Help with my daughter's grad picture

[Cathrine]

I am trying to fix some pictures from my daughter's graduation... and I am having such a hard time with it. While I was taking pictures, other family members were taking pictures with their point & shoot with flash... which somehow made some of the pictures off. Not only this, I was a newbie and had no idea what I was doing--unfamiliar with depth of field, etc...

I tried processing one picture and it's not working out too well... I use PSE 8... I did a levels correction (by using the bulb color picker--white, black, and grey), tried to clone out the shine (I think), created a new layer--made it black and with an oval selection, I made the black oval vignette around the picture...

I am attaching the original and the vignette one. Please give me suggestions as to how to improve the picture-- thank you!

[Lightwriter]

The vignette is way too heavy. I would use blur and a layer mask to remove some of the distracting elements. Was this shot taken with your Rebel? What lens did you use? What were your other settings? If you can provide us with that information it would help us give you more advice on what to do for better results.
I'm willing to post a sample of what I would do to the image if you want.

[Cathrine]

I felt like I had no other choice but to use vignetting...

yes, I used my Canon Rebel T1i
ISO 400
Shutter 1/8 sec
Aperture f/5.7
yes to flash

I would love to see you do a sample--because I have no clue as to how to make this better.

Thanks!

[Lightwriter]

Here you are. I made a copy of the image and applied the depth of field blur. Then I used a layer mask to "unblur" the subjects. I also used a brightness/contrast adjustment to lighten them some while using another mask to keep the background darker. I did this in 5 min. or so. It's a bit sloppy but it will give you a place to start from.

[spcandrew]

If it were me, I'd crop the photo to reduce the clutter and focus the attention on the faces (see attached sample), flowers, and diploma of the subjects. I also used a photoshop plug-in to reduce the "shine" on the faces. Shine comes from using a flash as the main source of light, and buying a cheap flash diffuser can help reduce it.

[Cathrine]

I like both of the samples-- the first one accomplished what I wanted, to fade out the background and it also made the subjects brighter.. The second one took me by surprise--it brought out the subjects even more vivdly...

spcandrew--I don't use photoshop due my inexperience. I am currently using photoshop elements--is there a plug-in to reduce the shine for pse8?

[spcandrew]

I'm not sure about Photoshop Elements specific. The plug-in I used is from OnOne Software and only works with Photoshop, Lightroom, and Aperture unfortunately.

You can also buy a flash diffuser for about $10 (a little plastic cone that goes over your flash) which would help as well.

[Lightwriter]

You can also make a flash diffuser with a milk jug or a white ping pong ball. I have tried both and I prefer the milk jug diffuser. I believe both projects were featured in a DIY artical on here a while back.

[Cathrine]

I will invest in a flash diffuser... I'm curious about the ping pong ball though--wouldn't that be small??? That makes me chuckle. )

Thank you for your tips and suggestions. I'm going to try all to see which I like best.