Holiday Picture for a friend

JimM

Our friends asked me to take a photo of their children for their x-mas card.

My lighting was my on the camera 550EX with a Lumiquest diffuser and a remote flashed placed high in the right corner on a manual setting to get the hair light.

This is the one they chose.


The rest of the gallery is located here:
http://jimmitte.smugmug.com/gallery/1044078/1/48467171

Thoughts? I think my faces look a little flat... one of these days I swear I am going to learn photoshop.

lynnma

JimM wrote:

Our friends asked me to take a photo of their children for their x-mas card.

My lighting was my on the camera 550EX with a Lumiquest diffuser and a remote flashed placed high in the right corner on a manual setting to get the hair light.

This is the one they chose.


The rest of the gallery is located here:
http://jimmitte.smugmug.com/gallery/1044078/1/48467171

Thoughts? I think my faces look a little flat... one of these days I swear I am going to learn photoshop.

yeah.. maybe a tad flat and a tinsey bit dark. BUT. .. I still think it's lovely and a perfect card shot. Nice to see blue as well instead of the same ole' red all the time.

Owen

Hi Jim,

Great photos, but you are right... you should learn photoshop!

A small contrast adjustment using curves provided some nice enhancements giving it just the amount of pop it needed. I darkened the lips and other facial features using the "burn shadows" tool at 5% opacity, and then "highlight dodged" the eyes at 5% just to bring them out a bit.



Beautiful girls! This is my favorite from the set.

rutt

Well, let's not all do this at once. I saw and I couldn't resist.



Full res here: http://rutt.smugmug.com/photos/48541293-O.jpg

I took a more conservative approach with this shot. It was too dark and it was too blue, i.e., not enough yellow to balance the magenta in the flesh tones. So I nudged the blue curve a bit in RGB to fix the color balance:



Then used LAB curves to improve the contrast and add some color differentiation. This last is straight from the basic Dan Marguls Chapter 1 recipe.

lynnma

rutt wrote:

Well, let's not all do this at once. I saw and I couldn't resist.



Full res here: http://rutt.smugmug.com/photos/48541293-O.jpg

I took a more conservative approach with this shot. It was too dark and it was too blue, i.e., not enough yellow to balance the magenta in the flesh tones. So I nudged the blue curve a bit in RGB to fix the color balance:

Then used LAB curves to improve the contrast and add some color differentiation. This last is straight from the basic Dan Marguls Chapter 1 recipe.

Nice job Rutt...

lynnma

Owen wrote:

Hi Jim,

Great photos, but you are right... you should learn photoshop!

A small contrast adjustment using curves provided some nice enhancements giving it just the amount of pop it needed. I darkened the lips and other facial features using the "burn shadows" tool at 5% opacity, and then "highlight dodged" the eyes at 5% just to bring them out a bit.
Beautiful girls! This is my favorite from the set.

Owen.. I think these are WAY over done.. too much red lips, too much blue.. they look like Vegas Girls not "little girls".. sorry..

JimM

Thank you both for your work. You really point out that I need to learn PS.

Rutt, thank you for including the original. I am going to have the prints made from this.

Thanks!

Owen

... Nevermind.