take a quick crack at it based on the above image, or just let it ride...

jimqjr

adbsgicom wrote: »

I'd stay with the first image (cropped). The b/g in the second is more of a distraction and offsets any gain in IQ, IMHO.
Given the purpose is a Christmas card (not a 16x20 wall hanging), I think you are close enough (and time is ticking....).

I don't things sharpened much between the two images.
What version of PS are you not using? What final resolution are you going to use: 1800x1200 for a high-quality 4x6?

There are a bunch of ways to deal with the area under the eyes: clone stamp, healing brush, patch tool. Do the work in a new layer, adjust the opacity to keep some of the texture and call it day. If you want, I can take a quick crack at it based on the above image, or just let it ride...

Thank you. We are out of time so we took the pics to costco they will be done in 20 minutes

Qarik

I would add a vignette as well