PP Fixes: They Eyes Have It

[MeAgain]

Camera: Canon
Model: Canon EOS REBEL T1i
ISO: 200
Exposure: 1/90 sec
Aperture: 11.0
Focal Length: 55mm

This was the first photo I ever posted in the Critique section and I did so improperly so I never got the feedback I was looking for. I'm hoping, since I was a good girl this time, someone might help me out?

Specificity I want to know two things:

1) When your subject is wearing a hat, can you get catch lights? If so, how?

2) Her bottom lip was all gnarly. How can I fix this is PP? I tried cloning but it so did not work

[JFSanders]

Used a spot healing brush and adjusted the opacity until the lip looked good to me. Then added catchlight with a color control point and changed the hue to remove the black feathered it at 1 pixel and reduced the opacity until they looked soft. Also, I whitened the whites of her eyes to make her iris look sharper.

Jim

[3bayjunkie]

Originally Posted by JFSanders

Used a spot healing brush and adjusted the opacity until the lip looked good to me. Then added catchlight with a color control point and changed the hue to remove the black feathered it at 1 pixel and reduced the opacity until they looked soft. Also, I whitened the whites of her eyes to make her iris look sharper.

Jim

good job fixing the lip, the catch lights could be sharper though

[graciousness]

Hello HeMeAgain! Great to see you posting in Critique section!

I haven't posted any critique for a while so I feel a bit rusty...

First glance, I do find that the photo is really lovely. I love the feel of it and how lovely her face is and it's well lit, considering she is wearing a hat. Did you use flash or adjust levels in pp? Can't tell.

Regarding catchlight, I don't think it's necessary, really to try and even put one. It will just make the photo look unnatural and will ruin the natural feel of this photo. She's got beautiful eyes and it is really nice to see them.

Her lips can be easily fixed in PP with cloning - you just need to be careful in doing it and be patient. Just remember to look at the light and dark/shadows on the lips and follow where the light starts to darken, which is near the parting of the lips. Light in the middle section of the lower lip, then darkens when you get near the parting.

I've done my own little quick PP in Aperture just to show you.....please tell me to take it down if you don't want it posted.

There is a little bit of soft focus around her eyes which I think also needs a tiny bit of sharpening. I did it in the attached photo, too, and it just makes a little bit of difference in showcasing her pretty eyes. Since I love the soft feel of the photo, I actually took down the contrast just a tad so you keep the sharpness adjustment without losing that soft feel. Also, it softens her freckles which your beautiful model may feel more comfortable with, rather than adding contrast where it will highlight her freckles more. It's all up to you and your model's taste, of course.

Anyhoo, what a great photo and congrats in capturing it! Hope to see more of your photos here soon

[graciousness]

Hmmm....that attached photo doesn't look the same as when I view it in Aperture.....grrrrrrr!!!! I swear her lips looks better in aperture than in here.....also, the attached photo looks a lot lighter and softer than in my aperture. What the......

Oh well. I hope you get the idea, anyway.

[Ginger Pixie]

I shot this earlier in the week. She was sat on the floor and I angled a reflector upwards. Maybe not the best shot, but she's in a hat and has catchlights..

Then I shot this one, with off camera flash - (maybe slightly too much) firing on a 1/4 power from the right which gave the catchlights...

Just thought I would share two ways I got catchlights with subject in a hat. (not trying to hijack your thread!)

[edbayani]

very nice shot except lacks a bit of contrast.
hope you don't mind while i join with the others. did a bit of processing and lightened it a bit and selected just the iris and lightened it a little and added a tiny catchlight. the lips, selected the color of the lips and on a blank layer painted with a small soft brush and 30% opacity brushed the lower lip to smoothen it.

[SusanH1970]

I jumped on the editing bandwagon, too, lol. I remember when you posted this a while back. I love this photo, she's a beautiful girl and her expression is gorgeous.

There is light in her eyes; not a definite catchlight, but there is light reflected. I'd always rather work with that than try to add in a catchlight in post. She was a tad underexposed, so in CS2 I bumped up the gamma in exposure to about +.75. I used the patch tool on her undereye circles and faded to 60. I also used the patch tool on her lips. To bring out the light in her eyes, I duplicated the layer, lassoed the eyes in loose figure eight, new layer via copy, set to screen mode, lowered the opacity a bit, and then used a soft black brush to mask back in everything but the irises and pupils. Ed was right in saying this needed contrast, so I did a levels adjustment set to luminosity and tweaked just the black and white sliders and left the midtones alone. I also did a soft light layer set to 50% opacity and masked her face back in. I cloned out a few fuzzies on her hat, then slightly sharpened the photo.

The first one is your original, the second is my edit. I'll take them down if you'd like.

[MeAgain]

Originally Posted by JFSanders

Used a spot healing brush and adjusted the opacity until the lip looked good to me. Then added catchlight with a color control point and changed the hue to remove the black feathered it at 1 pixel and reduced the opacity until they looked soft. Also, I whitened the whites of her eyes to make her iris look sharper.

Jim

Holy crap! That looks awesome!

I so need to work on my PP skills. Thank you very much!

[MeAgain]

Originally Posted by graciousness

Hello HeMeAgain! Great to see you posting in Critique section!

I haven't posted any critique for a while so I feel a bit rusty...

First glance, I do find that the photo is really lovely. I love the feel of it and how lovely her face is and it's well lit, considering she is wearing a hat. Did you use flash or adjust levels in pp? Can't tell.

Regarding catchlight, I don't think it's necessary, really to try and even put one. It will just make the photo look unnatural and will ruin the natural feel of this photo. She's got beautiful eyes and it is really nice to see them.

Her lips can be easily fixed in PP with cloning - you just need to be careful in doing it and be patient. Just remember to look at the light and dark/shadows on the lips and follow where the light starts to darken, which is near the parting of the lips. Light in the middle section of the lower lip, then darkens when you get near the parting.

I've done my own little quick PP in Aperture just to show you.....please tell me to take it down if you don't want it posted.

There is a little bit of soft focus around her eyes which I think also needs a tiny bit of sharpening. I did it in the attached photo, too, and it just makes a little bit of difference in showcasing her pretty eyes. Since I love the soft feel of the photo, I actually took down the contrast just a tad so you keep the sharpness adjustment without losing that soft feel. Also, it softens her freckles which your beautiful model may feel more comfortable with, rather than adding contrast where it will highlight her freckles more. It's all up to you and your model's taste, of course.

Anyhoo, what a great photo and congrats in capturing it! Hope to see more of your photos here soon

Another amazing fix!

I have a photo editor. Paintshop Photo Pro x3. It seems to be very good but outside a few one click fixes and cropping I have not bothered to learn it. Seems it's time to break out the book. I'm done thinking PP is cheating.

Do your best to get the image right, then fix what inevatably needs fixing.

Thank you!