from throw-away to a decent shot

[SJH Foto]

At a recent wedding we were at, Ronnie (my tech-guy, and the male half of a model couple I shoot) and I got our picture taken. The results were less than satisfying for us as dark-skinned people in front of a mostly white information board:



Well, I remember some of you encouraging me to use PP especially on throwaway shots, so I adjusted our levels, then brightened and added contrast, then I cloned some of my skin to mute the flash glare in my glasses, then I lassoed us, sharpened me and Ronnie, and threw a Gaussian blur over the rest of the image, to come up with this:



It's not perfect, but I'm pretty proud of the salvage. That's as far as I can take it. If anyone has an idea how I can take it a step further, let me know. I even uploaded the full-res file on flickr for you to play with.

[Major_Small]

Nice job. I wouldn't have blurred though. Either that, or toned it way down. Perhaps to an observer that doesn't quite understand how DoF works (or even what it is), that might perhaps look natural, but to my eyes, it makes it look like you just cut them out and dropped them in front of a mis-matched background.

[SJH Foto]

Originally Posted by Major_Small

Nice job. I wouldn't have blurred though. Either that, or toned it way down. Perhaps to an observer that doesn't quite understand how DoF works (or even what it is), that might perhaps look natural, but to my eyes, it makes it look like you just cut them out and dropped them in front of a mis-matched background.

You are right-but I wanted the text to be obscured. Could I have done that a different way?

[Major_Small]

hmm, I would probably try to mask it off and blow it out, and if that doesn't work well, just try to replace it with something else.

Also, I'm just now noticing it, but it looks like you caught the edge of your marking with the blur as well.

[wulf]

There are some sharp edges left - check round your heads for hints of haloing (and not the saintly kind).

I think the blurring works but I would have made the effect a bit less intense. I might also have darkened the background, making it recede visually and blending in the harsh shadows caused by the flash.

To reveal the brighter version of yourself and your friend, I would have used layer masks - this is much more adaptable than using the lasso tool because you can paint in transparency, opacity and translucency using shades of black, white and grey until you get it perfect.

Wulf