Something is wrong with this photo

[NicoleScraps]

I have tried at least a half dozen time to work with this photo. I want to darken the background slightly since it is a little lighter than the foreground and the people (my kids). I want to have this printed for my home since I like it very much.
Every time that I open this photo in PS, it looks terrible. I don't know why, but it is so pixelated. Does it look funky to you? I put a big (enough) size on flickr, would you mind opening it in your program and seeing if it looks clear to you. It is unedited just downsized a bit.
Every other photo that I took of the same session from that day looks fine. It is just this one. It hurts my eyes to look at it.



f 4, 1/160 sec, ISO 100

[highlydope]

It's not pixelated, it's just that you got what could be considered a bit of funky background bokeh. What camera/lens did you use? I also think it could benefit from some vibrance and saturation in general.

Anyway, I did a quick/dirty edit incorporating those suggestions...

[NicoleScraps]

I was using a Canon T1i and I think I had my 55-250 lens on the camera. I just this week got a 50mm 1.8 lens, so I plan to start using that for portraits like this. I think it will work out much better than my kit lenses.

[highlydope]

Originally Posted by NicoleScraps

I was using a Canon T1i and I think I had my 55-250 lens on the camera. I just this week got a 50mm 1.8 lens, so I plan to start using that for portraits like this. I think it will work out much better than my kit lenses.

My guess is that the lens was the culprit, you might have been focused with a sub-optimal DoF for that particular lens, I know that I've had issues with getting appealing DoF out of some zooms and even on fixed primes on occassion (although much more rare).

Did you feel that my edit was an improvement?

[NicoleScraps]

Originally Posted by highlydope

Did you feel that my edit was an improvement?

Definitely!
This photo has really been on my nerves. I took it over a month ago and have not been able to come up with an edit that I like.

[edbayani]

looks fine to me. no pixelation. smooth. but you're right about the bg with some bright portions. beautiful shot of your children.

[RLucas]

I like Ed's edit. Very natural. The background just needed a to be a little darker. If you want a creamier background, you can always back up and zoom in. It looks like you were at a point where the background was just starting to be thrown out of focus, but it's not bad.

[edbayani]

thanks, luke. glad you liked it.

[NicoleScraps]

Thanks everyone! I am not trying to turn this into a masterpiece, just something printable for the wall since it is a pretty good shot of the kids. That background was just bugging me really bad. I swear, when I opened it in PS, I could see the squares of the pixels. It hurt my eyes. Maybe it is just how my screen is viewing it for some reason.
Anyways, thanks again!