Shane and Shelby Color My Winter!!

kathynmeg

Ok all...this is my very first post here. These pictures are from a mini theme shoot where I was attempting to add bright colorful images and beautiful children to my portfolio. The kiddo were great and I think I accomplished what I was after with the exception of the yellow hat and sweater the little girl was wearing. It was like white in bright sunlight but it was overcast and the sweater was yellow. Yikes! Any suggestions for toning it down even more than I have with out losing my other colors?









Thanks for looking!!
Kathy

www.whittakerphotography.smugmug.com

Seneca

well personally I like the bright colors...winter is so drab with the loss of color in leaves and flowers that your main focus should be the vibrant colors of what they are wearing. I don't know, I think you did a fantastic job.

Scott_Quier

In my experimentation with both the 20D and the 30D, I have found that yellows and oranges are very, very easy to over-expose. Looking at what you posted, it appears you did not quite blow out the exposure. You might be able to do some levels/layers+mask work in PS to reccover the yellows without darkening everything else.

If you like (e.g., give me permission), I'll grab a copy of the original from your site and take a quick shot at it later this afternoon and post it back here.

kathynmeg

Scott_Quier wrote:

In my experimentation with both the 20D and the 30D, I have found that yellows and oranges are very, very easy to over-expose. Looking at what you posted, it appears you did not quite blow out the exposure. You might be able to do some levels/layers+mask work in PS to reccover the yellows without darkening everything else.

If you like (e.g., give me permission), I'll grab a copy of the original from your site and take a quick shot at it later this afternoon and post it back here.

Yes !! That would be fine!! I am just starting to play around with masks and such. It is so amazing what PS can do...it blows my mind and I keep discovering things every day!! Thanks so much for the help!!!

Scott_Quier

Here's the result of what I was able to do. Because there really wasnt' that much that needed to be done, the differences between your photo and mine are very subtle.




My steps (for what they are worth, there's probably better ways to do this)

1. Created a Levels adjustment layer and darkened it quit a bit


2. In the associated mask, I covered all but the top of the hat and the tirangle on the shoulder


3. The mask looks like this:


4. Then I applied some curves for just a little more pop, flattened it, applied just a touch of USM and saved it off as a JPG.

You can get the full-sized version of my result (should you want it) here

http://LoveNLaughter.smugmug.com/photos/121000416-O.jpg

kathynmeg

Scott_Quier wrote:

Here's the result of what I was able to do. Because there really wasnt' that much that needed to be done, the differences between your photo and mine are very subtle.




My steps (for what they are worth, there's probably better ways to do this)

1. Created a Levels adjustment layer and darkened it quit a bit


2. In the associated mask, I covered all but the top of the hat and the tirangle on the shoulder


3. The mask looks like this:


4. Then I applied some curves for just a little more pop, flattened it, applied just a touch of USM and saved it off as a JPG.

You can get the full-sized version of my result (should you want it) here

http://LoveNLaughter.smugmug.com/photos/121000416-O.jpg

Very nice!! I will play around with these masks and adjustments and see what I get! Thanks so much for your help!

BillyVerden

Great Shot
The bubbles are so clear and sharp. I just thought the sweater needed a little more detail and depth. Great photos all of them.

Skippy

kathynmeg wrote:

Ok all...this is my very first post here. These pictures are from a mini theme shoot where I was attempting to add bright colorful images and beautiful children to my portfolio. The kiddo were great and I think I accomplished what I was after with the exception of the yellow hat and sweater the little girl was wearing. It was like white in bright sunlight but it was overcast and the sweater was yellow. Yikes! Any suggestions for toning it down even more than I have with out losing my other colors?



Thanks for looking!!
Kathy

www.whittakerphotography.smugmug.com

Hi Kathy and Welcome to the Dgrin forum, I think I would be one of the most non technical people on the forum, so I shall just show you what I did.

The children are wearing very nice outfits and I see why you want the colours to stand out

I ran the little boy through LAB applying Levels, Curves and added Saturation..... I also sharpened it a bit more, then converted it back to RGB then hit it again with another lot of Saturation and saved it ... Skippy

kathynmeg

Skippy wrote:

Hi Kathy and Welcome to the Dgrin forum, I think I would be one of the most non technical people on the forum, so I shall just show you what I did.

The children are wearing very nice outfits and I see why you want the colours to stand out

I ran the little boy through LAB applying Levels, Curves and added Saturation..... I also sharpened it a bit more, then converted it back to RGB then hit it again with another lot of Saturation and saved it ... Skippy

I am very new to all of the cool tools used to apply levels and saturations. I use photoshop ...forgive me for being naive, what is LAB?? I love this picture now it just pops!!

kathynmeg

BillyVerden wrote:

The bubbles are so clear and sharp. I just thought the sweater needed a little more detail and depth. Great photos all of them.

Yes it is beautiful!!! What did you use?? Thanks all for the help!

SitterS

Hope you don't mind but I wanted to give it a try as well. What a nice picture of this handsome little boy.

SitterS

Again I hope you don't mind me playing. Getting hit again with more snow and a little bored this morning with no pictures of my own to work on. Love BWs so thought I would try it in BW. Took a look at your gallery and such nice pictures

Elaine

These are beautiful children and you did such a wonderful job photographing them! Welcome to DGrin! I, too, am learning more about photoshop, so I've been watching your thread with interest. Even though the pics may be tweaked to have more pop, they started out as great pics.

Elaine

Skippy

kathynmeg wrote:

I am very new to all of the cool tools used to apply levels and saturations. I use photoshop ...forgive me for being naive, what is LAB?? I love this picture now it just pops!!

Here you go Kathy here is the link to a very good tutorial written by RUTT, I failed to understand it first time around, then someone was nice enough to explain it to me in a way that made sense to my level of learning

Book mark it, it will indeed come in handy ...... Skippy

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=9541

kathynmeg

You know.....I LOVE THIS PLACE!! Thanks so much Skiippy and all for the tips and tools!! You all are awesome!

Skippy wrote:

Here you go Kathy here is the link to a very good tutorial written by RUTT, I failed to understand it first time around, then someone was nice enough to explain it to me in a way that made sense to my level of learning

Book mark it, it will indeed come in handy ...... Skippy

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=9541

Seneca

Ok I took a different approach. I will say that these children are absolutely beautiful...this little boy is extremely cute and photogenic.

In my example and I hope you don't mind...but I just took all the color out and just focused on his eyes. Eyes tell so much.



P.S. Your website is awesome - and I'm just up the road from you too.

kathynmeg

Seneca wrote:

Ok I took a different approach. I will say that these children are absolutely beautiful...this little boy is extremely cute and photogenic.

In my example and I hope you don't mind...but I just took all the color out and just focused on his eyes. Eyes tell so much.



P.S. Your website is awesome - and I'm just up the road from you too.

Thank you for the compliment on the site!!! I love the black and white also!

DavidS

Welcome to DG. Great shots.