I was just directed to this site and am wondering if anyone could offer some guidance to a newbie. I'm wanting to make the image of the people on this page more appealing.

http://cellocelli.com/SCHOOL/cleveland.htm

I'm not sure where to begin or what to do as I have just basic photoshop skills at this point. Can I make the people more clear by adjusting contrast, blurring the background, etc…

I was given this list of stuff to try. Should I experiment in any order?
Color balance to get neutral colors (Levels or Curves), optimizing contrast, spotting for dust and scratches, red-eye correction, de-noising, local corrections and sharpening to name some.

Sorry if this is an overasked request and thanks for any help!

The source image is a bit larger

http://cellocelli.com/School.jpg

I was just directed to this site and am wondering if anyone could offer some guidance to a newbie. I'm wanting to make the image of the people on this page more appealing.

http://cellocelli.com/SCHOOL/cleveland.htm

I'm not sure where to begin or what to do as I have just basic photoshop skills at this point. Can I make the people more clear by adjusting contrast, blurring the background, etc…

I was given this list of stuff to try. Should I experiment in any order?


Sorry if this is an overasked request and thanks for any help!

The source image is a bit larger

http://cellocelli.com/School.jpgStart with a full-sized image.

Thanks,
This is the full-sized image.

http://cellocelli.com/School.jpg

Here is my attempt at the image.

Opened image, duplicated image, closed original. Used a levels adjustment layer to adjust the individual channels, brought the sliders in to the majority of information. Merged down, dupped layer and ran the dust and scratches (not very strong), added layer mask and brought back the girl, man and instrument. Used selective colour adjustment layer to boost the blues and magentas. Used the clone tool to fix up the girl's left arm, and another mark on her right arm. Fixed the redeye. Used an auto curves adjustment layer, flattened image and posted it at RetouchPro :grin:

There are still some small spots that need fixing, but they can be done with the clone tool, or one of the healing brushes. I also took out the white thing that was on the front of the man - I couldn't figure out what it was supposed to be :grin:

First I corrected the slight red tint by adjusting levels on each colour channel.
Then adjusted overall level of picture to minimise some of the overblown highlights. It could really do with some reconstructive work to further minimise the blow out, but I don't have time.

Took out red eye on girl, and painted in new pupils to man (originals were blown out).

Cloned out dust and blemishes. Then flattened image.

Did rough selection of man and girl using quick mask (no need for a detailed mask), then copied them to a new layer.

Blurred and darkened background slightly to focus attention on the subjects.

Left the Cello's Bow in picture, but as Alison has done it could be easily cloned out.

Here's one with the b/ground more blurred out.

There's not a lot to be done with a shot like this: you'll never get good lighting, good focus or good color. You can, however, increase the contrast to add some shape to the flash-blasted faces, and you can dig out the shadow detail so he looks like he's wearing a shirt instead of a sack. Did some severe sharpening in the foreground. I hate dust and scratches, but since there's no detail, I went ahead and used it on parts of the background. Like Dylan says: When you got nothin' you got nothin' to lose. I didn't try to fix everything, just enough to make it more presentable.

http://edgework.tripod.com/samples/school.jpg

Get rid of or darken that pillar, bring them closer together, take down the nearly blown highlights on the skin areas.

Thanks Alison, Gary & Edgework!

They all look great! I think that the blurred background in Alison's second is great. I like the skin color and blueish rather that redish background of this file.

http://cellocelli.com/School.jpg

Any opinions?

Are there some tricks to using the blurring tool for the back ground?