Which processing do you prefer?

anonymouscuban

These are a couple of photos of Marcus, my nephew, playing at the park. Sun was pretty bright so I tried a couple of ways to work with the flare and shadows through processing. Not sure which I like or if this vintage color treatment works at all.

Would love some opinions before I decide which ones to print for a gift to his mom:

Vintage Color





B&W

angevin1

I like the Colorized ones better...My only real (weird) nit is the light thru the ear thing. Cute kid, I'm certain his Mom'l be happy with any of these!

Flyinggina

I like the black and white treatment best and the first better than the second. What a nice gift for the mom!

Virginia

digidrone

I like the processing in both of the #1 photo, but would have to go with the b/w.

Qarik

I think you missed on this Alex..not really digging any of them processing aside..just too much lost detail

anonymouscuban

I think I prefer B&W too.

I think you missed on this Alex..not really digging any of them processing aside..just too much lost detail

Daniel... really? I know the BG is lacking detail but it's there where important, like his face. Actually, it's kind of what I like about the shots. I guess will chalk it up to creative difference. I do appreciate you feedback though.

Kinkajou

+1 on the BW, the color seems a little too yellow in some areas to me.

Qarik

to be more pointed..the kid just melts into the background..clothes, hair, hands, etc

anonymouscuban

Qarik wrote: »

to be more pointed..the kid just melts into the background..clothes, hair, hands, etc

Hmm... not on my end. Maybe you need some glasses?

zoomer

I wasn't going to say anything but since Qarik stuck his neck out I will back him up on these.
Since the topic was about processing I was going down through the shots hoping to find one that didn't look so blown.
Really haven't seen anything like this from you....and you know I love your stuff.
But hey if you like them that is what matters.
Do you have any other shots from the day for options?

Of the ones posted I would pick the last one.

I will check these again tonight from home on my calibrated monitor.

anonymouscuban

zoomer wrote: »

Do you have any other shots from the day for options?

I do... a few. Here is one. But I don't have any of him climbing like the ones above. I often see these flared shots and I like them. Guess that's why I'm stuck on these but maybe these just don't work.

Qarik

flare is tough to catch. 1st you have to stop down your aperture to maybe f/8 or smaller or else you get too much light bouncing around the lens and just washes everything out. Then you need to go spot metering and expose for the subject skin for example or else you get the shadow shot. Hi speed synced fill flash may help here. Then you got to post process it carefully to balance things out a bit. It may help to get the sun in the frame "peeking" out of something as well. I haven't really mastered it myself.

Mitchell

#1 is my favorite here.

zoomer

There you go, now have the arm he is pointing at the camera be down by his side...:).

angevin1

anonymouscuban wrote: »

I do... a few. Here is one. But I don't have any of him climbing like the ones above. I often see these flared shots and I like them. Guess that's why I'm stuck on these but maybe these just don't work.

Actually, they do work,
1. As Zoomer said, if you like them!
2. I took the liberty the first time (I posted) to DL the first one and look at it in LR (on my good monitor). I desaturated the yellow/buff color and the luminance of that channel and found a iteration I liked. I didn't say anything, cause I didn't want to offend. besides I already mentioned my personal nit with the ear light~

anonymouscuban

zoomer wrote: »

There you go, now have the arm he is pointing at the camera be down by his side...:).

Ha. The hand.... Ugh. I didn't like it. My wife and his mom, on the other hand (pun), do. The other similar shots he is looking away. I thought of cloning his head onto another shot where his hands aren't in the way. May do that and show them it to see if they like it better. It could be that they like this one for his expression and not the hand itself.

Here is another of him and mommy, my wife's younger sister:

zoomer

So I am looking at them from my good monitor and they are not as blown out looking on this one.
They do look better.

It is pretty easy to fix the blown out skin on his face in the fourth one.
Use the clone tool at 20% and darken, soft brush, take a big sample of the darker skin then just feather it into the burnt out area. A couple minutes and good to go.

reyvee61

I like the B&W's initially
I do love the first color pic you posted afterwards

amoncur

The first one is really great. Love the high key look. If you can take care of the light-through-the-ear weirdness you've got a definite winner.