Grandpa meets granddaughter

[irishmuth]

Took this shot in the shot in the hospital when my dad met his granddaughter for the first time. I would like to get this printed for him and would love the group's thoughts on the crop and b/w conversion. Also, are the digital background blur and vignette too much? (full-sized edit here)

[mandyatm]

Awww, that is so precious!!!! I love it! I love the b&w and blur, but not sure about the crop. I would include his whole arm. The vignette is a little much for me, just because I think the emotion comes through already and the vignette doesn't add much. It seems to be making some odd lines in the upper left and bottom right corners. It is a wonderful shot though, one to treasure forever.

[chalkie7]

The main thing here is that the intimacy and pride shine through in your b&w shot...that's what matters more than anything. I think the vignette is a little on the heavy side myself, so I would reign that back a little. The square'ish crop doesn't quite do it for me..I'd try and work it looking for a 10x8 print. Bottom line...you've captured something really beautiful here and should be proud...a little more work in PP and this will melt hearts I'm sure!

[PhotoPhix]

Originally Posted by irishmuth

Took this shot in the shot in the hospital when my dad met his granddaughter for the first time. I would like to get this printed for him and would love the group's thoughts on the crop and b/w conversion. Also, are the digital background blur and vignette too much? (full-sized edit here)

You captured a great moment in time there,congratulations on the new addition to your family.

Armando

I cropped the photo a bit tighter to get rid of the distracting background, I also added some lens blur after masking off the subjects.

Adjusted your WB as the original photo had a strong yellow hue

A bit of unsharpen mask to bring out some detail in grandpa's face,and adjusted levels to minimize some shadows.

[irishmuth]

Thanks everyone. I'm going to redo the shot with Armando's crop (also suggest by mandyatm). I'm also going to back off the vignette and not clone out the blinds on the door - that cloning created the goofy, over-blurred area above my dad's shoulder. I'll repost when I get to to the re-edit.

Armando, I am still pretty new to my dSLR and I was wondering if anyone else has had an issue with Canons providing this yellowish hue. Even when I remember to set my white balance, I find this happening fairly often and I don't want to shoot in RAW 100% of the time when most of my shots are just capturing moments, as opposed to staging true photographic shots. Also, would you mind giving me a quick run down of how you do your color corrections? I'm pretty comfortable in Photoshop but seem to struggle getting this right.

[PhotoPhix]

Originally Posted by irishmuth

Thanks everyone. I'm going to redo the shot with Armando's crop (also suggest by mandyatm). I'm also going to back off the vignette and not clone out the blinds on the door - that cloning created the goofy, over-blurred area above my dad's shoulder. I'll repost when I get to to the re-edit.

Armando, I am still pretty new to my dSLR and I was wondering if anyone else has had an issue with Canons providing this yellowish hue. Even when I remember to set my white balance, I find this happening fairly often and I don't want to shoot in RAW 100% of the time when most of my shots are just capturing moments, as opposed to staging true photographic shots. Also, would you mind giving me a quick run down of how you do your color corrections? I'm pretty comfortable in Photoshop but seem to struggle getting this right.

I have not heard that about Canon but that doesnt say much as I dont listen .

This was done in less than 5 minutes with the low res shot posted, I am sure with more time and the higher res shot you can get much better results.

As for the white balance, it could have been that there was alot of yellow in the shot (blinds,floor,shirt) and it could have thrown the camera off a bit.

For the correction, you could try the auto tone, although I go right to the color correction and slide the controls away from the color you are trying to eliminate or correct.

I masked the subject and corrected the background separate from them.

Hope this helps and congrats again.

Armando

[lputman]

Armando's edit looks good.

White balance is such a major thing. I keep it set to sunny for general use and will switch it to auto when inside. You can still adjust white balance when shooting in jpg, it's not exclusively a RAW thing.

[Loving It]

I like the B&W. I would increase the contrast a bit to add some more detail. nice picture

[tiffany]

i love all of them, but i really like the black and white. no matter what its a precious and priceless moment.

[chalkie7]

This is a very quick and dirty edit of the original (low-res) image. Please let me know if you would prefer if I removed it.