Hours of Fun

[SamuraiZenU]

I took this picture a while back and rediscovered it in the last couple of days. It's really special to me, but I would like others opinions about what I could do to make it more frameworthy. I would like to make sure I get the most out of it. Would it look better in black and white or slightly desaturated? The colors seem too intense.

Any other suggestions for maximum pop in processing?

Thanks!





Camera: HP PhotoSmart R707 (V01.00)+
Exposure: 0.002 sec (201/100000)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 8 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0/256 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire, auto mode

[dhart]

It's a sweet moment. Love the bubbles and movement. Background is a little busy. I don't know if B&W will help any because of all the shadows. You might try a combo of color and B&W. Have her and the bubbles in color and everything else in B&W. I had this problem with a photo of mine and it seemed to work out well with the combo. It's a possible solution and worth trying.

[ali1977]

i love it! but, i know nothing about photography. i love it!

[dlaf]

What a great capture! I'm not sure I've seen a busier background, though! Hope you don't mind my quickie rework...

From DPS Posts

Here's what I did:

* Leveled out the shot (table was crooked)
* Cropped down as much as I could to remove sky
* Cropped up as far as I could to remove all but what was above the table
* Used a non-destructive dodge brush to lighten up the shadows on the girls' mouth/jawline, eye, nose tip, and hand (the whole shot might benefit from a bit more lightening)
* Used the unsharp mask
* Painted the background a couple of times with the soften brush
* Painted the bubbles and girl with the increase saturation brush

I personally don't think this would be a good place to go to selective coloring. That's just my opinion. I'm not too keen on gray plantlife.

I was pretty sloppy here. Taking your time you could get edges a lot cleaner. Good luck!

Debbie

[SamuraiZenU]

You call that a quickie rework? I'm so new to using GIMP, I'm not at all sure how to pull off what you did.

I agree with you, the background had way too much going on. I just didn't know how to put it into words. I have an eye for a shot and caught her at the right time, but unfortunately not the right place. Planned shots do not work well with her because she hams too much and I can't capture the innocence I get when it's spontaneous.

I'm too new at this and never would have thought to crop it so tightly.
Honestly, your rework made me cry (my daughter there)... because it revealed the essence of what I was trying to get. Almost broke my heart to see it pared down so beautifully.

Ummm, if that's a quickie rework, what would happen if you tweaked it a little more? I'd like to make it nice enough to frame and gift for Christmas, but don't think I'm capable.

Oh, BTW, I'm leaning with you on the selective coloring. I've seen it a lot here at DPS and think it's overused.

Eternally grateful for your input and rework!

[ttosifa]

I spent a little time with this. The main thing I wanted to show was a slightly different crop. I don't mean to compete with anyone else's, just wanted to throw out the idea.

Also, I did some work on trying to lighten her. I think it looks better than the original, but there is more work to be done. Unfortunately, I just got called away and must stop. Anyway, here is a lightened version. If you want to do it yourself, basically you need to look up techniques for fixing underexposed pictures -- the girl is underexposed, since she is what you want to see. From a technical perspective, the difficulty will be avoiding blowing out the highlights in fixing it. From an emotional perspective, I don't think that is something you should care one bit about!

[dlaf]

Samurai,

I'm so happy you liked the changes. I will download the large version again and rework it more carefully tonight/tomorrow. Hopefully I can make it brighter as well.

Debbie

[wannabehorsephotographer]

Dlaf, I love the crop.
I saw a scrapbook page one time with the bubbles just in color - was kind of neat - but sometimes that effect is overdone. I think a a little play with blending modes could really play up those shadows on her face. Try a soft light layer, with a screen layer on top with the opacity lowered until the exposure looks good. Now add a multiply layer and erase with a large soft brush over the girl and the bubbles - will really make her pop and look like you used additional lighting. I "cheat" like this all the time.

[dlaf]

Dear SamuraiZenU,

Here's another "tidier" attempt to rework your photo. I also added a slight vignette to hopefully draw more attention to your daughter's face. I'm sure there are others here that could take it a few steps farther, but I hope you like this. I tend to like my photos darker with deeper color, so this may be too dark for you, but should be easy to correct on your end.

It should be 7" wide so it would look fine for that or smaller. The copy I pulled off flickr was only 72dpi and I don't know how to work with noise that well. It won't do for poster size, but should be fine for 6-7 inches wide.

From DPS Posts

Please feel free to let me know if there is something you'd like changed/corrected.

If you'd like to give me a p.m. with your e-mail addy, I'll send you the jpg file.

Debbie

[dlaf]

From DPS Posts

Couldn't help myself.