Graduates- Please help!!

[TNH]

I took this picture at my cousin's 8th grade graduation. This is her and her best friends with their diplomas. I love the moment that was captured, and just love their expressions.



Nikon Coolpix S3000
Exposure 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture f/5.4
Focal Length 16.5 mm
ISO Speed 1000
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash Auto, Fired
X-Resolution 1
Y-Resolution 1
Orientation Horizontal (normal)
Software COOLPIX S3000V1.0
---

But the whole picture seems to be a little fuzzy, and there is a big circle near the top of the picture. Was the circle caused by some dust or something on the lens? And is there a way to get rid of that? Do I try to clone it out, or is there something else that would work? I really need to know what I should do to get rid of it.

I think I know what to do for the fuzziness. Do you use a Noise Reduction tool for that? Or is it something else?

And if you have any ideas on how to crop it, I would appreciate it. No matter how I try to crop it, it doesn't look right to me.

And of course, if you see anything else that could use some work, feel free to say so!

Thank you all so much in advance for your help! And feel free to have a try at editing it, and post it here! I usually understand what people are trying to tell me better when I have an example to look at.

Thanks everyone!!

[3bayjunkie]

They look crazy! although 8th grade girls are pretty scary haha

[MichaelvPhotography]

I would suggest having the gal with glasses to put her head down and slight tilt of the head to the left, this allows glare to be gone. Glare however is evil as I battle it each day doing school photography.

[edbayani]

captured the moment of happiness and a bit of 'craziness',

you can remove the circle by selecting it with a fairly sharp brush and in quickmask mode, cover the light area. exit quick mask and darken with levels to equal the darkness of the surrounding area. fine tune with the clone tool. lastly sharpen a bit and you can touch up their eyes, to remove glare from eyeglasses.

[jcspenny]

Lol, they look happy to be graduating! The fuzziness is noise from the high ISO. You're right in thinking that noise reduction will help you with that.

[TNH]

Originally Posted by 3bayjunkie

They look crazy! although 8th grade girls are pretty scary haha

It was a pretty crazy night all right. all the graduates were pretty giddy...

Originally Posted by MichaelvPhotography

I would suggest having the gal with glasses to put her head down and slight tilt of the head to the left, this allows glare to be gone. Glare however is evil as I battle it each day doing school photography.

Thank you, I'll remember that next time!

[TNH]

Originally Posted by edbayani

captured the moment of happiness and a bit of 'craziness',

you can remove the circle by selecting it with a fairly sharp brush and in quickmask mode, cover the light area. exit quick mask and darken with levels to equal the darkness of the surrounding area. fine tune with the clone tool. lastly sharpen a bit and you can touch up their eyes, to remove glare from eyeglasses.

Haha, yeah! Al lot of craziness.

Thanks so much!!!!!!!!!!! You were a big help!! Thank you for taking the time to do this.

[TNH]

Originally Posted by jcspenny

Lol, they look happy to be graduating! The fuzziness is noise from the high ISO. You're right in thinking that noise reduction will help you with that.

Oh, they were all right! After the graduation, we went to Dairy Queen to get ice cream to celebrate. You should have been there then... already-giddy people + ice cream= crazy all right!!! lol
Thanks!! That's what I thought you were supposed to do, but I wasn't sure. Thank you!!