Snap Shot of my wife

[Jblackjr]

Here is a picture I took while we were at Thanksgiving at my parents. I was using a

Nikon D5000
Lens - 35mm/1.8f
aperture - 1.8f
Shutter speed - 1/200
ISO - 200
Flash - can't remember the name of it, but its an older flash that my mom used with her old 35mm SLR.

I did post processing as you can see, contrast, sharpened, brightened iris and teeth and a few other tiny tweaks.

Advise on what could have been done to make it better or if I overdid anything.

Thanks.

[fbroschart]

I think it looks pretty good, nice job cloning out the person in the background. The only think I would change is crop the left side out so image won't be so centered and it would get rid of the distracting light fixture on the wall. Her eyes may be a tad overdone, but it doesn't bother me.

[Sweetlifephoto]

The only issue that bothers me is the pixelation in the hair. Either it was slightly over-sharpened or you uploaded a high-res image and didn't size it for web viewing. From a composition perspective the curtains are distracting, but as you said - it is a really nice snapshot.

[Jblackjr]

It could be a little of both. I may have done a bit to much sharpening and its a pretty large file 7mb so...

Also I never realized the light fixture in the background lol. I will take care of that when I get home.

[graciousness]

I think her eyes are a little over saturated. There is some focus issues and so I think you may have tried to save it with editing, understandably. I think it's just better to pull back on saturation on the eyes and sharpness, but of course, that is all dependent on you and how you like your images to look.

[Jblackjr]

Yea, I have one before I played around with her eyes and teeth. I can upload that one if need be.

[graciousness]

I do think it's best that you start again, plus also fix the hot spots on her face (blow out highlights). The colour could be improved a little, too, as she is a little too "hot" as in too much warmth, I feel. Adjusting the blues should tone down the warmth in this photo.

[Jblackjr]

And thats where you lost me a little, lol. I will try and work with what you said and re-upload. I'm really new to Photoshop and Lightroom so really its all trial and error for me.

[graciousness]

Originally Posted by Jblackjr

And thats where you lost me a little, lol. I will try and work with what you said and re-upload. I'm really new to Photoshop and Lightroom so really its all trial and error for me.

I hope you shot with RAW so you can have more room for editing.

In Lightroom (I don't have LR and use Aperture, but should be the same concept) adjust your WB (white balance) settings and play around with the blue slider to tone down the redness of this photo. You can also play with the other sliders in WB till you get what you want. Another thing you can do is click on the eyedrop tool next to WB, pick a neutral gray colour somewhere in the image and that shoudl give you a result that may or may not be suitable to your liking. Again, play around with WB till you get what you want.

In lightroom, you'll have CURVES adjustment. Play around in RGB mode and slightly move the curves till you get a more desirable exposure and colour balance on the image. Same with LEVELS adjustment.

I say PLAY a lot here because it is best that you play around with the adjustments on your photos so that you can get an idea of what they do. Of course, work on a copy so that you don't touch your original just in case

[Fishpic]

I actually like the eyes, but I think the cheeks are a little over saturated. As others have said - I would crop out or remove the wall fixture on the left.