Photoshop vs SOC - Help?

[misteral]

Hi

So I did some shots of my nephew yesterday. The first shot here is through PS.

1. Levels adjusted to bring dark/light in just to the starts of the bumps
2. gauzian blur about 7, just masked the eyes so it's all that's not blured
3. Sharpened eyes and masked them to show

I like the PS version, my wife likes the SOC version. I should say, it was shot with LP160 through a softbox to camera left.

Any thoughts / tips / help?

[Tzetsin]

I'd go with your instincts on thin one. The soc version is very flat, the whites are grey and it lacks contrast.

What you wife may be looking at is the skin on the head. The soc version is pretty soft, which is nice. The ps version is a bit harsh. Normally nice depthy shadows is good for a photo, but on portraits it is better to have very soft shadows. The shadow in the soc version is good, try bringing that bac while retaining some of the ps version's color.

[Tito87]

I like the PS version.

[misteral]

Thanks Both.

One thing I liked about the PS one is that it removes the blotchyness that babies usually have.

Do you see anything else, did I do anything wrong or should I change something?

[edbayani]

try this, use levels and move the right slider to the left till it meets the spot where the 'mountain' starts to rise. this will give a bit more contrast and reduce the gray on the whites of the shirt. before closing levels, click the eight eyedropper and click on the whitest part of the shirt stripe, this will correct the color balance a bit. duplicate the layer and use gaussian blur to really blur it. reduce the opacity of the blurred layer to your liking, this softens it a bit and smooths the skin. maybe you clone the dark areas of the upper portion with a soft brush with the whites of the lower area as the source point.

[misteral]

Originally Posted by edbayani

try this, use levels and move the right slider to the left till it meets the spot where the 'mountain' starts to rise. this will give a bit more contrast and reduce the gray on the whites of the shirt. before closing levels, click the eight eyedropper and click on the whitest part of the shirt stripe, this will correct the color balance a bit. duplicate the layer and use gaussian blur to really blur it. reduce the opacity of the blurred layer to your liking, this softens it a bit and smooths the skin. maybe you clone the dark areas of the upper portion with a soft brush with the whites of the lower area as the source point.

This looks great. Could I ask, if you have it, could I see a screenshot of the levels you used?

[edbayani]

here is the screen shot.

[OsmosisStudios]

The problem I have is that there doesn't, at least from the samples shown, seem to be any point that is actually in focus. The eyes have been sharpened but they're still out of focus; look at the specular highlight in the eye.