i hope i am putting this in the right place. this is a picture of my son that i have retouched. I am a beginner and would like some input from more advanced photoshop users. the color photo is the original. also my picture looks very blurred when i upload it to the web. it is originally clear. How can i fix this?

very nice overall. the brights are a bit too bright for my tastes. got some 'fuzzies' along the right ear/head line and on the bottom of the jaw line. a light smudge or push would get those quickly. love the eyes. love the hair. the lips are a bit blurry and could stand some more definition. maybe a sharpen or usm mask or maybe just a sharpen brush. if not, then do some brush work to define them a touch more. clothing is fine. backdrop is a bit dark and blends into the hair, but that's not real uncommon, so use your own choice there.

overall, a very nice job. might want to consider colorizing that one just as a extra added bonus.

oh, and welcome to RP :)

Craig

i used unsharp mask and it made a world of difference. I didn't even know what that filter was for. I also did a few other adjustments. I would like to know how i've done. thank-you for the tip!

I like it! What did you use for the backdrop? It's looks like it was taken in the studio. My only suggestion is the crop is too tight, if you framed this photo you would be cutting his little chin off. Try a looser crop (hard to do that after all the work you put in on this already! I know been there done that!) Something to keep in mind.

~Amber~

i bought a disk on e-bay called classic digital backdrops and this was one of 180 backdrops. the way he was looking down made his head look really long on top so i was trying to correct this the easy way. i am definately not a photographer, i just like to use photoshop. if you have an idea on how to correct this without cropping maybe you can give me a tip.
Thanks

kandi,

you got rid of the fuzziies and sharpened the lips; good. but the face is quite white and now seems almost monotone. not sure if that's from shrinking the image a bit or what. with it all being white like that, there is less depth or character.

also, in shrinking this down you increase definition a bit and that's made the hair a bit more glossy, sort of wetter. i noticed this in the original, but it wasnt enough to comment on.

i worked on this a bit myself now.

i reduced the shadow, smudgy area under the lips. clone and push mostly and used a sharpen brush on the lips themselves.

i cropped the image to the aspect ratio of an 8 x 10 and doubled the size.

i took out the jaggies along most of the major edges, collar, shoulders, chin line and so on. used a light smudge for this.

added a light contrast with a contrast adjustment layer. 0 light, 10 contrast.

run stroker's lum frequencies plugin to tone and highlight and contrast a bit more.

ran a clarify filter to add more texture and shadow to the face.

ran a soft focus filter over the whole.

ran a high pass sharpen over the whole, but just a light setting.

ran a histogram adjust over the whole.

darkened out the remainder of the background

cloned out the hands/arms.

darkened the clothing a bit for texture here and there, especially where cloned.

i think that was about it. that also wasnt the order i did things either.

you may be going for a certain look here, so some of what i've done wouldnt apply to what you want, but it might point you towards some things to use.

Craig

oh yes, after i ran the soft focus, i re-sharpened the eyes and lips with the sharpen brush.

It does have a lot more clarity now. The picture looks so much more blurred after I uploaded to the web. It almost has a pasty look. It really has alot more detail. Anyhow, Your's has that 3 dimensional look which is what i have been searching for so thank-you for the tip. I am going to try it myself.
Thanks
OH YA! that crop was exactly what it needed

thank you, and you're welcome. keep us apprised of how it goes.

also, test out the soft focus a bit. i added it, but wasnt quite sure if you'd like it or not. it's certainly optional.

Craig

Nice touch Craig!
~Nancy~

thanks nancy :)

Craig

ok this time i used the clone stamp to fix the ear, tried the new crop, accidentally desatruated but stuck with it because it seemed to be an improvement, cloned the hair to make it stand out better against the background and used a luminosity mask to darken a little and up the contrast. Then the skin tone looked a little uneven so i went kind of crazy with the blur tool. Although, I think it is a slight improvement from the first try, i am determined to perfect this one. Opinions wanted.
Thanks,
Kandi

kandi,

big improvement! no more blown out whites. very good. and, it has a much more natural look overall. the lips seem a bit overly smoothed. could add a bit of texture there with an airbrush or 'add noise' in a mask. also, you say you changed the crop, but that looks to be the same crop as before, or very nearly so. it's ok; but it is a bit close up for my tastes. if you're printing this out, however, it would seem to be almost square and this is going to affect the printing on a rectangular piece of paper. that's why i did the crop in an 8x10 aspect ratio.

i have one question here too. was his hair slicked down with water just prior to the shot being taken? all through these posts i've had the feeling that was the case and am just curious if that was so.

i'd definitely say you're on the right track now with this image. good job!

Craig

no water on the hair. I posted the original in the first one. Maybe you can look at that one and see if it was something i've done or if it was in the original. He has naturally glossy hair and it lays really flat on his head. I'll try to work on softening it a bit so it doesn't look so wet. Don't have another one to post yet, I'm still working on it.
Kandi

kandi,

that's fine. if that's the way it looks then that's the way it looks :)

Craig