Critiques - - New version of old attempt

imann08 · #1 05-18-2006, 03:04 AM

I was working on this a few weeks ago and then got pulled away from it to make some money. I hate when that happens. Anyways, I think this turned out much better than what I had gotten before if anyone can remember it. I was having trouble blurring out the print texture without making it look to artificial. I found a better way to take care of it and then went into the coloring of it which I am having fun with and which was requested for this picture. Anyways, I didn't do anything to the mother's dress except for increase the contrast of it and same with the bench. I couldn't really think of anything to do with it color wise. Maybe some of you have ideas for it. Other than that I think I did pretty well with skintone etc.

Dan Ryan · #2 05-18-2006, 08:39 AM

Looks Fake, bad looking dolls!

imann08 · #3 05-18-2006, 10:20 AM

Gee thanks. Tell me how you really feel. If you are going to criticize like that then you should be able to tell me why you think that are what you think I am doing wrong. Otherwise, don't bother.

Gary Richardson · #4 05-18-2006, 02:31 PM

Hi Imann08,

As I'm no great shakes at colouring, so you may treat my comments with some scepticism. but it seems to me that the colours are a little too intense for the image.

This would be reduced had you coloured the remainder of the image. Alternately, you could reduce saturation a little.

I seem to remember Vicky (Queen of colourists) advising someone else that they should always colour all elements in a picture, even if the colours were black white, or grey.

Also because you have removed the texture, the skins of the various subjects look a little over polished (difficult to avoid if you wish not to see the paper texture I know), so overall there is a slightly unreal feeling to the picture.

However I think with a little work, all these can be overcome. I do like the colour choices.

Cameraken · #5 05-18-2006, 03:10 PM

Hi Isaac.

I hope you don’t mind but I had a go with your picture.
I started from the B&W picture.
I adjusted levels then degrunged it, colorized it and then selectively sharpened it

As Gary has mentioned, these older pictures look false if there is too much saturation in the colour.

Hope this helps.

Ken.

blue dog · #6 05-18-2006, 06:53 PM

Imann08, I am a complete beginner at colorization, but I have to say that Cameraken's take on it is much more realistic. More natural looking. That's just an opinion.

imann08 · #7 05-19-2006, 12:10 AM

I took another look at what I have done which, BTW, looks much better at hi-res than what I am forced to send you and I think you guys are right about the saturation. I had to get rid of the texture plus the other things that were screwing the picture up. If you look closely at the baby's right arm or the mother's left thumb you can see some of this awkward looking stuff. I don't even know if it's due to texture or something else to be honest. I messed around with the opacity of the colors just to see what they would look like when mellowed out a bit. I'll give it another try.

BTW, anyone have any suggestions with the bench and the dress? I just made the dress darker but didn't add color. I figured keeping it black would work but I am getting the opinion that some don't think so. Anyhoo, let me know if you got some ideas.

Let me know what you think about things other than the saturation issue. Did I overdo the elimination of texture? It is far better than the first one I did. What about the general skin color?