This is a picture of my daughter she is 3 weeks old. I have not done much to retouch the picture just converted it to back and white. Is there anything that I can do to make this picture better, retouching or anything that I could have done when taking the picture. I am not a professional photographer but I am looking for profection. So ANYTHING even something small please let me know what you would change.

Thanks to everyone in advance,
Terrence

Terrance... She's darling!

The white headband got completely blown out in the camera. I did a selective color adjustment on white and added some pixels back (black) so that I could colorize her little head band.

Your photo is very flat. Could probably use a small "s" curve to bring up some contrast.

I agree with Swampy.

In the attached image I:
Used the Healing Brush in Photoshop to remove the white specks from the skin;
Applied NIK Dynamic Contrast filter then the Dynamic Skin Softner;
Unsharp Mask;
Lightened the scalp using a 50% gray overlay.

Beautiful baby!!

Can you post the color version? A different mixing of the color channels or B&W conversion may give better results.

Thank you for everyone that has posted. I am attaching a changed picture let me know what you think. I will also attach a color version.

Thanks

I put my version I don't know if you like it...

I don't know if you wanted to see how the color picture could look retouched or if you wanted it to be gray scale but I went ahead and did the color since it's easier to kill the color than to bring it back to life.

Here's what all I did:
1. Lots of red in this picture - I notice that a lot of pictures need to have the red and oftentimes green toned down to restore a natural color.
2. I softened the skin using Reduce Noise (powerful tool if used correctly) and brushed in some color to help with the splotchiness of baby skin on the forehead and shoulder.
3. I multiplied the blue channel onto the whole image to help bring down the brightness. I may have backed it off slightly but I can't recall.
4. I used the healing brush to remove spots and specks as well as the brush tool in case the healing brush was stubborn.

Those are the main things I did to the image to make it look this way. It may be too blue - it's hard for me to tell since I'm partially color blind but to my eyes it looked natural.

I did a very quick color and tone tweak, and a tiny bit of healing brush.

On the white headband, I used a Curve set to Luminosity, and moved Green, to bring out detail.

Overall, I moved things around in Curves, and did overall hue/saturation shifts, focusing on the red and yellow colors.

Whoops, I'm on my work computer, and didn't realize I was using a different color workspace (and on top of that, didn't save the psd.)

Here's what it was supposed to look like, minus the graininess.

I decided to bring out as much detail as possible under the assumption you may want to remember every little feature of this stage in her life.

To that end I started with a series of channel blends.

I noticed the red channel is almost completely blown out. To fix this I blended the blue channel into the red using linear burn at 30%. This caused a slight greenish cast to the skin. To remove the cast I blended the blue channel into the green using darken at 70%. These two blends brought the color where I wanted it to be at this point. Now she really stands out from the background and the skin tones are more pleasing.

Next I did a luminosity blend using the green channel and did a slight contrast adjustment to the blend. Then I converted to LAB without flattening.

I flattened in LAB. Then I duped the background layer and applied a couple of overlay blends into the A&B channels. This made the colors really hot but was done knowing I intended to control the effect with opacity. So I reduced opacity to 60%. Then, still on the same layer, I sharpened the L using USM at 500, 1, 0, with an inverted L channel as a mask. Then I deselected and did hiraloam to the L at 50, 20, 5. Then I did a curves adjustment to the L to bring down the hot spot on the nose. These changes added lots of shape to the face and brought out most of the detail I was looking for. At this point I flattened and converted to sRGB. Almost done.

Now to bring back detail to the headband. I converted the original image to CMYK, as this version seemed to have the most detail in the headband. I used the M to create an alpha channel to isolate the headband and part of the blanket. Then I selected the headband and copied it to a new layer. I set this layer to multiply and duped it several times. I then hid the background layer and merged all visible layers. I dragged this layer over to my working copy, set it to luminosity and reduced opacity to 78%. I then ran USM at 200, 1, 0 and used Fade to select darken. Then I flattened the layers and did a final review.

I felt the image had gotten a little dark so the last tweak was to lower the gamma to .8 using the Exposure command.

So here's a version in all her detailed glory! What do you think?

Oh, and by the way, congratulations!

Regards,

Michael

Michael... Welcome to RTP!

Excellent work on this shot and thank you for the detailed explanation!

Hi Swampy!

Thanks for the welcome. Nice to see a fellow NAPPster here.

I don't usually contribute to these kinds of threads, but something about this shot called out to me. I felt I could present a version that differed enough from what others have done to make it worth the effort. That, and I've been meaning to contribute more to the various forums in which I lurk. So I thought I'd give it a shot.

I'm also working on doing some technical writing, hence the detailed explanation.

Any critique on either the image, the workflow, or the writing?

Regards,

Michael

Michael..

You do well with the technical writing. The above was very clear and easy to follow. It may be a bit much for a beginner, but for mid-advanced level 'shoppers, it was a great lesson in channels and LAB.

Michael,

Superb job with both the retouch and the writing. Your skill and experience in both really shows. Channeling Dan Margulis?:)

Side note - I have an excellent book titled "The Photoshop Channels Book" by Scott Kelby. It's quite amazing what can be done with channels. I highly recommend it for Photoshop users at the mid to high end capability levels.

Michael,

Superb job with both the retouch and the writing. Your skill and experience in both really shows. Channeling Dan Margulis?:)


Thank you!

Yes, the channel blending and LAB moves are based on what I've learned from the master, Dan Margulis.

It amuses me to think back and remember a time when looking at the individual RGB channels made me say, "what possible point is there to these things?"

Let's see... that was PSv3 if I remember correctly.

The more I grow as a 'shopper the more I realize "every image has 10 channels".

Now I don't touch a single pixel without taking a tour of the channels first.

Regards,

Michael

Well, Picture was really to bright and over saturated.

I did a hue/adj layer to take out color, curves layer to fix some of the hightlights, levels layer to even out light and dark, added softness and a white feathered border.

Yes, the channel blending and LAB moves are based on what I've learned from the master, Dan Margulis.

You do the master proud, Michael. Margulis' analytic approach resonates with the old researcher in me, and I've been working hard to wrap myself around the ten channels. Got a loooong way to go, though.

I for one am looking forward to hearing much more from you - you have so much to offer us all. No more of this lurking nonsense, now!

You do the master proud, Michael. Margulis' analytic approach resonates with the old researcher in me, and I've been working hard to wrap myself around the ten channels. Got a loooong way to go, though.

I for one am looking forward to hearing much more from you - you have so much to offer us all. No more of this lurking nonsense, now!


You do me too much honor.

Dan's skills are amazing. I had the pleasure of meeting him at Photoshop world in Boston last month. Some of the techniques he presented were absolutely breathtaking.

Thank you again for your kind words.

Best regards,

Michael

I want to thank everyone for there post, all comments are greatly appreciated. I think I am going to look at Scott Kelbys "channels book". I am not as versed in channels as I wouls like to be. I may work on the photo and post the results.

Thanks again,
Terrence

Hi Terrence,

I'm going to be writing a tech article on channel blending in the near future.

I'm not a photographer, so finding good example images is often a problem for me.

Would you have any objection to me using my before and after shots of this picture as part of the presentation?

Regards,

Michael

Michael,
Please feel free to use my picture in your tech article. Just Let me know when your article is out so I can take a look at it.

. . . I think I am going to look at Scott Kelbys "channels book". . .

I strongly recommend both of Dan Margulis' books, "Professional Photoshop" (fifth edition) and "Photoshop LAB Color" as well. While they're not an easy read and require study and restudy, they present the fundamentals of working with channels. Kelby's channels book is an easy read; it describes how to do a bunch of cool tricks but says little about why they work.

I'd classify Margulis' books as textbooks and Kelby's as a recipe book. Which you prefer is a matter of personal choice, of course. I have all three books and have read all of them cover to cover. I refer to Margulis constantly, have gone back to Kelby maybe twice.

Carole

I strongly recommend both of Dan Margulis' books, "Professional Photoshop" (fifth edition) and "Photoshop LAB Color" as well. While they're not an easy read and require study and restudy, they present the fundamentals of working with channels. Kelby's channels book is an easy read; it describes how to do a bunch of cool tricks but says little about why they work.

I'd classify Margulis' books as textbooks and Kelby's as a recipe book. Which you prefer is a matter of personal choice, of course. I have all three books and have read all of them cover to cover. I refer to Margulis constantly, have gone back to Kelby maybe twice.

Carole


I heartily agree! You can't do any better then Dan Margulis. I've read them all; Kelby, McClelland, Cross, Fraser, Blatner, and more. None of them have had the impact on my skills that Dan's teaching has had. Even Katrin Eisman doesn't come close, and her books are pretty good.

I suggest starting with the LAB book. It presents concepts that are quite accessible and immediately useful. It will definitely take you several readings to absorb everything in the second half, but the first half will absolutely transform how you approach using Photoshop.

Then if you're still hungry for more try tackling Professional Photoshop Fifth Edition. Many consider it to be quite a bit harder than the LAB book. But if you can make it through even one reading it will raise you to a whole new level of skill.

I've read and reread everything I can find by Mr. Margulis. Even after several readings I still come away with a deeper understanding of what it must be like to truly be a master of Photoshop.

Hi Carole! It's great to have another Margulis fan around.

Terrence, thanks for letting me use your picture. I'll certainly let you know when the article is ready.

Regards,

Michael

Lurch and Graphics23,

I want to thank you for your book sugestions. I purchased on online and just started to read it and I can already tell it is going to help. I can also tell it is going to take forever for me to read this (slow reader with not alot of time) but never the less I will get through it.

Thanks again,
Terrence