thumbs up or down ?

[flippit]

Hi to all !

This is my first post on this site which I find very helpful and bursting with information.

please look at the attached file and post comments on what techniques you would have used to retouch such a picture.

I have been working on photoshop for the past 2-3 months, and have scores of my daughters' pics to work on, but I am never sure if the finished product looks good enough That's what prompted me to post one project here.

Your comments and suggestions are very much welcome.

[KenB]

Well, in my oppinion, you did an absolutley WONDERFUL job. The colors are vibrant and I really like the way you blurred the background, drawing the eye to the main subject of your photo.
SO....my vote is a resounding THUMBS UP!! Beautiful children too by the way.

Ken

PS I might have taken out the red flower.

[flippit]

thanks Ken.

in actual fact I had put in the flower from another pic cause I thought that overall there was too much green. Now I am having second thoughts about it

[Ed_L]

Cute kids! Welcome aboard. You did a fine job on the picture. Tones are just right, in my opinion. You might be right about the flower though, even though you did a good job with it. It draws my attention away from the girls. But that's just one person's opinion. Nice work.

Ed

[Jay]

I like the shot and the focus placed on the children by the soft vignetting of the edges.

I agree that the red flower draws your attention away from the children and needs to be removed.

I have a problem with whites washing out too much. In my case the flash usually does this. If it was my shot I'd use the magnetic lasso and select the pants and top of the girl on the right. Then I'd go to BRIGHTON/CONTRAST. I'd go to the brighton bar and slightly move it to the left taking some of the light out of it. You don't want to turn the outfit into grey just move it eneough to bring some detail out in the office.

Regards,

Jay J

[Andrew B.]

Originally posted by flippit
in actual fact I had put in the flower from another pic cause I thought that overall there was too much green. Now I am having second thoughts about it

When I can't decide, I put the versions aside and don't look at them for two or three days. Then come back and look at one after the other quickly and without analyzing. See which one hits me better.

[roger_ele]

Great job with cute girls. My only observation is the repeating patterns in the background ...

A thumbs down if you wanted this to be a totaly natural photo effect that showed no art work.

A resounding thumbs up for a pretty painting effect / photo combination!

On thr red flower - try using the green grass color in a layer above the flower in color or color burn blending mode - of course change the opacity to introduce just a hint of the green ( or instead of the green a different color in the photo like the skin tone or whatever, by adding a little of an existing color you can some times create a color harmony in the color that doesn't quite fit), also select the flower and use your choice of adjustment layers to change the hue / saturation / lightness / contrast etc. See if you can arrive at a flower which accomplished what you were trying to with balance and harmony ... or put the flower in the girls hands ... you still might want to tone it down a little - it has a different mood from the rest of the photo for me. - or subtley add three touches of red placed in the photo to pull the eye back to the kids. maybe one flower peeking from behind in the shadow of one of the girls - you have the yellow for "pop" so I am not sure you need the red at all - but right or wrong learning comes from trying and playing and so the process is priceless no matter what you decide you like.

Roger

[bimmer]

I actually like the red flower! I think it's a nice addition to the primarily green & white image.

If I have to find something to "complain" about (I suppose I don't actually have to but I did anyway ) it's gotta be the edge of the blurred sections... I would have liked to see a more seamless flow from blurred to unblurred... In other words a larger feather-value for the selection (assuming you used feather).

But all-in-all I really like the picture, and would have been proud to call it my own!

[CJ Swartz]

Welcome, Flippit! Nice image of two lovely little girls! Both the photography and the image editing enhance the beauty of the girls.

I agree that the placement of the red flower pulls my eye (briefly) away from the girls' faces, but I'm not sure whether I like it better with no red flower, or with the flower in your youngest girl's hands.

The washed-out creme-yellow suit can be brought back in a number of ways -- if you're using layer masks already, you can just dupe the image and set the layer blend to multiply -- then add a layer mask and paint on the mask (with black or white) to multiply or reduce the colors. If you haven't started using layer masks yet, you could use the sponge tool set on 'saturate' and go over the washed out areas to bring them back as much as you want.

A lovely image makes a wonderful first post -- hope you post more. From what I've heard, Malta has great beauty, and your website shows some of that.

[flippit]

First of all a big thank you from the girls who really liked your "cute girls" comments

Another thanks from me to all that have given their tips and suggestions. To be honest, I didn't think I would get such response. You do make a newbie feel welcome. I have never used most of the techniques most of you suggested so I got alot of homework to do!!

As regards the photo, I have decided to trash the red flower idea altogether cause it really was "asking" for attention there. I will start the project again, follow a few of your tips, and work with more refinement.

I am attaching the original pic (resized only) as downloaded from the camera just in case you feel like making a few touches yourselves.

thanks again

[Mig]

Hi Flippit,

First, it's a great picture. I liked what you did with it too, however there's one thing you might want to reconsider, and that's in blurring the picture in a vignette-style. A different approach that works well for most pictures like this is to blur the background in a gradient fashion, from foreground to background. It's easy on the eyes, and it forces the eyes to focus on the important parts.
An easy way to do this is to duplicate the backgound layer and apply a blur to the whole picture, then add a layer mask and run a gradient thru it with the default colours, then touch up the layer mask with the paintbrush.
Since you're new to photoshop you may not know how to do this, but you can get the same results if, after blurring the duplicate layer, you carefully erase around the girls and around the foreground to reveal the layer beneath.


Mig

[peterdove]

Hi,

Very nice photo there. There are only two things which detract from the niceness for me :

1) one is the red flower. Its not actually the flower that is the problem I think but the colour - it doesnt match the colours of the composition. Now if it was a yellow flower it might be different especially as it will match the left hand girls outfit.

2) The blurring around the girls - much more evident in the outline of the right hand girls hair - this needs to be much more subtle.

Hope these things help. Exellent work with your first post - lets hope you post many more

[phili1]

Your picture and tech is great. I did a test and everytime my first look is at the girls, so I think the flower is subjective. You can take it out, the photo as is stands on it own. I had a problem with the blur at the bottom it distracted me for some reason, but it frams them. Try it leaving the forgroun semi sharp, not as much blur. I use what I call selective bluring.

Really great job and cute girls.