Would like some honest criticism

[nikisnaps]

Hi. I am looking for some criticism. Please be honest. My daughter has started preschool, which gives me plenty of opportunity to snap some shots for her memory books. I would like to see what you all think of the before and after processing. Thanks

[oldguyrich]

You asked for honesty- all i can think of is "OH NO!" .. I Would suggest you start back at the beginning, and do some simple level adjustments first..(.Did you by any chance use the "Professional Portrait" program?) I say this because of the yellow tint along the hairline...Don't mean to be cruel, but you have a beautiful photo of your daughter to start off with...Over processing can be cruel.

[alexsimpson]

agreed - far too processed - her skin looks plastic and the yellow tone is ..............bad

[IABoomer]

Check out the rules for the critique forum: Critique Forum Rules

You cropped in very tight in the processed image, which helps remove the background clutter, which is good. Keep in mind what's behind the subject in the future in case you decide to shoot wider shots.

The shot seems to have a bit of a color cast to it which might be white-balance related.

[highlydope]

I like a challenge. I wanted to see if I could do something to improve this photo in post, to show that even a photo that seems tough can be improved and show the OP the benefits of post manipulation. So, did I accomplish any of this with the edit below? I think the foreground improved, but the background was tough to deal with and didn't see much benefit.

[Photologyst]

Hello Niki:

Charming photo.

I thought that there was too much processing that made the skin look plastic. The yellow/green at the forehead is not flattering as others have mentioned.

I pulled it into Lightroom and adjusted the exposure a bit as well as clarity and blacks. Added some fill light as well. Then into PS to even out the skin tones, heal errant pixels, blur the background and sharpen only the eyes. I decided to not crop super close, because I wanted to show some of the schoolroom.

[nikisnaps]

Originally Posted by oldguyrich

You asked for honesty- all i can think of is "OH NO!" .. I Would suggest you start back at the beginning, and do some simple level adjustments first..(.Did you by any chance use the "Professional Portrait" program?) I say this because of the yellow tint along the hairline...Don't mean to be cruel, but you have a beautiful photo of your daughter to start off with...Over processing can be cruel.

I used photoshop. I made a duplicate layer, did a gaussian blur, then did an overlay. It doesn't offend me I am still learning how to do things with PS. Any hints you have to give it a little glow without overdoing it, that would be great! What is Professional Portrait? I am open to any and all suggestions to make this picture perfect Thank you for your time and honesty

[nikisnaps]

I also want to thank everyone for the options.. I think I can work with those. I am sorry for the over sized images and posting two. But I wanted to show the before and after. As for the sizing, I don't know exactly how to resize yet, but will know better in the future.

I see now what you all meant by the color being all wrong. I (as stated before) was trying for a bit of a glow effect that I recently learned about. Please keep the critiques coming

[SnapShotShooter]

The bottom one is cropped to tight. And the effect, will fun to mess with, does nothing for the image. But there is a problem with the first image, which is why, I guess you cropped it -- the background is too distracting.

Try this instead, make the background darker and flatten its contrast, so that you can see what is back there if you look at it, but it will not draw your eye to it.