On the fence...

[jax314]

Here's one more of Jasmine. I like the pose, but was hoping some could offer any words about crop, exposure, color, anything...

To me, this looks good...but maybe that's just because I'm dad.

Any comments?


Camera Nikon D5000
Exposure 0.003 sec (1/400)
Aperture f/3.5
Focal Length 35 mm
ISO Speed 200

[lputman]

She's a cute girl. What post work did you do on this?

[jax314]

Thanks. I used a skin-smoother plugin, adjusted the white balance a bit, sharpened a bit, and used another filter to add a very very slight darkeing of the edges....I wish I would have whitened her eyes a bit though....

[SusanH1970]

Definitely a cute girl, but I think you went a bit overboard on the post work. Skin smoothing looks too much to me and the white balance is still off. Can you post a SOOC?

[natek313]

She is very cute, and you captured a great expression! I like the composition you chose as well.

I agree with Susan on the skin smoothing and white balance. On my (uncalibrated) monitor, her skin looks like it is too yellow and magenta in certain areas.

Also, I would have liked to see the corneas of her eyes whitened a little bit and a little bit more light in her irises.

[jax314]

Here is the original. I agree that I went a bit overboard on the skin smoothing...I was experimenting with some plug-ins...

However, I NEED HELP with WHITE BALANCE......it looks good to me...so how can you tell it's off...what are you seeing that my untrained eye is not?? I appreciate the help!

[jax314]

Is this any better? What's better? What's worse? Other ideas....

I think I may be completely blind when it comes to white balance!

[jax314]

Another from the same set...WB off on this one too? As far as skin goes, her mom is mixed...I am white...so her skin is naturally a bit darker...

[natek313]

Originally Posted by jax314

Is this any better? What's better? What's worse? Other ideas....

I think I may be completely blind when it comes to white balance!

I like the skin tones in this photo. They look great. Looking back, it may have been your processing (curves adjustment, contrast, or something similar) that caused her skin tones to look more yellow/orange.

However, I think the skin smoothing is still overdone in this version. I generally keep any skin smoothing very, very light on children. (They usually don't need it.)

[lputman]

I don't see the WB as being off; I see a very cute little girl with too much processing. A little bit of curves adjustment at most is all that's needed on the SOOC shot.