Caught in the garden

[ctcook]

My neighbor asked for some pictures of her little girl and before we headed out on location for the actual "shoot" I captured this one while she was playing in our garden. I like it, but I'm worried that the blown out highlights are too distracting.

Any critique is welcome.

EXIF:
Camera Nikon D40
Exposure 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture f/2.5
Focal Length 35 mm
ISO Speed 200
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash No Flash

[SusanH1970]

Yeah, the blown highlights are kinda killing it for me. The over-saturation isn't doing much for me, either. Cute pic though...do you have the SOOC you could show?

[ctcook]

Here's the SOOC:

[SusanH1970]

The SOOC is so much better! Definitely overexposed, though - did you shoot in RAW? If so, you can bring the exposure down. Might still be able to tweak it a tiny bit if you shot in JPG.

[ctcook]

Yes, I shoot it in RAW. I'll see if I can't try another edit keeping in mind the Saturation and Highlights. As I recall I think I used an action in the PP. This time around I won't be so lazy.

[SusanH1970]

Yeah, definitely bring down the exposure and use the recovery slider (if you're using ACR).

Stay away from the saturation sliders! LOL. A great way to get colors to pop in the background is to duplicate the layer, set it to soft light, bring the opacity down to about 30-35%, and then mask the person back in so they're not all nuclear looking, lol.

Be sure and post your re-edit! This shot has a lot of potential, I'd love to see what you do with it.

[ctcook]

Ok, so here's my second attempt:

[SusanH1970]

Much better! Her face is a tad underexposed now, but not enough to really bother me. You could always do a screen layer to lighten her up and mask everything else out.

[ctcook]

I added a screen layer and masked out everything but the head at about 40 % opacity:

[Mso]

Geez that is so much better! It is a lovely shot.. what a cutey..