Hi all, am trying to get my x-mas card pic and have been struggling (posed portraits are a challenge for me)
I have identified two that I might choose from, but the images seem kinda flat to me. Anyone have any thoughts on what might make them 'pop' a bit more.
I've found that if I make a whining noise in the back of my throat it makes the dog perk up its ears and look at the camera with an interesting look. That reaction also makes the child react. Win-Win!
I believe you attempting to fix these photos which are indeed quite flat. If your Photoshop able do the following. First add a duplicate layer. In your layers panel right click the duplicate layer name and click on the blending option. Select overlay and don't freak out at the first appearance. Once you have done that grab the slider an move the opacity to 0 and then begin moving the slider up towards about 40-50%. The photos are really flat and a tad bit grainy. These method will darken up the background in your photos a bit but it will really punch up colors and contrast nicely. Hope that helps.
Here's a very, very quick attempt to make them a little more vibrant. This usually works on images with flat lighting. I adjusted saturation slightly, smart sharpened (too small of an image to work with, but that would be my next normal step). Selective dodge and burn. Add a duplicate layer and set the blending to "multiply". Adjust Curves to lighten new layer. (pull line up and to the left). Apply a Gaussian blur with a radius of around 30 (play with this until you see what's best). Then reduce the opacity of that layer until it's where you want it. At this point you may need a layer mask to only apply the "blurred layer" to certain areas in the image. After that a little more dodging/burning on the multiplied layer.
Thank you all for your input, and tips and tricks. You are also right about the graininess, all in all, not a great shot! I think that i'm going back to the drawing board and try again.
some quick channel blending in RGB, a tiny bit of color work in LAB, and some sharpening of the L channel.
i wanted to keep the detail in the fur, keep some shape in the girl's face, and bring out the slight color variations where appropriate - while adding 'pop' to the image
