Advice for learner - esp with eyes

[EmyB]

Hi guys,

I'm very new here, just getting into DSLR photography and I quite enjoy fiddling about in Photoshop too. Up til now I've just done basics with levels and cropping but I'm exploring a bit more now. I've seen a lot of absolutely stunning portraits where the eyes seem to be particularly sharp and really clear, like big reflective pools. I suspect I need special lighting and better camera skills (possibly with a nifty fifty too) but I am aiming to be able to achieve that anyway.

This is my beautiful toddler before and after. I selectively tried to brighten and sharpen his eyes but I'm not sure how successful I've been. I also cropped and fiddled with the colours a bit. After that the teddy's (on the right) head was too bright so I selectively darkened it.

Please critique things for me. I realise the photo itself could have been composed better with a nicer background and better lighting but this is more about the editing.

Thankyou very much for any advice.

[EmyB]

Bumpity bump.

I know it's very basic editing but I'd still appreciate any thoughts.

[EmyB]

Naaw last bump.

Noone can offer me any suggestions or critique? Must be perfect then.

[JFSanders]

I've just seen this, sorry. Yes it is pretty well done. And the PP is not overdone which is good. Handsome little man you have there. If it were me and it isn't, I would crop closer to the top of his head as the fencing behind him is a bit distracting but is not something you can really fix in post without cutting him out and pasting him into a different background. Nice work.

Jim

[edbayani]

focus a bit soft. your color correction looks good. the door? post is distracting. maybe add more space to the right where the boy is looking. all of these can be addressed in editing.
can be sharpened using unsharp mask or high pass filter .you can add more space on the right by choosing image, canvas size, click on the square block middle left, and type 7.5 as width. the door post and the blank space created by enlarging the canvas size can be covered by the lattice pattern by selecting, putting in another layer and aligning to cover the white post and the blank space. maybe crop a bit the top portion. i attached a sample and hope you don;t mind.

[Sp3ed_Demon]

I think Ed is right about having more space to the right. Since he's looking there the photo seems to end abruptly and is a little disconcerting. I like the idea of what he's done by adding that space in post. Since you weren't asking about composition though, if your goal was to make his eyes pop, I'd say you achieved it wonderfully. The colors in the photo are great, they're bright but not electric, flesh tones look believable and I feel like if the photo were larger I'd be able to clearly see what he's seeing reflected in his eyes.

Well done IMO!

[EmyB]

Thankyou so much guys!

It's difficult to know when fiddling if you're getting things right or not, so this has been so helpful. I was worried I'd warmed things up a bit too much also but it's good to hear not.

Yeah I know the composition could be better. Little blighter doesn't take direction very well! I think that's a great tip about more room to the left (as that's where he's looking), thankyou. Edbayani thanks for the example, I think that's awesome what you've done with the background and I'm going to try the same!

With regards to sharpening, I need to read up on unsharp mask, I don't really understand what the three parameters represent, and I just kinda fiddle them about until I get a decent result. Anyone know of a good article or tutorial on this?

[taylormade]

Try doing a focus lock on his eyes and then frame the image however you want. That will make his "pop" before you even have to edit anything

[GlynT]

Hi,

I would pretty much agree with the other comments, but you have done very well and created a good shot.

To really make the eyes stand out you may want to start thinking about the catch lights when setting up your lighting.

You can use the catch light facility on a speedlight to get small bright ones,or perhaps a reflector to get large ones - this can look really good on kids. I think a nice big square-ish catchlight on the left of the eye would look good on this one.

You can also make the eyes 'pop' by whitening the whites and darkening the pupils (normally the dodge and burn tools are good for this....

As for 'unsharp mask', I usually start with around 10%, 60pixels, threshold of 0.

I hope that helps!

Cheers,


Glyn

[crockny]

The face looks great - I'm just wondering if he's really a redhead?