Stop to smell the flowers!

[TravelBel]

I took this picture this past weekend of my daughter on my newish D5000 (still getting used to it!). I love the pic, but I think it needs to be lighter. I know that many people will use Photoshop to turn it B&W and just show the purple color, make it more vibrant, etc., but how much is too much? Also, would you crop this more? Thanks!

Camera - Nikon D5000
18-55mm lens, taken at 48mm
Portrait Setting on camera
ISO 200
f5.6

[windrider86]

yes, i would crop it down more. Enough so the sky in the back of her head is gone.
A neat little trick to brightening up an image is to duplicate it, change the blend mode to screen and then adjust the opacity level to something you like. That, and play with an adjustment -level layer and see what you can do!

[sk66]

I agree a bit tighter crop, but the real negative is the exposure...it needs more...try a curves/levels adjustment...

I think it has real potential...

[TravelBel]

Thanks windrider! I put the photo into PS, cropped for an 8x10, followed your instructions for adjusting the opacity level (thanks! that was perfect!). Then I made an adjustment layer and increased the saturation levels for the blues and greens. Already looks better! I didn't know whether to crop her shirt out completely??

[kstiltne]

I agree that the exposure looks better here, but I think you went too far with the crop. I would leave the flowers in on the left and keep with the landscape orientation...she's way too crowded now

[zona5101]

You can play with your crop and see what you like...but I wanted to comment on the exposure correction...very nice job and your colors are more vibrant as well. With the purple of the hair band and flowers as well as a pretty little girl, this will be a great shot when you get it all worked out. I hope you'll post your additional crops for us to check out!

[SusanH1970]

Originally Posted by kstiltne

I agree that the exposure looks better here, but I think you went too far with the crop. I would leave the flowers in on the left and keep with the landscape orientation...she's way too crowded now

Totally agree!

Nice job on bringing the exposure up. It still looks a tad dark to me (JUST a tad). Did you shoot in RAW? Another way you can bump the exposure is in ACR. Actually, you can even if you shot in JPG - just do "open as" and select RAW - the ACR window will open up and you can play with the exposure there, then save as a DNG. Then you can open it in Photoshop and finish tweaking and save as a JPG. Hope this helps!