My 1st Before and After

[christina2426]

BEFORE:
IMG_0164 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

AFTER:
IMG_0164a | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

This is my very 1st time EVER using post processing. I know it's not perfect by any means, but I thinks it's amazing for being my 1st time.


I used Photoshop Elements 9 and I used the spot remover tool. I layered in a surface blur to her face and played with the eyes a little bit.

Comments are welcome, just be nice for my first one LOL

[katia]

the eyes are way way WAAAAAAAAAAAY overdone. as for the spot healer you did a decent job! it's a little patchy to the right above her lip, but other than that definitely a good job removing the spaghetti or whatever :P

[SusanH1970]

I do have to agree the eyes are way too overdone. No offense, it's easy to get excited about post processing when you're new to it.

[christina2426]

Totally agree with all the comments. I didn't know how to go back and change the eyes once I had already saved the picture. I'm sure I will get better with the heal tool as a practice.

Thanks

[tal_ninio]

Sorry... The after image is much worse than the original...
The young child id not a cosmetics model and shouldn't look this way, imho.
The original photo is very nice

[mshockley]

Since she is such a young child, you probably could do without the blur, and yes, you got way carried away with the eyes. But isn't it cool to learn how you can do that?! I love playing around in Photoshop, but you really do have to be careful how crazy you get.

I would start over with the original file, use your spot healing brush to "wash her face" and stop. Walk away from it from an hour or two, then come back to it and look at it. This is what I do all the time. Some small baby steps, leave it, come back.

Susan is correct, you can get carried away without even knowing it, and this is not a slam at you, as I am a huge offender of this and have to be very careful, which is why I've taken up the above method!

[mad editor]

Gosh knows we've all overdone! that's part of the learning process. Nice photo to begin with though - and I kinda like the spaghetti sauce too. :-)

[GTAltman]

Originally Posted by mshockley

......Susan is correct, you can get carried away without even knowing it, and this is not a slam at you, as I am a huge offender of this and have to be very careful, which is why I've taken up the above method!

Man, ain't that the truth!

My biggest critics are the kids (teenagers). I started PP and added a warming filter of 85 then pumped up the density to about 30-40%. I thought it looked great. Nice warming color and all. Finished it up, put it up on FB and BAM, the first comment was from her twin sister, "She's not really that orange". I've uploaded the file to show it.

Honestly, it is a tad on the orange side, however, I didn't think it was THAT bad. Oh well.

To get back on point, and maybe to show where I went wrong and maybe somethings to consider when doing PP is to maybe, not so much to walk away, but to zoom OUT. When you're doing macro work (eyes, coloring, vibrance) and you're looking at things at 1000% you kinda lose the perspective of what it's actually doing to the photo in it's entirety.

I guess that leaves two things....One is take in the entire photo after a change, and as my wife says, sometimes less is more.

Thanks for indulging me.

Gary

[gnownad]

Rather than critique, I thought I'd just share a photo, from Sime's photostream on Flickr:

[christina2426]

Here is another attempt I did with everyone's advice.

That baby is the cutest!