My very first client's first birthday

[clb76]

This is a picture of my sister's daughter on her first birthday. She is my first actual client (I've only ever taken pictures of my own children). I'm just asking for basic critique. Is it sharp enough? Color good? White balance good? I shot it in RAW and then processed using DPP, after processing in DPP it looked nice and sharp but when I saved and converted to TIFF and JPEG it lost its sharpness. I then ran it through the unsharp mask on GIMP but it still seems to be lacking the sharpness it had in DPP RAW processing.

Camera: Canon EOS REBEL T1i
Exposure: 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture: f/4.0
Focal Length: 55 mm
ISO Speed: 1600
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Off, Did not fire


Caitlin's First Birthday! on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[maximusmilly]

I think this picture is adorable. It's full of energy and you have really captured the moment. It might be good to see what it looks like with a tighter crop as the background is quite bright and cluttered so is slightly distracting. However, you might decide that the background adds to the feel of the picture and it looks best as it is.

[MSidPhoto]

I say its a cute portrait
The background has blurred enough and the expression's great.
Good shot

[clb76]

Thanks for the comments. I just started working with RAW and I'm generally unsure of the quality of my pictures although I have been a hobbyist photographer for 15 years. I recently decided to start preparing myself for going professional and the pictures I took for this birthday were the first ones going into my portfolio.

I'm certain that I will never think my pictures are "good enough" so its nice to get unbiased feedback on them. Thanks again!

[SusanH1970]

What a cutie!!!

I find the background a bit distracting. It's a little underexposed and your white balance is definitely off - she's very red. I don't think it's soft focus you're seeing, but noise from using ISO 1600.

Great expression you captured, just wish she was looking at the camera.

Hope this helps. Keep shooting!

[clb76]

I think the redness on her face is caused by the reflection of the balloons above her, there were hundreds of balloons floating around the entire house and I noticed on the pictures I took that day (in particular my very pale son) that the color of the balloons was casting a reddish tone to the skin. Is there a way to fix that without destroying the other colors in the picture?

[SusanH1970]

Originally Posted by clb76

I think the redness on her face is caused by the reflection of the balloons above her, there were hundreds of balloons floating around the entire house and I noticed on the pictures I took that day (in particular my very pale son) that the color of the balloons was casting a reddish tone to the skin. Is there a way to fix that without destroying the other colors in the picture?

I hope you don't mind, I had a quick play. If you'd rather I didn't, please let me know and I'll take it right down. I used CS2 but I *think* you can do pretty much the same in GIMP. This was a super-quick edit so it's nowhere near perfect - her skin is still a little off - but you get the idea.

1. Duplicate layer
2. Levels adjustment - middle slider just to the left a bit to brighten the midtones.
3. Selective color adjustment - clicked on red, then pulled out some magenta and yellow.
4. Erased the background back in, flattened image.
5. Saved, ran through free Noiseware Community Edition
6. Opened back up in CS2, slight crop and resized and sharpened slightly for web.

Hope this helps!

[mandyatm]

I think the composition and expression are great. I like the background too. She was a little red, I would just go to the saturation levels, select red, and tone down the red.

[clb76]

Susan, I don't mind at all! I'm here to learn after all. I'm not very practiced at post processing, so I'm very willing to accept all criticism and help. It does look a lot better and I will certainly try what you did to this one on the others. I really aprreciate it!

[SusanH1970]

Originally Posted by clb76

Susan, I don't mind at all! I'm here to learn after all. I'm not very practiced at post processing, so I'm very willing to accept all criticism and help. It does look a lot better and I will certainly try what you did to this one on the others. I really aprreciate it!

Glad to help. I'm looking forward to seeing the others!