I'm New...Trouble at the Park

[Staciloraine]

So...I have been reading pretty much everything I can on this site for the past two days and have been inspired to begin taking more pictures...I love photoshop and figured this part of the forum was as good a place as any to start.

I copied the general idea from Steketee's "Surprise" photo...which I loved.
Thanks for looking...and I welcome ideas and or criticism.. I try to copy the PSCS2 tutorials, but want to learn how to figure this stuff out on my own.
This is from today...

Before #1
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8231409@N05/494373986/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/219/494373986_8acbf9ae0e.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="before shot#1" /></a>

Before #2
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8231409@N05/494373988/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/195/494373988_ed77e34e98.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="before shot#2" /></a>

Final

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8231409@N05/494409739/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/219/494409739_9934e24fd8.jpg" width="500" height="352" alt="Trouble at the Park" /></a>

[moracca]

I think you might be on the verge of too much sharpening on the subject here. You can begin to see some haloing around the edges. Also, the sidewalk that touches the edge of the bench is in focus, which it wouldn't be if this were a natural DOF effect. Other than that, it turned out nice. Only other thing is the positions of the boy in before 1 and before 2 are so similar, that its hard to tell you interchanged here. Might have been easier to just use before #2 itself. You did a good job of incorporating the two though

[wulf]

I tend to agree with Moracca, although perhaps the boy in #1 is in a slightly better pose? I think you have gone too far with the blurring of the background and sharpening in #3 - I would have stuck with #2, possibly blending the boy from #1 in and then adjusting the colour balance (I tend to increase the yellows a bit to yield a warmer result).

I would probably also have cropped it to more of a widescreen format (16:9, movie style, is often good) to lose most of the overexposed sky.

Wulf

[Staciloraine]

How is this?

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/8231409@N05/495688147/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/227/495688147_9576f948bc.jpg" width="500" height="281" alt="Trouble at the Park" /></a>

[moracca]

as far as the sharpening and the bg blur goes i like it a lot better. not sure if cropping out that plaything on the left helps or hurts. I might be inclined to say if you're cropping that out, might as well crop out the pole also. looks good tho

[Amigone201]

I'm wondering what it would look like if you selected the boy's head only, and lightened it just a hair? I feel like I can't see him too well without a little less shadow.

[z999]

if you're only beginning I think that first find a guide (not tutorial) on on photoshop, it should be something that teaches the basics like how to change the image size and crop. After you'll learn the basics learn how to fix color and pictures at large (curves, contrast, sharpening etc.) and only then try to use some of the tutorials on special FX.
even though you can try them also on the way to taste it.