Always the eyes

[amy_bb]

Hey all,

I took this shot this weekend during my regularly scheduled Saturday Little Loop Football gig. I also try and take a bunch of candid/unposed shots of the boys sans helmets to add to the mix.

I realize that the focus fell on the top of his head and that the eyes are not as sharp as they could be. I've cropped this photo pretty tight but have not done too much else to it at this point. I did not shoot in RAW (kick me) but have not seen the need to do a lot of temp adjustments on my photos from the day (YMMV). I would agree that it could use a little warming on the skin but he is a pretty pale faced kid.

Here is my question: knowing this is a quick snap, no additional lighting available, how would you give his eyes some pop? Would you do that? Would you selectively sharpen his face? The green in the background is a combination of an f/3.2 with some cloning out of some guys butt set to match the green blur of the rest of the background.




Camera
Nikon D7000

Exposure:
0.001 sec (1/1600)


Aperture:
f/3.2

Focal Length:
200 mm

ISO Speed:
320

Exposure Bias:
0 EV

Flash:
Off, Did not fire

[Rentham]

You can pump the Fill Light a bit in Lightroom along with a Dodge local adjustment brush in the eyes. If you want to do it in Photoshop you can duplicate the layer, set the blend mode to screen, mask out the eyes, and then lower the opacity of the layer to taste.

You can't go too far because his face is a bit under exposed and it will quickly start to look fake unless you bring his entire face up in exposure a concurrent amount. I understand this was a quick grab shot around noon time, so not the best conditions. But always try to get the eyes to the light (sky in this case) and save yourself this kind of rebuilding process.

[amy_bb]

Originally Posted by Rentham

You can pump the Fill Light a bit in Lightroom along with a Dodge local adjustment brush in the eyes. If you want to do it in Photoshop you can duplicate the layer, set the blend mode to screen, mask out the eyes, and then lower the opacity of the layer to taste.

You can't go too far because his face is a bit under exposed and it will quickly start to look fake unless you bring his entire face up in exposure a concurrent amount. I understand this was a quick grab shot around noon time, so not the best conditions. But always try to get the eyes to the light (sky in this case) and save yourself this kind of rebuilding process.

Thanks, Renthan, I wil try this. The boy was on the sidelines, it WAS noonish, sun was bright, his helmet was off, he turned to me and I said, "hey, he's a cute kid, I'm gonna snap a photo of him now". His face is a bit underexposed and after I posted this I tried to lighten it up w/out completely washing him out. With the heavy bokeh of the background, he does start to look fake if I do much processing. Even the original looks a little fake (complete w/the butt shot to the right).

Would you selectively sharpen his face or are we stepping into overprocessing territory?

[Rentham]

I probably wouldn't selectively sharpen his face, but an unsharp mask filter applied on a layer at moderate opacity wouldn't be over the top, I don't think.

[dvanderhart]

Here's how I sharpen eyes in Photoshop:

• Select the eyes (but not the whites)
• Feather one or two pixels
• Copy the selection and paste as a new layer
• Filter > Other > High Pass
• Set the blending mode on the layer to either Soft Light or Hard Light (depending on how sharp you want them to be)

As long as you're careful not to overdo it with the hard light blending mode, it works really well!

[Niresangwa]

An easier way is to open the image in PS, then duplicate the layer (Ctrl+J)...


using a brush size about half the size of the iris, using white with the opacity set to about 4% in Color Dodge mode, gently bring up the brightness of the whites and the iris...

...you can then select a dark color, set to color burn, and slightly darken the pupil and maybe the eye lashes.

Over-do it slightly, then reduce the opacity of the layer over the original to taste.

I'd say that the exposure needs to be bumped regardless.