Newbie-advice for editing this photo

[rrz213]

I'm very new to photography and don't know where to begin. Could I have some tips on what I should for retouching this picture. I realize it's a broad request but like I said I don't know where to begin! I have a trial of Adobe lightroom 3, Ashampoo and Picnik. Thanks in advance for the help!

[Hill Country Hack]

Hello.

Cute baby.

In general this section is for those to post the before and after with explaination as to how the final result came about. I really can't think of another section to ask your question, so this will work.

I'm guessing by the composition this little man's name is Trev. For future shots either crop out all of the hands or include all of the hands. The chopped hands can be off putting to some.

As for your question. Using your Lightroom in the develop mode you can color correct by using the little dropper on a neutral grey in you image. Use the clarity slider to the right, as well as the saturation and vibrance sliders. Be careful with the last two as a little goes a long ways. You can also boost the contrast using the slider (again a little at a time). I would crop a bit tighter to get rid of the wooden portion of the arm rest so it matches the other side. The best thing about Lightroom is you can always hit the "reset" button as no permanent changes are made to the original digital file. PP is mostly a matter of personal taste and what you want to convey. I tend to PP on the darker side as this is my personal preference. Give different things a try, save a copy and re post the true before and after.

On a technical note. Focus on the eyes as these are a bit soft.

[rrz213]

Thanks a lot, that was very helpful!

[Hill Country Hack]

You are welcome. Little Trev has a couple of scratches on the bridge of his nose and by his left eye. You can try clicking on the 1:1 view, select the "circle" next to the crop button, ensure the word "heal" is highlighted, adjust the size of the circle (small rather than larger), drag that circle to the imperfection, click on the imprefection and the program will try to match the location to get rid of the imperfection. Another equal sized circle with pop up with a line connecting the two. If you like where it selected from, move on to the next area. If you don't like the selected area, click on the selected area circle and move it around to a better location. You can do consecutive circles to do a large area instead of a larger circle.