Help with PP pretty please :)

[NicolaB]

Colour and pp are still my big nemesis.

I want to get this the best it can be as it is from the celebration for my Auntie and Uncles 40th wedding anniversary.

It was two hours before sunset and the light was still too harsh. In hindsight I should have still used the shade. They moved away from the lighting position I had them in, so I know even the position to light is not great but it is what I have

I would love to create a 'light and airy' feel but don't know where to start. (Can it be done when an image is less than perfect? This is too heavy I think?

All cc welcome

Exposure 0.002 sec (1/640)
Aperture f/3.2
Focal Length 85 mm
ISO Speed 100

[Mso]

I had a fiddle but am not an expert at PP. I felt the square crop was better, but it is a personal thing. Also it adapted to b/w really well..




PS edited to say, this is a lovely photo, you should be really pleased with it, it conveys so much love...

[ccting]

wow, the picture looks great

[edbayani]

found the shadows too harsh especially on the face on your auntie.

[RLucas]

Hey Nicola! By "light and airy", I am assuming you mean the photos with less global contrast and more local contrast especially around features that you want brought out?
To do this in camera, even early/late in the day, you still need diffuse light. Shade may have been a better choice, but also you can get closer to it with a little more back light as well. It's kind of hard to do in situations like this, as I am also assuming this was more of a candid opportunity than a posed shot? Sometimes you just have to deal with what you are given.
I worked with this to the best of my limited ability.
The trick was trying to get the contrast reduced.
I made a layer and duplicated. Used curves and pushed up the midtones. I used the man's face as a reference.
Duplicated that layer and made a contrast mask out of it. To do this, you desaturate the layer. I used luminocity values to do this. Then I inverted the colors. It makes it look like an old film negative. I then applied Gaussian blur to it at around 40 pixels or so. You want just enough blur to take away the detail. Then I changes the layer mode to soft light and adjusted the opacity to about 50%.
I then merged all layers and duplicated once more. On the duplicate, I desaturated again and changed the blend mode to screen. I adjusted the opacity to about 10% and merged.
The last thing I did was a color adjustment. The skin tones were too red, so I opened up curves, and selected the red channel only. I used the color picker on his face again for a reference point, and pulled down on the red just enough to even it out.
It seems long winded, but it only took a couple of minutes. I hope this helps!

[SusanH1970]

Nicola...I *think* I know the "light/airy" feel you were going for - if this is sort of it, let me know and I'll tell you what I did.

[JFSanders]

Due to the hard shadow on her nose, a B&W conversion is the best I have found to bring the lightness back into the image. I wasn't happy with several of the color versions I tried.

Jim

[NicolaB]

Originally Posted by Mso

I had a fiddle but am not an expert at PP. I felt the square crop was better, but it is a personal thing. Also it adapted to b/w really well..
PS edited to say, this is a lovely photo, you should be really pleased with it, it conveys so much love...

Thanks so much for the play. Your colour is better than mine. Did you cool it off?

Originally Posted by ccting

wow, the picture looks great

blush - thank you

[QUOTE=edbayani;1325516]found the shadows too harsh especially on the face on your auntie.
I agree that this is the problem. We had 5 little ones at the party and dinner just wouldn't wait until after sunset - grrrrr. How did you get rid of the shadows, did you burn?

Originally Posted by RLucas

Hey Nicola! By "light and airy", I am assuming you mean the photos with less global contrast and more local contrast especially around features that you want brought out?
To do this in camera, even early/late in the day, you still need diffuse light. Shade may have been a better choice, but also you can get closer to it with a little more back light as well. It's kind of hard to do in situations like this, as I am also assuming this was more of a candid opportunity than a posed shot? Sometimes you just have to deal with what you are given.
I worked with this to the best of my limited ability.
The trick was trying to get the contrast reduced.
I made a layer and duplicated. Used curves and pushed up the midtones. I used the man's face as a reference.
Duplicated that layer and made a contrast mask out of it. To do this, you desaturate the layer. I used luminocity values to do this. Then I inverted the colors. It makes it look like an old film negative. I then applied Gaussian blur to it at around 40 pixels or so. You want just enough blur to take away the detail. Then I changes the layer mode to soft light and adjusted the opacity to about 50%.
I then merged all layers and duplicated once more. On the duplicate, I desaturated again and changed the blend mode to screen. I adjusted the opacity to about 10% and merged.
The last thing I did was a color adjustment. The skin tones were too red, so I opened up curves, and selected the red channel only. I used the color picker on his face again for a reference point, and pulled down on the red just enough to even it out.
It seems long winded, but it only took a couple of minutes. I hope this helps!

Thanks so much for your play. It was posed, but when they stopped and looked lovingly at one another and lost the light I wanted, I still had to snap. I am more relaxed taking my own girls and spend more time thinking about the light, but still with anyone else I get all flustered and forget half I have learnt!

Originally Posted by SusanH1970

Nicola...I *think* I know the "light/airy" feel you were going for - if this is sort of it, let me know and I'll tell you what I did.

Yes please Susan I need more strings to my bow.

Originally Posted by JFSanders

Due to the hard shadow on her nose, a B&W conversion is the best I have found to bring the lightness back into the image. I wasn't happy with several of the color versions I tried.

Jim

I know the shadows - grrrr. Thanks for your play Jim, much appreciated. It is always so useful looking at how others view an image.

I have also just learnt from another post this process:

In CS5 open up channels (i used the search box to navigate to it then saved to my fixed panel for future)
* click the dashed round circle which puts marching ants around the light areas.
* choose 'inverse' from the Select menu (this then puts a selection around anything less than 50% grey
* create a levels layer
* highlight some shadow then push up the shaded area

As per Rob, I then painted green onto my Uncles face to bring down the reds and desaturated a tad.
endish result - still playing:


Thanks all, I love learning new techniques

[SusanH1970]

Nicola, I opened it in ACR and added some fill light, cooled it down a touch, and decreased saturation and vibrance just a little. In CS2, I duplicated the layer, lassoed the gentleman's head and went to layer via copy, image adjustment to selective color, chose "neutrals", and pulled the magenta out at about -5 and flattened. Then I ran an action on it that I have that gives that light and airy feel - I can send you a link to it if you'd like. I got it from another forum that you and I are both on.

[NicolaB]

Fabulous. Thanks Susan - and yes please