Pregnant young couple......C&C please

Albert Dickson

Paige and Bryce are expecting twins, Thier first children. I hope I have captured some of thier intimate joy. C&C please.

ShepsMom

Beautiful composition and idea, wow, they must be thrilled!!! The one thing about the images, first 2 have a little magenta going on which can be easily fixed.
Great work, i'm sure couple will appreciate your creativity.

photogmomma

I love #1 and #2, but I think the post processing needs a little help. They'd be awesome in B&W with a much higher contrast than you have in the last one.

In the last one, I find her hand in front of her face a bit too distracting....

To show you what I mean (and it's VERY hard with smaller images - I generally work with RAW), I took this into Lightroom and:

• Cropped closer to just them
• Adjusted the white balance - it was too blue (The first one is, too. I ALWAYS adjust white balance before conversion - you just get better results!)
• Changed to B&W
• Bumped contrast
• Upped blacks
• A little bit of fill light

This might also be nice with just silhouettes.

These are awesome shots! They just need a bit more tweaking in post processing... Definitely look at Lightroom. (I swear I don't get commissions on it!)

*let me know if you want me to remove this!*

Albert Dickson

Thanks Andi, Thanks Marina
Yes, I definately see where you are going. I have played with some of these tweaks and am getting closer. It's getting there but not quite yet

Albert Dickson

Some Re-Tweaks Am I getting Close?
Andi, I tried to mimick you post proc. with this one but didn't quite get there . I also added another B&W from the same shoot. Am I heading in the right direction or wandering in circles?






Marina, heres #1 with a little less magenta.


I like this in color best, tried B&W,
Thanks for your input Y'all.

wxwax

The ideas are great, Albert. But man, the skin tones are way off, even now. It's almost like your monitor is out of whack or something.

gluwater

In your re-dos the second has obvious marks that you made teh background black. Try using a brush with softer edges around their outlines to get a smother transition. The third still has too much magenta and cyan. Here is a quick curves adjustment so set white and black points and adjust the skin tones. You would be surprised how much just setting the white and black points does. Search the Finishing School forum for skin tones and you will find many threads on this subject. Here is my attempt at it, if you would like to know exactly what I did just ask.

Albert Dickson

My last try tonight.

gluwater

Albert Dickson wrote:

Now that looks good. Now just check the upper right corner, it looks like there are some small marks there. The skin tones look great in this last one.

System

neat shots-

that last color looks great-

think about trying andy's tutorial on b&w conversion in the tutorials section-

photogmomma

Albert Dickson wrote:

Andi, I tried to mimick you post proc. with this one but didn't quite get there . I also added another B&W from the same shoot. Am I heading in the right direction or wandering in circles?






Marina, heres #1 with a little less magenta.


I like this in color best, tried B&W,
Thanks for your input Y'all.

Hmmm, not seeing the last shot.

Anyway, in the first one, I think it's still a little flat, but it's much better! Try darkening the lower mid-tones using curves. ARe you using PS? If so, definitely use curves instead of levels. You'll get subtler tones.

Also, definitely soften the edges in #2 - I think someone else mentioned that.

Keep going! You're getting there! These shots are definitely worth working with to get perfect - very well done!

Also, if you're stil working a LONG time on these, watch the Lightroom Videos from Michael Tapes and then download the 30 day trial. I'd be happy to send you my presets - just PM me your email address. You'll find it easier to get pleasing tones, I think!

Oh, and your skin tones in the last one look great!