My Stepson

[private]

Does the blurred edges distract from the photo? Does the Sepia tint work? I did not bounce the flash and b/c of that, when I "smoothed" out his skin it became really noticeable. Is there anything I can do to fix that? But other than that - do you like the photo?



And this is the B4 - in case you want to see...



http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3337/...74744e13d8.jpg

And the Exif is...
Exposure: 0.013 sec (1/80)
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 68 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: Flash fired

[jiminyClickit]

private,

From the beginning: I believe you can save yourself some grief if you get the original color copy to good quality first, then do the conversion to b/w, monotone, whichever. The pink/orange so often seen in photos can look strange in b/w, so I layer some negative masks and adjust color until it smooths as much as possible. I masked some bright distractions away in the background before doing the black and white:



Now when I desaturate, there's almost nothing else to do, some slight light/dark adjustment, a dark vignette to hide some clutter. No face smoothing involved. I didn't crop or anything else so you could compare to your original, and yes I do like it, color and b/w. Very flattering to a young person to have a good relaxed portrait taken.



See skin: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3102/...64336006_b.jpg

[windrider86]

I do like the background but think cropping leaving more in front than behind might even it out a bit as well

[SandeeWig]

hi Pat!

I like this photo of your stepson. He looks very relaxed and happy. The background looks fine to me and the blurred edges didn't stick out to me until you mentioned them. His face seems a little bit too shiny for my taste, but that's just me.

The only thing I noticed that seemed distracting was that the corners of his eyes seemed reddish-pink and veiny. I'm guessing because you selectively colored his eyes and let the real color come through and in doing so included the very corners of his eyes as well. ???

Or...is it MY eyes?!!

Also, I do agree with Windrider that a crop with more space on the left may make a difference.

[lputman]

Hey Pat...

I am going to admit that I do not like the processed photo. I agree with Aimee about the eyes; but, at the same respect, I'm not a fan of selective coloring. I feel the skin smoothing was too much and that it wasn't needed.

For cropping, I feel this would be better cropped vertically instead of horizontally.

I think jiminyClickit's conversion is very well done.

[private]

THANKS everyone for the input - I like Jiminy's the best - and I did selective color his eyes, but the red is prob b/c he was dog tired - he is 21 and went outthe night b4 with is friends...

I will try with a new crop and sort of Jiminy's version (I like the background) and I will post - Thanks yawl!

[jiminyClickit]

You made me think, private, and stretch some. I have some of those pink/orange issues and this seemed to make a difference. It's a good photo to work with, hope you get what you want. And I'm with the notion of some cropping, up to you.