Happy couple and their puppy

[jnelson]

I recently did an engagement shoot for some friends and from that got a request for some family pictures for a friend from high school, it was an unpaid portfolio builder but they surprised me with $100 in restaurant gift cards which was super nice of them. We had a great time and I learned a lot.

They really like this image, and also like the "orton effect" that i added, but my question for critique is twofold, a) what should I have done to make this a better image, mainly regarding the dog and how black he is, and b) is there anything i can do now?

I added the orton effect and tried my best to remove the leash (you can see his right hand was holding one of those retractable leashes)



Camera: Nikon D80
Exposure: 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture: f/5.0
Focal Length: 24 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: +2/3 EV

Thanks everyone

[PhotoPhix]

Post the original if you can. I would try and make any color and exposure corrections prior to giving it the Orton effect.


Armando

[jnelson]

Here is the original, I think I see where you are going with this, I can already see that I could have salvaged some sharpness on the dog. I got ahead of myself with the effects and needed to focus more on the basic building blocks rather than the special effects. Feel free to play around with the original and post here in DPS. Thanks everyone



Oh yeah, you can see the leash in this one, since its shown, how did I do with removing it?

[PhotoPhix]

I would also check your color balance as the photo seems to yellow.

Armando

[PhotoPhix]

Originally Posted by jnelson

Here is the original, I think I see where you are going with this, I can already see that I could have salvaged some sharpness on the dog. I got ahead of myself with the effects and needed to focus more on the basic building blocks rather than the special effects. Feel free to play around with the original and post here in DPS. Thanks everyone



Oh yeah, you can see the leash in this one, since its shown, how did I do with removing it?

Here is a quick edit without the Orton effect.

Armando

[jnelson]

Thanks! That looks great, what did you do to the dog to look so much better? Im using CS4 if that helps you explain.

[PhotoPhix]

Originally Posted by jnelson

Thanks! That looks great, what did you do to the dog to look so much better? Im using CS4 if that helps you explain.

Mask the dog then you can either do a level adjustment layer, or use the shadow/highlight option.

Hope that helps

Armando

[RLucas]

I would leave the original as is. It looks great! The Orton effect lost all the detail on the retriever.

[klam]

I also like the original image the best out of them all. I think the dog looks fine, able to distinguish the body parts. If the dog was one big black mass it would be a problem but it's not. Problem I see is that the tail is cut off by the frame.

I'm not digging the orton effect because a lot of detail is lost and it seems too soft.

Not too fond of the PS job the DPS member did. When compared to the original, the PS job makes it look like the flash was used, especially on the dog. In the original the flash is more subtle.

This is only my opinon so take it with a grain of salt

[thaoimage]

I'm not too fond of the orton effect myself. The original was fine the way it was. I think Armando did a good job of cropping the image. The horizon on the orginal was too centered to my liking, but everyone has their own likes and dislikes.