Mother and Daughter

[peterdove]

Hi,

Just retouched a photo of my wife and her mother. Just wanted to see if anyone could add anything to it. I would consider myself an advanced user of photoshop - so I should be able to follow any intrsuctions posted


Before

http://www.soleyphotos.com/images/mo...hterbefore.jpg

After
http://www.soleyphotos.com/images/mo...ghterafter.jpg

Thanks!

Peter Dove

[Andrew B.]

Hi Peter.

The rules tell me not to simply post kudos. But after doing a critical evaluation of this picture I am hard-pressed to find anything to suggest. I like what you did with the lightness, and leaving more room on the right side of the crop (where the shadows are) prevents the subject from falling off on the right.

I do see another possibility, though. A more generous crop right and left might work. One that is just cutting the tip of the elbow on the right, and just enough extra on the left to include all the hair. This would also show the curtain, which adds a homey daytime feel. But I'm not saying this is better than your crop, it's just a different look to consider.

The only other thing I can think of is to remove the neck chain on the left. But I'm not sure this is even worth doing, especially if this is jewelry that has personal meaning.

Regards,

Andrew

[tyeise]

Hi Peter,

I like how you brightened the image, but I agree with Andrew, that you probably shouldn't have cropped the hair off. It makes the image a little lopsided, IMHO.

I have mixed feelings about leaving in the curtain, and understand why you might have preferred a plain background, but I probably would have tried to clone in a bit of the plain over the curtain if that was your priority, instead of cropping so tight.

Beautiful job! It look really good - the above comments are just nit-picking.

Tyeise

[peterdove]

Mother and Daughter

Hi,

Thanks for the comments, the curtain was the reason I cropped so close, and I felt that cutting off the hair did a really nice job of bring out the face of my wife ( a valid portraiture technique ) but as you say it leaves some space on the right - although I dont find it overly unbalanced.

I dont know why I didnt think of cloning out the curtain - perhaps I was put off by my wifes VERY curly hair

The glow added to the faces was acheived by copying the layer - turning the mode to screen. Applying a gaussan blur, and then reducing the opacity down to about 25%. I then selected their faces, inverted the selection and erased the effect from NON-skin parts of the image.

Peter

[ExclamPt]

I happen to like tight portraits, especially in a case such as this which shows such "closeness" between a daughter and mother.

I've attached two crops of mine. The first is not so tight as the second, but it does follow the classic "rule of thirds" compositional guideline. However, the photo is basically square--not my favorite proportion.

Just suggestions. What do you think?

[peterdove]

Crops

Hi,

Thanks for the efforts, I too would have preffered an even tighter crop and I prefer the version on the right out of the two you did. My mother in law wanted the picture to fit into one of my 7x5 frames so I was forced to come to some compromise on the cropping.

If I was going to crop for display on the web I would go for the version you have done on the right.


Thanks again.


Peter

[Crone]

Hi

I personally really like your first crop as it gives room to your subjects. The recent crop also gives a fause light on the side of your wifes hair and because of the illumination you have done to the image IMHO gives the image a unreal feel. I do understand that this can be darkened, but I still prefer your first crop anyway.

The other positive of your first composition gives a feeling of closeness between your wife and mother and in years to come I am sure will be treasured.

Hope I have the hang of this tread / Critigues.....

Hope this helps

Crone

[ArtistColumbus]

Wow Peter! Your work is amazing! Great job!

Now, because we can't just give you quick praises, here are my critiques:

I basically agree with everything that Andrew said. I would have preferred a little more of the photo on the left side and a little less on the right. Understand now why you cropped it the way you did. Skin tones and highlight are wonderful! Nothing appears to be too over done or under exposed. As for the retouching or glamourization, I would have left a slight amount of the heaviest wrinkles on either outside edge of your mother-in-law's eyes. They look a little too smooth for her age. (Not that I'm saying she's old or should look her age or.... okay, maybe I should stop talking now.)

Phenominal job!! Absolutely wonderful Peter!

[peterdove]

You said
" I would have left a slight amount of the heaviest wrinkles on either outside edge of your mother-in-law's eyes. They look a little too smooth for her age. (Not that I'm saying she's old or should look her age or.... okay, maybe I should stop talking now.) "

Good point, I did overdo it on the mother-in-Law - thanks for the 'pull on the reins' on that point. The whole picture had the complete wrinkles, teeth, eyes and skin glow treatment.

I owe a lot of my work to some VERY good books I picked up and lots of time having my retinas burned out late into the evenings.

Thanks for the effort of looking it over.

Peter






Peter

[G. Couch]

Andrew - If you can't find anything wrong with an image you can certainly post that...along with all the kudos you want! ...The only stipulation is that you do exactly what you did - explain why you like the image. The " No kudos" rule is really just meant to discourage people from making posts like "That's wonderful!" and nothing else.

Peter, I agree with Andrew! There is very little I could suggest to improve this image. The screen and blur technique you described is one of my favorites and it certainly worked well here. You really opened up their skin tones and smoothed things out...and you can never "overdo" it when it comes to mother-in-laws! The one little thing I see that is a problem is the color of your wife's neck. It may be more of a low-res web issue, but the skin tones there seem duller in relation to the rest of the image.

I also like your choice to crop where you did...as ExclamPt said, tight portraits work very well, especially a mother and daughter image like this. About the only thing I would do is remove the bracelet on your wife's arm. It's distracting and prevents your eye from flowing around the image.

[Mig]

This is a good job. There are a couple points to consider.
The removal of so much of the wrinkles on both their faces is overdone. Much of the character on the younger woman's face has been removed; the before and after of these pics is, it appears to me, to be so different as to be two different people. So there's a resemblance issue here.
If the client likes it, all the better, but if I had this much weather in my face (or body) and someone touched it up to this degree I'd be disturbed by the results.
Also, check the histogram, it needs a small adjustment if you know how.

With that said, I appreciate your skill; it takes a lot of skill to polish this up as you've done.

Mig

[peterdove]

Semblence issue

Hi Mig, Thanks for your reply.

"The removal of so much of the wrinkles on both their faces is overdone. Much of the character on the younger woman's face has been removed; the before and after of these pics is, it appears to me, to be so different as to be two different people. So there's a resemblance issue here."

I think this depends on who you are, This is my wife and this is how I see her - this is her about 10 years ago and this is how she stays in my mind. This is her before we both got tired endlessly working and looking after our daughter - to me she appears in the new photograph how I see her soul/character. She likes it.

I agree about the mother in law though - I did overdo it

Peter

[Mig]

Don't worry, Peter, no one listens to me anyway. If you and your wife are happy with the results, that's what counts.

Here's an interesting twist on my argument tho - don't take it personally.

Mig

[Toad]

Nice retouch. Great crop and smoothing.

You know - I have never done a retouching yet where anyone complained about wrinkles being removed. Usually, they don't even notice - they don't see themselves as wrinkled after all - as children who have grown old...in their own minds, they are young people trapped in aging shells.

When wrinkles are subtly removed, they don't say "what are you trying to pull?" They say "Great picture!"

..and what's wrong with removing wrinkles anyway?