New here...wanted to share!!

[Debbieab]

My name is Debbie, I am a wedding, life photographer in Connecticut! I wanted to share a before and after shot of my youngest son, Alex


BEFORE



Heres what I did...
I brightened up the eyes with an adjustment curve....inverted it to put the light exactly where I wanted it. I than did the same by upping the contrast in and around the eyes. Oh...I also sharpened the eyes. I than added the "G" blurr...opacity dropped to 30%....than taken out of the eyes!!


AFTER



What do you think????

Deb

[SusanH1970]

Hi Debbie, welcome to DPS! The second shot is definitely an improvement. Per "Before and After" rules, could you please revise your post and let us know what you did to arrive there?

[Debbieab]

Ok...I did not read the rules...I will fix now!!

[star]

Wow, what a nice improvement, and cute little guy. I never realized that you could make eyes pop like that when starting from something that was not as sharp. Terrific job! Thanks for the how to.

Welcome to DPS Debbieab, this is a great place with a wealth of knowledge and some really nice people. Looking forward to seeing more of your work!

[SusanH1970]

You did a fantastic job on bringing the eyes out, but leaving the rest of the face out of focus that much takes away from it. I keep looking at the great job on the eyes, but wondering what happened to the nose and mouth...

Yes, the eyes should be first and foremost in focus, but if the rest is totally OOF, the shot is lost, IMHO. Just my two cents! Can you sharpen up the rest any more to make his whole face pop a bit more?

[mrpolitics]

Here is my take on the image, I worked on sharpening the mouth, eyes, and eyebrows. I also slightly modified the hue and saturation of the lips and inner mouth.

[Habar]

Hey Debbie,
Much better on the second try. I thought the first "after" shot looked a bit artificial, but the second "after" shot looked very natural and balanced. Nice job

[ocnsprt]

Debbie great job, I love the eye pop youve created, its a formula I have never thought of using, I usually use the unsharp mask and saturation and screens to do this effect but your is far better looking than mine. The only thing thats very distracting is the overall gausian blur, especiall on the face, its fine everywhere else but his mouth and nose should be blurred, it fools the eye into thinking they are in a different depth of field and they arent so it actually hurts to focus on, other than that great job.
The second edit is good to but I love the eyes in debbies and the others have a strange grate over them, not sure what that is

[Debbieab]

I have a certain style...I always shoot wide open, and that creates a small depth of field...

[photomom2008]

I am new to using photoshop and this is probably a silly question, but...how do you select just the eyes to boost the contrast and brighten them? Also, what do you mean by inverted it to put the light where you want it? I like the brightness and sharpness of the eyes. So far I have tried using the dodge and burn tool to make the eyes "pop" but have not had much luck with it, so I thought I might try this effect but can't quite figure it out?