Are my Photoshop skills okay?

[SusanH1970]

Here is a shot of my daughter, straight out of the camera. She was lying on the couch, and there was some nice light streaming in:



Here is the edited version:



I rotated and cropped the photo, as I didn't like it being sideways. I added a bit of noise reduction, adjusted levels on the histogram, and used unsharp mask on her eyes and mouth. I did a dodge and burn to bring out her eyes, and used spot healing to get rid of the dark circles under her eyes. I also used spot healing to get rid of the stray hair going across her cheek. Lastly, I added a dark vignette to de-emphasize the busy background.

Anything I could have or should have done differently? Any comments are welcome. Thanks for looking!

EXIF:
Exposure: 0.05 sec (1/20)
Aperture: f/5.0
Focal Length: 44 mm
ISO Speed: 800
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off
Metering: spot

we need a "before" picture to help.

[SusanH1970]

Originally Posted by maxharvard

we need a "before" picture to help.

Whoops, sorry about that....forgot I had that one set to private.

[ttosifa]

Did you adjust the highlights using Levels? If so, did you check to make sure you weren't blowing out the red channel? I'd have to check to be sure, but I think you did blow out reds (actually, the reds might also be blown in the original too but made worse in the edit). On a Mac, I check by simultaneously clicking the highlight slider and pressing the Option key. No idea for Windoze. If you see red (or really any color or white) when doing this, you have blown the reds (or the other colors or all if white).

See a post I started in a different section about blowing out reds.

Blowing Out Elmo's Reds

Oh, I don't like the vignette on the edit because of the close crop -- it changes the shadow density on her face, and I prefer the original.

[SusanH1970]

Originally Posted by ttosifa

Did you adjust the highlights using Levels? If so, did you check to make sure you weren't blowing out the red channel? I'd have to check to be sure, but I think you did blow out reds (actually, the reds might also be blown in the original too but made worse in the edit). On a Mac, I check by simultaneously clicking the highlight slider and pressing the Option key. No idea for Windoze. If you see red (or really any color or white) when doing this, you have blown the reds (or the other colors or all if white).

See a post I started in a different section about blowing out reds.

Blowing Out Elmo's Reds

Oh, I don't like the vignette on the edit because of the close crop -- it changes the shadow density on her face, and I prefer the original.

Good point about the red channel. I'll go back and readjust it. Thanks for your input!

[wulf]

Did you rescale the picture? Your daughter's face looks wider in the "after" version. If not, perhaps it is a side effect of cropping to a square format?

Wulf

[SusanH1970]

Originally Posted by wulf

Did you rescale the picture? Your daughter's face looks wider in the "after" version. If not, perhaps it is a side effect of cropping to a square format?

Wulf

Nope, that's the way she looks. Maybe it's the crop - I cropped it to 8x10.

[ghmass]

I think that for the time that you've put in on the shot, you've done a pretty good job.

[SusanH1970]

Originally Posted by ghmass

I think that for the time that you've put in on the shot, you've done a pretty good job.

Thank you. I'm fairly new to Photoshop and I'm really just learning what it can do. I've only got Elements 7, but it's pretty powerful.

[uscarchie]

I like it a lot better uncropped. Up close, it's a little creepy.