My youngest, Abby. D90 and the 35mm f/1.8, shot at 1/80, f/2.8. I like the way it came out and will print and frame it for the house...but...should I get rid of the hair in her right eye? My gut says to leave it as this really is a perfect example of how she *is*, wild hair and all. Thanks for your thoughts.
I would remove only the hair from the eye. IMO doing so would make a better photo without detracting from its essence. BUT if you prefer to keep it this way, that's fine too. Still a way cool photo.
Lovely focus & your daughter is breathtaking! I agree that you should get the print just the way you want it, doesn't really matter what we think here. But I would do a test print in a smaller size first, unless your full size version is a bit different from this web compressed one. Your red channel is badly blown on her hair/cheek/nose/dress . . . I've been burned printing blown channels before & it sucks to invest $ in a big print only to have it come out all splotchy/pixelated on paper.
And since you asked . . . if I had the PS skills to clone the one in front her eye I would; the messy hair message is totally there without it & IMHO it competes with the lovely eye message instead. I'd leave the one by her mouth though.
Personally I prefer the image in BW anyways - all the colors behind her compete against her eyes & wand for my attention. Granted, I'm looking at it from a not-her-parent angle, so that makes a big difference, but BW keeps my eyes right where they should be.
I would definitely clone out the hair in front of her eye. I think I would take a stab at the ones by her mouth too....but they're not as distracing as the one in front of her eye.
i would remove the hair from the eye, hair from the cheek and mouth area and a few from camera left side of her head. she is soo cute and is that a Barbie Magic Wand?
If it didn't bother you would you be asking the question?
My rule of thumb for whether something is a distraction is asking, "If it wasn't there would it be missed".
Its mostly a matter of how well you retouch it. Eyes are very interchangable. In this case you copy / paste the other eye, then adjust it brighter with levels and blend in the bottom part over the hair with the mask the retouching will be less noticeable than with cloning. You'll need to do a bit of cloning over the lower eye lid, but that will be easier to pull off with cloning than the iris.
Thanks for all the comments folks! The original was very overexposed but I was able to bring back some detail on her right side (shot in RAW) w/capture nx2. I don't think I have the chops to successfully get rid of the hair in the eye so if anyone cares to give it a go, please feel free.
RE: the B&W conversion, I tried that as well but in the end felt the color looked better. I'm sure someone better with pp could do a great job...but I'm not that guy!
Again, appreciate all the kind words and input. Much appreciated.
