X-mas Portrait of Amina

GREAPER

My wife's Aunt adopted a beautiful girl. She brought her to my studio for a family portrait this weekend.

Here is one of my favorites from the shoot.



I hope you like it.

Brian

Seneca

Very very adorable...love the profile of both frosty and the beautiful little girl.

Sandy

A beautiful, touching photograph.

Owen

• Needs a contrast curve
• Needs a better crop - why all the wasted space up top? Should have angled your camera down. Attached an example.. the white representing what space is lacking.

GREAPER

Thx for the kind words and suggestions.

I would love to hear what other people think about the levels and contrast. On my monitor, mine looks fine although I may have some small blown areas on the snowman and some black areas that have no detail.

Owens version seems even farther off on both ends to me. Here is a histogram of Owens version after cropping off the large white area on the bottom.



I would like to hear from other folks if my thinking is way off. Mine looks good on my monitor, but It could be off.

As far as the crop goes, of course you are right, but I learned some time ago, right or wrong, to leave headroom in my studio work or I can get stuck with images that will not crop well to 8 x 10.

Owen

Who cares about the histogram...! the only thing I worry about is how it prints out. The picture you posted is flat and needs contrast, IMO. It has a gray haze about it, which is corrected with some contrast. I may have gone a bit too far with it, but it needs some pop!

When you present an image on a forum, crop it. I am not a client wanting an 8x10, I'm a viewer wanting a pleasing image.

Adrian van Ammers

About the contrast..

GREAPER wrote:

Thx for the kind words and suggestions.

I would like to hear from other folks if my thinking is way off. Mine looks good on my monitor, but It could be off.

[ quote]

I agree that your version might need a little more pop, but only a little. The version of Owen looks way too much on my screen. Though I agree with Owen that the print tells it all.

ziggy53

GREAPER wrote:

Thx for the kind words and suggestions.

I would love to hear what other people think about the levels and contrast. On my monitor, mine looks fine although I may have some small blown areas on the snowman and some black areas that have no detail.

Owens version seems even farther off on both ends to me. Here is a histogram of Owens version after cropping off the large white area on the bottom.

...

I would like to hear from other folks if my thinking is way off. Mine looks good on my monitor, but It could be off.

As far as the crop goes, of course you are right, but I learned some time ago, right or wrong, to leave headroom in my studio work or I can get stuck with images that will not crop well to 8 x 10.

As a "suggestion" (very much IMHO), I would crop, as was mentioned, lift the Levels just a bit, and add some USM.

For the Web I suggest USM 50%, .8 Pixels, 0 Thresh.

For printing I would probably suggest:

USM 20, 50, 0 and
USM 100, .5, 0

... or so.

ziggy53

Owen

Try setting the black point to the hat or her collar. As it is, there is no true black in this photo.

ziggy53

Owen wrote:

Try setting the black point to the hat or her collar. As it is, there is no true black in this photo.

Owen,

I will try to explain.

Not all images have black where "you" might expect.

Not all images "have" to have a black.

Not all blacks "have" to be RGB 0, 0, 0.

The hat on the snowman is "not" as black as the girl's collar. (More of a charcoal, I would say.)

Pixels with a "0" in either R or G or B channels are already bottomed, and the image may not tolerate much further reduction.

If you look, I mean really look, in the following orange marked area, you will find such pixels, some with a Green "0", some with a Red "0". Magnify the image if you must.

Your approach completely squashes this area and looks really bad, IMHO.

ziggy53

Phyxius

Well, I hope Greaper doesn't mind if I chime in on this too.

First I have to say that it's a lovely picture and I love the idea.

Then I have to say that I agree and disagree with everyone. I'm no where near as talented in PS as many of you and I tend to lean more towards the simple in post, but this is what I came up with...

Curves - set black point on her collar
Color Balance, upped red to +14 on the whole image
Mask on the shadowed area of Frosty's scarf (as pointed out by Ziggy)

On my screen the orignal looks a little flat, Owen's looks overblown, and ziggy's is a tad washed out (on my screen which I KNOW is bright so that could explain all of that).

DavidS

Phyxius wrote:

Well, I hope Greaper doesn't mind if I chime in on this too.

First I have to say that it's a lovely picture and I love the idea.

Then I have to say that I agree and disagree with everyone. I'm no where near as talented in PS as many of you and I tend to lean more towards the simple in post, but this is what I came up with...

Curves - set black point on her collar
Color Balance, upped red to +14 on the whole image
Mask on the shadowed area of Frosty's scarf (as pointed out by Ziggy)

On my screen the orignal looks a little flat, Owen's looks overblown, and ziggy's is a tad washed out (on my screen which I KNOW is bright so that could explain all of that).

Cute girl, nice idea. I like what you have done with it Phyxius.

pathfinder

Brian, that is a cute picture. She looks lovely.

When I read the individual pixels (with a Digital Color Meter) in her collar and the hat, I get high teens and low twenties for the black in her collar and the hat. I might prefer some pixels a little lower even, for a true black. The white in the snowman's face reads 253,253, 253 which suggests the white is too hot and was slightly overexposed.

I think just a little curve to increase the contrast, in the mid tones only, would give the image just a little more pop which will help the picture when it is printed, without changing the white point. I am viewing this on a calibrated Cinema Display, so I think what I see is probably an accurate representation of your image. I agree that Phyxius has done a nice interpretation of your image. I suspect her curves were in the mid tones as I suggested.

Owen might have phrased his comments more gently, but I think there is some merit to his comments.

Stustaff

If I were at home I think I would try Image>adjustments>Shadows/highlights first and then look at adding a little pop!

I like the actual shot my only niggle is it is a little tight! imagine the shot in a frame where you will lose some more picture from each side due to the framing and i think it will look squashed in there.

GREAPER

Thanks everyone for your comments.

I think I have learned something important with this thread. I have taken action and ordered a monitor calibration setup from B and H.

Sometimes these things can be difficult to discuss as everyone is seeing something slightly different due to differences in monitor displays. I have printed the shot and do find it a little flat on the printer. The blue seems off a touch as well (perhaps a touch too much magenta?). I will revisit this after calibration and see what a diference it makes.

I want the shot to look to everyone else as it does on my monitor now. I think calibration will be the key.

I hope so.

GREAPER

Stustaff wrote:

If I were at home I think I would try Image>adjustments>Shadows/highlights first and then look at adding a little pop!

I like the actual shot my only niggle is it is a little tight! imagine the shot in a frame where you will lose some more picture from each side due to the framing and i think it will look squashed in there.

Thx

I have PS 7, no such adjustment

You are right that it is a touch tight. I didn't pose this. She wanted her picture with the snowman, her mother handed it to her. I liked what I was seeing as she looked at it so I shot this...



I zoomed in to get the shot I posted first and went in a little too far, but then the moment was gone.

Andy

GREAPER wrote:

I zoomed in to get the shot I posted first and went in a little too far, but then the moment was gone.

Very common. Shoot with a prime and you will foot-zoom more carefully