what is it needing?

[kell]

i took this of my niece during halloween in the outside porch at my grandmothers. She is such a cute kid and the camera loves her... This is a jpeg and I have only edited in lightroom as this point. Other than the green plant which I can remove, is her face okay?? I keep going cool to warm and cant decide..... do I need to boost the contrast more??




Canon T2i
tv 1/50
av f5.6
iso 400

[Photologyst]

Great capture!

Cute kid.

I would probably blur/bokeh the background because, there are so many distractions. Also, do a little cloning on the bags under her eyes. A kid that age should not have bags.

[SusanH1970]

Very cute little one! The lighting is really flat and she's overexposed; I'm not sure how much adding contrast would help. You could try it to see how it looks...

I wouldn't bother trying to blur the background in post processing, it nearly always looks fake.

[Niresangwa]

Originally Posted by SusanH1970

Very cute little one! The lighting is really flat and she's overexposed; I'm not sure how much adding contrast would help. You could try it to see how it looks...

I wouldn't bother trying to blur the background in post processing, it nearly always looks fake.

+1. It would be tough to correct the overexposure here, best bet would be some careful level adjustments. Also in this case a B&W conversion would be tough to get right, as you'll really miss the lack of detail in the highlights. If you add contrast you're going to be up against the same issue. Sorry Kell, might just have to chalk this one up to a learning experience!... just like shooting a wedding dress, white feathers on a white shirt.. tough task for a candid. The other shot in your flickr of the same girl was a little better than this one in terms of preserving detail.

Also +1 on the don't blur the background. It almost always looks like sh!t.

[Photologyst]

See what you think of this.



I decided that this child looked so ethereal, with a background so distracting, that bokeh was in order.

Adjusted in LR. Pulled into Photoshop. Layer: Evened complexion. Adjusted eyes. Blurred background in layer and used bokeh brushes. Sharpened eyes.

Here is one in sepia.



It may be a bit to “glamorous” for a child.

[edbayani]

it does look overexposed but there are details. duplicate the layer and set the blending to multiply to increase density and detail and adjust the top layer with levels or curves, and desaturate the too red face. duplicate the background layer again and go back t the top layer to merge it down. blur the bg layer and with layer mask, remove the details on the top layer.
since this looks unreal, go the extreme and add another layer and with soft brush brush the lower portion and add some very light blurred blobs of different sizes.

[mar dela cruz]

i like the way it was brushed and the addition of bokehs. is it a photoshop plug-in?
i like the sepia more.
great photoshop skills for both photologyst and edbayani.

[kell]

thanks for everyones response. Its seem I may have been the one to overexpose the pic. I am attaching SOOC and one I redid just in elements and only brighten face and midtone contrast. It looks like I maybe the one to have overexposed picture in my first attempt.

At this point, I am trying to figure out where I am going wrong as I seem to get the overexposed response on my picture, but when I bring them in for PP they seem dark. This is where I am having issues. When in lightroom I do use the "show clipping" so I thought that would keep me from getting overexposed pictures??

1. The picture SOOC f5.6, 1/50, focal 46mm, awb, no flash. When taking this picture should I have adjusted for behind the subject or the white costume? This was a indoor glass porch. I was just trying to capture the kids, so I was all over the small space in a short amount of time.

2. Now bringing it into lightroom or elements what should I focus on? Just brighten up the face and let the rest go since its all white?? I know I can remove stuff in background, but I am trying to figure out how to improve the subject
Thanks for all your help.

SOOC


slight PP



Kell
Canon T2i

[RLucas]

If it were me, I would just do a levels, and curves adjustment to add contrast. I would do a little red skin reduction too.
Then add a little vignette. I am not a big fan of fake bokeh.
Just use this as a learning experience to always watch the background.

[Photologyst]

Originally Posted by mar dela cruz

i like the way it was brushed and the addition of bokehs. is it a photoshop plug-in?
i like the sepia more.
great photoshop skills for both photologyst and edbayani.

Thanks, Mar. BTW, I love your name. It’s like something out of a novel.

I like the (not so fake looking) bokeh because she’s playing “dress-up.” Thought it went with the feather boa. lol

I used bokeh brushes from Obsidian Dawn: Bokeh Photoshop & GIMP Brushes | Obsidian Dawn

They are superb, much easier than anything else I’ve tried and lots of variety in shapes and sizes as well. I have a lot of lake photos that I took earlier this year that I want to try them on.

The sepia was done in LR after the color photo was complete.

Perhaps the child should be asked which she prefers? I bet that she goes for the bokeh.