my 2 1/2 yr old

[erin81178]

This is my little boy.
I am very new to photography, but I love it, and could use some help and honest opinions.
Thanks!

[MrJones]

Hi Erin,
first of all, read the forum rules regarding posting in the critique section - you need to provide your EXIF data (shutter speed, aperture and so on)
as for the photo, it's a black and white photo but it has black and gray colors with no white in it.
what you need to do is use an editing software and boost up the contrast and the brightness.
I think that will fix your "colors".

[erin81178]

Ahhh!! I forgot to post the Exif data! Sorry about that and I will remember next time
Also, I don't have any editing software except for the basic iPhoto that came on my Mac, so I will work on that also. Thank you so much for looking!

[erin81178]

Canon EOS 7D
Shutter 1/80
Aperture f/3.5
ISO 400
Exposure manual
Focal length 28mm
Flash off

[highlydope]

I like this picture. Here's how I'd post process it...

[erin81178]

Wow I like that...would you mind telling me how you blurred my husband's truck out of the background??

[highlydope]

Originally Posted by erin81178

Wow I like that...would you mind telling me how you blurred my husband's truck out of the background??

No problem. I did everything in Photoshop CS5.

First, I wanted a wider crop so I resized the image and filled the blank edges on the top and sides with a content aware fill. Then, I cloned the areas that the CAF did a poor job with. The process resulted in a shot with more negative space around the subject. I then increased the exposure and contrast slightly.

For the background bokeh, I duplicated the image into a new layer and applied an aggressive surface blur to the entire image and then duplicated that blurred layer again. On the top blur layer, I removed the background, leaving only the child (minus facial details like eyes, hair, mouth, etc - since I wanted to keep those areas as sharp as the original). On the middle blur layer, I removed the child, leaving only the background.

I then reduced the opacity to approximately 30% for the top blur layer (child) and about 80% for the bottom blur layer (background) in order to retain more natural skin tone/texture and background detail. Then I flattened the image into a single layer.

I then added a new blank layer and used a bokeh brush (free download here) to add a few lens hi-light artifacts in the lightest/reflective areas of the photo like the chrome areas and the shiniest painted areas of the truck. I then erased any brush overlaps on the child and kicked the opacity of that layer back to about 50% for a more natural look and flattened the image again.

Last, I added a very slight film grain effect to the entire photo to give it a less processed and glossy appearance. His facial skin is still blotchy since I didn't do any corrections there, but it could be cleaned up with a few minutes more work with the spot healing tool and/or a blur of that section.

The whole process took about 15 minutes. Hope this helps.

[Henry Wilt]

Originally Posted by erin81178

Ahhh!! I forgot to post the Exif data! Sorry about that and I will remember next time
Also, I don't have any editing software except for the basic iPhoto that came on my Mac, so I will work on that also. Thank you so much for looking!

I notice that you have a Canon 7D, you should have some editing software that came with that i.e. Canon Digital Photo Professional, Zoom Browser etc.. I prefer Lightroom personally but I have read a lot of people find DPP to be a very good application.

[erin81178]

@highlydope - thank you for taking the time to do that and explain how you did it. I have virtually no experience with post processing.

@Henry - thanks for mentioning that. I will look for that!

[highlydope]

Originally Posted by erin81178

@highlydope - thank you for taking the time to do that and explain how you did it. I have virtually no experience with post processing.

No problem - photoshop is the standard for complex editing, if you learn only one package, I suggest you make it photoshop. If money is tight theres a free, open source equivalent that doesnt have as many frills called gimp (google it). Learning post process often yields a lot of knowledge that can help you take better photos to begin with by helping you understand what can make your photos look better. Just remember, the goal of any good photographer should be to do as little post processing as possible by getting the shot as close as possible to your creative vision in the first place.

For this type of photo I'd also suggest using a prime lens like the 35mm/1.8. It lets in a lot of light, is capable of beautiful background bokeh and is a steal at under $200. It'll force you to think about your cropping more since it's fixed (no zoom) and you'll have to move yourself to get things framed up properly.

Good luck!