Too soft in the eyes?

[lewerim]

I like this pic, but I wish the eyes were sharper. Do you think this shot works despite that? I think the composition works (giving her frame to look into) but any thought there would be appreciated as well.

Any tips for getting that sharp focus? I swear that the focus was on the eyes, but the dress seems sharper. I guess it probably has something to do with the fact that she MOVES all the time.

[Chip]

Erik - Unfortunately, I agree with you that the eyes aren't quite sharp enough, and that the dress does seem to be in better focus. Like you said, kids sure are hard to keep still!

Also, on my uncalibrated monitor, her face seems just a bit dark.

But, I do think the shot works. I like her expression and the light on her hair. She looks happy and curious.

[windrider86]

here's where posting your camera settings would come into play with helping with technical advice!

[lewerim]

Originally Posted by windrider86

here's where posting your camera settings would come into play with helping with technical advice!

Thanks for the gentle reminder Windrider.

Camera:	Sony DSLR-A200
Exposure:	0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture:	f/5.6
Focal Length:	70 mm
ISO Speed:	200
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire

File Type:	JPEG
MIME Type:	image/jpeg
Image Width:	3724
Image Height:	2592
Image Description:	SONY DSC
Orientation:	Horizontal (normal)
Software:	GIMP 2.6.7
Date and Time (Modified):	2009:10:26 20:12:01
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Date and Time (Original):	2009:10:25 13:49:53
Brightness Value:	6.25
Max Aperture Value:	5.6
Metering Mode:	Center-weighted average
Light Source:	Cloudy
Exposure Mode:	Auto
White Balance:	Manual
Focal Length In35mm Format:	105 mm
Quality:	Fine
Focus Mode:	Manual
AFArea:	Wide
Flash Mode:	ADI
Exposure Program:	Auto
White Balance:	Cloudy

[jwdrums]

go here - CoffeeShop Free PS/PSE Actions!


On the free actions link you will find a photoshop action for bright eyes...I use it all the time and get great results!

~JW

[lewerim]

Originally Posted by jwdrums

go here - CoffeeShop Free PS/PSE Actions!


On the free actions link you will find a photoshop action for bright eyes...I use it all the time and get great results!

~JW

Is that something works on top of PS? Unfortunately, I don't own Photoshop. Just been playing with GIMP.

[jwdrums]

yes, it's a photoshop thing.

[naeno]

Cute little girl with a captivating expression!

Yes, her eyes are too soft and focus was on the dress, but that can be fixed in GIMP. May I make the following suggestion below (I will happily remove if you want).



The steps:

1. Crop (You chopped off her left hand with just her thumb sticking up)
2. Her hair over her left eye just makes the eye look even softer, so I copied the pupil from the right eye. Opened a transparent layer and pasted it, resized using the perspective tool, and anchored it. Then merged the top layer down.
3. Selected her face and did Filters-Enhance-Unsharp Mask.
4. Selected her eyes, and did another Unsharp Mask.
5. Dodged the inner circle of her eyes setting the opacity of the brush to around 15. This brightened her eyes up.
6. Her face was a bit dark, so I opened another transparent layer and painted over her face with white. Then went to Filters-Blur-Gaussian Blur and set the blur to an obnoxiously high number (200) and blured the white. Then, I set the layer mode to Overlay. This adds "light" to just the portion of the picture that needs light.
7. I repeated the above step over the eyes to get them brighter.

Trust me, writing this took me a lot longer than it did to actually complete those steps. Let me know if you have any questions. Good luck!

[lewerim]

naeno

No, leave the edit. I like it. Nice to know you can get these results with some practice. My experience with GIMP has been limited to Cropping and Boosting Contrast.