What can I do to make this better....

Joemess

This is photo of my son playing in the leaves a couple days ago.




I am really trying to get a handle on editing in photoshop (in addition to the 7D) and this is actually my second attempt at this image. (see below for first attempt). To my untrained eye this looks fine, however I am wondering what I could do to make it better.
All that has been done thus far...
In ACR:
1 adjusted exposure
2 added fill light
3 changed camera profile

In Elements:
1 adjusted levels
2 cropped
3 'burned' headband on hat as it was to highlighted
4 fixed a little runny nose issue
5 dodged and burned eyes
6 sharpened using high pass filter method
7 resized

So, any advice? In retrospect, the leaf in the foreground is bothering me but I do not think I can do anything about it now.

first attempt



I have thisk skin so fire away. If anyone would like to take a crack at the original, let me know how to get it to you and I will be glad to see what you can do.
Thanks in advance
Andrew

silvereye

Joemess wrote: »

This is photo of my son playing in the leaves a couple days ago.






I am really trying to get a handle on editing in photoshop (in addition to the 7D) and this is actually my second attempt at this image. (see below for first attempt). To my untrained eye this looks fine, however I am wondering what I could do to make it better.
All that has been done thus far...
In ACR:
1 adjusted exposure
2 added fill light
3 changed camera profile

In Elements:
1 adjusted levels
2 cropped
3 'burned' headband on hat as it was to highlighted
4 fixed a little runny nose issue
5 dodged and burned eyes
6 sharpened using high pass filter method
7 resized

So, any advice? In retrospect, the leaf in the foreground is bothering me but I do not think I can do anything about it now.

first attempt



I have thisk skin so fire away. If anyone would like to take a crack at the original, let me know how to get it to you and I will be glad to see what you can do.
Thanks in advance
Andrew

Hey Andrew.. Thought I might tust used the take a crack at it.. just used the image off here.. hope its ok.. but I darkened the background a bit, lightened the eyes added a little satuartion to the blues and slighly darkened the shin tones... may not be better but its a variation

Joemess

Neat, no problem at all with folks manipulating this...

Thanks, that's a cool take on it.

TenThirteen

I just did a little boosting the sharpness and color, a little lightening of his face, then I partially desaturated the photo and ran an action (I think from MCP) called snapshot to make it look like a printed photo just for fun :-)

wolf911

I think the first one is great just as it is.

Hackbone

This is a great shot of your child but it is just that. There are some nice fixes here above that make it better but as a print of excellence it has many things going against it. The clothing and hat compete with the face and overpower it for the viewer.

Darren Troy C

wolf911 wrote: »

I think the first one is great just as it is.

I agree. The first one has just the right amount of warmth. I would add a very small amount of "nostalgia" to it....but that's my own take on it.

aj986s

I actually like the 1st picture. With your permission, I've made a copy where I've only lightened his eyes.
JoeMess pic copy.jpg

aj986s

Here's a 2nd take where I added a bit of gaussian blur on everything but his face.
JoeMess pic2.jpg

dbveto

I think the first one is just fine.
All of the examples shown do not make the shot better they are all just variations of a nice shot.

zoomer

The original looks best to me. Don't think any of the work done to the original improved it.
Levels adjusment? I imagine the histogram has a large peak now in the far left side where the original had the peak pretty much just right of center.
If it were mine....I would clone fix the runny nose, do a proper levels and contrast adjustment, darken the corners a smidge and call er good.
Cute little guy looks like he is having major fun in the leaves. Not a bad photo, kind of caught a less than ideal expression on his face but other than that looks pretty good, I like that you took the photo from nice and low.

divamum

Agree with the others - add another +1 for the original for me! Maybe boost the contrast/brightness, but I probably wouldn't do anything trick-sy with it.

Joemess

Thanks all, I appreciate all the help and suggestions. I like what each of you did to it as i am not comfortable enough with Photoshop yet to really know it's capabilities, however I am of the "less is more camp". i was mainly looking to bump the eyes up a bit and keep it sharp. I do agree that the colors n the hat and coat compete with his face, however we actually did not head out in the yard to take pictures so I did not think about it before hand.

hrgerena

I like both.
In your second one I can detect a little of a yellow cast, but at the same time gives the photo some warmth.

On your first attempt you should try on the ACR incrementing the Vibrance and the Clarity. And then on Elements try to add a little bit of contrast with Levels

But, I really like both, both of them are your expression. And the cropping that you did its excellent.

reyvee61

I agree with the sentiments of others, the final version you have posted in your original pot is the best version in my opinion.
It's a very nice photo of your son impromptu and for that it's a keeper