Have I kept it natural looking?

[peterdove]

Just did this work on a photo which my wife didnt realise I was taking. She was busy playing with my daughter. What I want to know is have I kept the natural innocent look of the photo.

Hope you like it - I am trying to get some time to put a tutorial together - but I am so busy taking them and retouching photos!!

Before
http://www.kortexchess.com/images/mummybefore.jpg

After
http://www.kortexchess.com/images/mummyafter.jpg


Any feedback is appreciated.

[GOLDCOIN]

The brush of "Love" was used, you did an excellent job in both......The look you captured with the camera and your talent's used to enhance.

Very well done..... Do hope you share more with us in this coming New Year.

[peterdove]

Thank very much. I hope I get a few more comments from others. This picture has been submitted to the makers of the toy hoping that they might use it in advertising campaign - any comments welcome on the perceived suitability for this sort of thing.

[phili1]

Peter. If you put a smaller file size we could see the photos in one ahot rather then panning.

I like the copmosition, I think you have caputred the moment. I assume she is a new mom because she is cuddling the animal like one. In the second one you adjsuted the skin and coloration just fine. I cant find a negative comment except the panning.

NIce job.

[Mike Needham]

Great job on this one Peter. Really nailed it a treat - the cropping is also spot on.

[flippit]

very nice job Peter. the picture lets one feel the softness of a mum's love as well as the softness of the toy.

please do find time for the tutorial

[peterdove]

Smaller Images

Hi All,

Some of you have requested smaller images

http://www.kortexchess.com/images/mummybefore_small.jpg

http://www.kortexchess.com/images/mummyafter1_small.jpg


Cheers

[phili1]

HI Peter.

I realyy love your composition. You did it in thirds. Most people like to frame dead center.

The redo of color adds to softness, its got it all.

Great job!

[peterdove]

Thirds?

Ahhhhh so thats what I did

I didnt know what you meant, but I assume it is the cropping to make Emma appear more to the right. I just thought that a close in crop caught the character and mood of the picture much better.

I am not very well trained in the techniques of protraits etc, I just take what I see. Let me know if you know a good course or book which talks about this. I have a LOT to learn and I soak up information like a sponge.......INPUTT NEEED INPUTTT

Peter

[Barbie Hocking]

Very nice job. The composition of the the picture is good. The curve of her eye and nose directs your eyes to the toy. There is an area for the promo verbage. You gave her skin a lovely, soft feeling and your masking of her hair is top notch.

I always have plenty of design opinions, probably more than you wanted, so disregard once I cross your threshold.

1. Since the photo is meant to market the toy, the detail in her hair should be de-emphasized. Also, a soft look will contribute to the ambience of the subject matter.

2. Her downward gaze is nice, but it shouldn't be away from the camera. This gives the impression of an averted gaze, rather than welcoming the consumer to this tender moment.

3. The bear is much lighter than the hair. This serves to once again keep the hair as a focal point. Additionally, the dark colors are found only in the upper right of the composition. Similar colored visual cues should be in more than one area of a composition to tie it together. If possible, lighten up the hair and add a hint of the bear's coloring. Adding some contrast to the bear might also contribute to a visual flow.

4. Your unsharp-mask picked up some artifacts in her eyelashes, hair, teeth, and on her forehead.

[peterdove]

THANKS!!

hey thanks for the scrutiny

Actually the picture wasnt meant as a picture I was going to use for promo. I was just wondering if it would make it.

Now with all the usefull tips you mentioned I am thinking about reshooting it, and getting some proper studio gear to make a really good job of it.

"1. Since the photo is meant to market the toy, the detail in her hair should be de-emphasized. Also, a soft look will contribute to the ambience of the subject matter."

Good tip, although I original had it like this because the emphasis was on my wife and I liked the look of her newly washed undried hair, but as you say if I was making the toy the focus I need to do something about the hair.

2. Her downward gaze is nice, but it shouldn't be away from the camera. This gives the impression of an averted gaze, rather than welcoming the consumer to this tender moment

Again as above, she was playing with our daughter.

3. The same as above, although your ideas about the bear and her hair are excellent

4. Thanks for pointing that out - I will fix that although calming down the shiny spot on the forehead is quite hard work especially with all the hair in the way.


THANKS! You have really got me keen to get a proper studio kit and reshoot some of this work specifically for the toy!

Oh and did I say thanks

Peter

[Barbie Hocking]

If you're operating on a budget, who isn't, a cheap way to start studio lighting is with slave lights ($40), the holder mount ($25), a cheap stand ($30), and a light meter ($100). It looks like you already have a good camera that allows you to set shutter and apeture speeds.

Every now and then I sell something on ebay. I have two professional studio kits, but I use the slave light setup for these shoots because it's so easy to set up. Move the light closer or farther from the subject to adjust it's strength. You can diffuse the light by taping paper towels, extended by popsicle sticks, to the slave light. (I learned this trick from a lighting expert when I was out of town and had left my soft boxes at home.)

A good place to buy photography doo-dads is at
Porter's . Their online site isn't comprehensive, so order their free catalog.

[mnadi]

Good job

You did an excellent job regarding the skin tone and softenning the marks around the eyes.

Only one comment came to mind: If you have PhotoShop 7 Try using the healing brush on the the teeth front filling color.

Lovely mum and pose :-)
Happy new year to everyone
Mo