What needs fixed?

Rhuarc

This is my friend Michele. She wanted me to take a B&W pic for her to send to her family. This is what I came up with without any tweaking. My question is this: I feel that it needs something else, but I don't know what. I wanted to get everyone's opinion here. So, let me know what you think!

When I told her I was going to post her picture here to get some help she said everyone's advice would be to take a picture of a pretty girl! I assured her that would not be the case! Don't prove me wrong! Lol

I know the background is probably the first thing people will point out, but this was taken at a local restaurant, so we didn't have much choice! It was kind of a spur of the moment thing.

Rhuarc

OK, here is an edited version. I basically di what the B&W tutorial that Andy posted up said to. What do you guys think?

New-1.jpg

lynnma

Rhuarc wrote:

OK, here is an edited version. I basically di what the B&W tutorial that Andy posted up said to. What do you guys think?

New-1.jpg

I think it's very nice. I think if you were very careful you could use the extract tool and put her on a blurred version of that back ground that would look better. I wish her eyes were not in shadow.. you could maybe duplicate the layer, lighten the bottom layer and just erase (thinly) the darker areas to lighten her up a bit. All in all tho I think its a nice shot and she is very pretty indeed would you mind if I messed with it a bit? the background I mean..

Rhuarc

lynnma wrote:

I think it's very nice. I think if you were very careful you could use the extract tool and put her on a blurred version of that back ground that would look better. I wish her eyes were not in shadow.. you could maybe duplicate the layer, lighten the bottom layer and just erase (thinly) the darker areas to lighten her up a bit. All in all tho I think its a nice shot and she is very pretty indeed would you mind if I messed with it a bit? the background I mean..

Not at all! Please, go right ahead and do what you can. I had considered doing something with the background, but because of her hair I thought it may be too difficult to get a good cut out of her. As far as her eyes are concerned I'm not sure exactly what you mean. One other thing. do you think the changes I made from the first one are good, or do you like the original better?

lynnma

Rhuarc wrote:

Not at all! Please, go right ahead and do what you can. I had considered doing something with the background, but because of her hair I thought it may be too difficult to get a good cut out of her. As far as her eyes are concerned I'm not sure exactly what you mean. One other thing. do you think the changes I made from the first one are good, or do you like the original better?

I actually think I like the first one better.. the second leaves her looking a little harsh.. I messed with it real quick.. it may NOT be better.. I think she is very lovely in all of them. I also cropped it a bit.. only cos I thought her shoulder to your right detracted a bit from her face.. but then.. what do I know..

Rhuarc

Wow, ok, lol, you gotta tell me how you did that! It looks amazing! I see what you are saying about the other one looking kind of harsh. Do you think the original needs any adjustment as far as shdows, highlights, etc... goes?

When you get the chance I would really appreciate it if you could write down what you did to make the background like that. I really like it!

lynnma

Rhuarc wrote:

Wow, ok, lol, you gotta tell me how you did that! It looks amazing! I see what you are saying about the other one looking kind of harsh. Do you think the original needs any adjustment as far as shdows, highlights, etc... goes?

When you get the chance I would really appreciate it if you could write down what you did to make the background like that. I really like it!

what do you have for post processing software? any photoshop?

Rhuarc

Yeah, I have CS2

lynnma

Rhuarc wrote:

Yeah, I have CS2

Great! I'll write you a short (I'll try) tutorial.. please forgive me if I state the obvious I'll assume you know your way around it but I'll make it simple.. it'll take me a few mins so check back later.:D

Rhuarc

Ok, after seeing what you did Idecided to go ahead and try my hand at it. Here is what I came up with. I basically used the Magnetic Lasso to outline thebackground, used the regular lasso and added orsubtracted from the selection until I got mostly what I wanted, then I applied a heavy Gaussian Blur to it. I think it looks ok, my main problem is like I said around her hair. I can't figure out how to get it to have a smooth line around her hair. Oh yeah, I did all of this on a second duplicate layer, which I then reduced the opacity of so that some of the underneath layer showed through. Looking forward to seeing how you did it! Thanks so much for the help btw!

Michele3-1.jpg

lynnma

Rhuarc wrote:

Ok, after seeing what you did Idecided to go ahead and try my hand at it. Here is what I came up with. I basically used the Magnetic Lasso to outline thebackground, used the regular lasso and added orsubtracted from the selection until I got mostly what I wanted, then I applied a heavy Gaussian Blur to it. I think it looks ok, my main problem is like I said around her hair. I can't figure out how to get it to have a smooth line around her hair. Oh yeah, I did all of this on a second duplicate layer, which I then reduced the opacity of so that some of the underneath layer showed through. Looking forward to seeing how you did it! Thanks so much for the help btw!

Michele3-1.jpg

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Good job! much better. Try using the extraction tool instead of the magnetic.



making 2 layers extract her from the top layer..



go back to the bottom layer and blur it as you want it



go back to the top layer and erase the mess from the extraction tool.. you can mess with the lightness and stuff here too. then flatten if you are happy.



you can put her on any background.. textured, trees, color, what ever

have fun!

Rhuarc

Ok, so then you blur the entire bottom layer (the one without her extracted?) Then have the extracted layer on top, so that the blur from underneath shows through.

lynnma

Rhuarc wrote:

Ok, so then you blur the entire bottom layer (the one without her extracted?) Then have the extracted layer on top, so that the blur from underneath shows through.

yep.. you can do what you like with the bottom layer and plop her right on top of it.. black, white, trees, anything,,

Rhuarc

Ok, thanks so much for all your help! I'm heading to work now, but I'll fool around with it alot later and I'll post up my final result.

lynnma

Rhuarc wrote:

Ok, thanks so much for all your help! I'm heading to work now, but I'll fool around with it alot later and I'll post up my final result.

Great.. look forward to seeing the final result.

amunsie

She's very pretty and I like the pose.

A couple things I would suggest, but one would require a re-shoot.

This shot is crying for a bit more light on the shadow side of the face. A piece of foam core goes a long way for natural light. Or anything white - even a menu would have probably thrown a bit in to soften the shadows.

Another thing I would suggest is a little touchup on the skin. That would soften things as well. It's pretty easy to do in PS:

Duplicate the original layer
Add a Gaussian Blur at 10 to the entire layer.
Take a snapshot of the image with the duplicated layer
Undo the blur
Change the layer over to "lighten"
Select the History Brush - appropriate size for what you need to do, but the key is 0 on the hardness
Select the snapshot of the blurred image to paint from
Go over the areas of the skin that need work.

You'll be amazed at the results. And no "plastic" look.

Rhuarc

THanks for the suggestions amunsie. I'll be sure and try out the skin softening thing. As far as the light goes, while I'm no pro to me the shadow on the left side of her face (our left) adds to the picture. Even though it looks like a prtrait shot it wasn't shot that way. I like the shadow because I think it adds mood to the pic. But that's just me!

cariad

Hope you don't mind but I gave it a go. Can never get to much practice. I used extract, then gave gave the background a texture. Did some dodging and cloning, and brightened the eye in shadow. The extraction is a mess, but I'm on my laptop at the moment, and I'm not very good working with the touch pad.