Did I go too far with edit? Fake looking?

[praline3001]

Hi guys! I am trying to salvage this photo. I know it won't win any photography awards but its really cute with my kids. I wanted to give it to the grandparents and family. The problem was I totally blew out the sky. I used a gradient filter (PSP) to try and fix it but then their faces looked strange so I had to try and fix the WB on their faces. I am not sure if I went too far with the edit. Hubby says it looks good and natural but then again he tells me my butt never looks too big in anything I wear


Sledding Cajun style by praline3001, on Flickr

[windrider86]

Honestly, i wouldnt be so worried about the sky as I would the kids faces. They are far too dark and have an unnatural hue to them

[praline3001]

That's what I was worried about, their faces. When I added the filter it messed up their faces and I tried to fix it

[windrider86]

Always add new filters/fixes on a new layer. That way you can mask/erase anything that doesn't work on a particular section

[edbayani]

select their faces move it to another layer and adjust the exposure, color. merge

[praline3001]

Interesting but to me that looks strange on my son. He has an extremely ruddy complexion and that doesn't look like him.
Here you can see his face in quick family snapshots:

Ryan with toy by praline3001, on Flickr

and here

Getting ready to kill each other by praline3001, on Flickr

See how red his face is? Its like that 24/7. That's what makes WB and editing stuff with him a pain!

I did try working in layers again today with it. I am such a doofus when it comes to masking and layering though!
This was the best I could come up with and his face still looks like an alien lol

ryan savannah sledding by praline3001, on Flickr

[graciousness]

I think the only thing you need to do is use Curves adjustment and some Layers adjustment to bring up the exposure so that they don't look so red/discoloured.

I did a very quick edit only using Curves (RGB) and Layers (RGB + Luminance) and as you'll see, the tones on their faces look a little bit better. The sky doesn't look so oversaturated, either.

This is where fill flash comes in in shots like this one. Especially with his skin tones, it's important to get the exposure right. That photo by the tree looks good as you will notice, the exposure is just right on his face.

Hope you are shooting RAW to give you far more editing capabilities in comparison to jpeg.

Cheers,

Grace

[praline3001]

Right now I shoot both RAW and JPEG at once. I am about to change to RAW only however.
I was shooting both because I was using PSP for editing and if its just a family snapshot I took and I am not overly worried about it coming out perfect, I just keep the JPEG and don't mess with RAW. Just yesterday I got photoshop for the first time. I am reading a few books about the program and learning tips and tricks but am still trying to figure out where everything is. I am liking the camera RAW mode a lot more then the psp one. There are a lot more options for RAW photos and they are easier to pull up and work on rather then going through the extra convert steps I had to do for psp. The next time I am going to shoot RAW only.

This photo is supposed to be one of those fun family photos for the scrapbook. We don't get snow down here so the kids in my area use cardboard as sleds. We also have no hills or anything that look like hills. Everything here is flat swamp land. The Mississippi levees are the highest points in our area lol So in order for my kids to go sledding on Christmas eve they have to get creative!