Over Processed?

[Jimntarap]

I personally walked away pleased with this image - though a friend is convinced I over-processed it. Thoughts?



Camera: Nikon D80
Exposure: 0.013 sec (1/80)
Aperture: f/4.2
Focal Length: 31 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: No Flash

[JGennuso]

I really like this! Great angles...great lighting.

[FotoMike]

I think it is "over-processed" but in this case it works really well. Its adds to the pictures, giving it a cartoonish feel which helps since your subject is a child. If it were a landscape or city scape then I would say it's waaaaay over done, but it works well here. Nice shot

[chopstickjayne]

I really love this shot and the PP treatment! To me, the subject, colors and composition are the perfect combination for the process you gave it. Because the boy is in the upper frame, you've emphasized the fact that he's walking away - it makes me think of childhood and how quickly children grow up...Very Nicely Done!

[RoyL]

I think that your friend was being kind and right.

The composition, although it may look ok is all wrong.

The saturation of the reds is way over the top.

The contrast is shockingly high.

The border does nothing for the image.

Has this image been cropped, because if it has you have not taken a good crop. Get this part right and then work on the rest. Because of the placement of the child's head one is pulled over the top of the image instead of into the image. If you have cropped over the top then allowing more space over the top will balance the image.

Would like to see the original. The last time I looked at a processed image and it's original the original was perfect. We always get excited when we do something to an image, and often won't listen to our friends. Maybe your friend is right.

[Jimntarap]

It was a crop. Here is the original image:



Unfortunately, I tend to run into a lot of "quick shot" images of my son - at 19 months old he doesn't stay still for long. I happened to kneel down and snap this without really looking at the background. When I got it onto the computer, my eyes were being drawn all over - especially to the green pedestal near the fence in the upper right and the houses in each of the upper corners.

Once cropped, his red coat became a strong contrasted focus already - so I decided to try out the HDR-like adjustments mentioned in the RAW Creativity Article on DPS. I then ran a slight bleach filter and added a black vignette to frame it in.

My hope was to keep him as the focus, especially the coat. I think now I have too many contrasting blacks, I see what you mean about being pulled all over the image.

[RoyL]

Wanted to try and keep the lines in, even the fence on the right because it leads in to the child's head. Quick and dirty removal of the half stop sign because of the red, you could clone out the pole coming out of the head as well. Slight sharpening applied only to the child. this is only one idea, there are others.



You can make the subject say different things by moving the child up or down the virtical line, but I prefer this as it makes the child look closer.

it does look a bit over processed, like too much sharpening or something..but i like it better than the original, perhaps just tone it down a hair!?! i really like the angle and your crop, nice work

[genielamb]

I have to agree with what has been said above. Photography is SO subjective it really depends on the viewer and his/her particular taste. We could critique from a purely technical standpoint, in that case I would have to say that both the crop and the PP do not work. On the other hand, it sometimes pays to break ALL the rules and go for what you like rather than what is so called technically correct. I have taken a completely different approach from everyone else because this is just my taste and what I like in my photographs. Balancing a little 'technically correct' with artistic license this is what I would have done. This picture is really cute and has so much potential I know we are all just touching the surface.

That being said, this is my take.



The child is walking away from you so rather than crop him to appear to walk 'into' the photograph, I have cropped so it appears he is walking down and 'out' of the picture. From a technical standpoint, the tree on the left acts an an anchor to balance the child on the right but because of its subtle colors it adds to rather than detracts from the focal point. Perhaps I could have cropped to show a little less of the tree but I like it as is. The red on the childs jacket draws the eye, so I have upped the saturation on that just a little. The rest was easy. Working in layers in photoshop, I applied a gradient guassian blur to give the effect of smaller DOF and reduce the cluttered effect of the background. Then I simply masked out the child to have the original show through. A different take on a truly cute photograph.

EDIT: Looking again at the picture I realize I should have brought back a little more of the original tree as parts of it are in the same line and level of the child and as such would not be as blurred as I have made it. Just a little note as I did this rather quickly and should have taken more time to pay greater attention to detail.

[Austin_HXC]

I actually really like the crop. Like said above, it makes me think that the child is leaving the frame and growing up.
Maybe just a little less PP, maybe less sharpening.