I think it has the potential to be a really nice photograph. Composition & expressions are great. Right now the lighting of the faces is harsh, washed out foreheads, cheeks & noses. You might be able to pull some detail back in these areas (shot in RAW?) Skin tones (esp woman) are reddish. Maybe eliminate some of his gray hair (not all, but tone it down a bit) if he says it's OK.
I like the DOF, I like the crop, I like the colors [both in red], I like the pose -- except maybe I'd try having her a little more forward. Maybe its my screen but, her face seems to have a tint to it that his does not?
I think the composition is great, but I disagree, I think having them both in red, but having those be 2 contrasting shades of red, pulls from the aesthetics.
Yes I have it in RAW still. What would be the best way to tone down the highlights? I'm brand new at this, and this is my first "real" shoot that someone else is paying for. I'd like it to be right, and for my clients to be happy. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
If you're using Adobe Camera Raw via Photoshop you can either fool around with the exposure slider or the brightness slider to help with the highlights. For the reddish tone adjustment try using the tint slider, moving to the left will decrease the red (moving toward green). These are under the adjust tab. You can also adjust the reds by going under the calibrate tab, although these are usually used for making global changes to camera specific images. Play around with the sliders & see what works.
Ok is this any better? It's as dark as I felt like I could go and still retain detail in the shadows. And under color balance I used -15, 10, 5 setting.
Nice image of the couple, but the woman looks a bit synthetic in the way you have processed her. Its obviously all a mater of taste ( i just like seeing people less polished), but she has a magazine look that some how takes away something for me. She may love it and thats important if shes paying.
What does she look like a little less processed?
Nice image of the couple, but the woman looks a bit synthetic in the way you have processed her. Its obviously all a mater of taste ( i just like seeing people less polished), but she has a magazine look that some how takes away something for me. She may love it and thats important if shes paying.
What does she look like a little less processed?
Jane
Hi Jane,
Thanks for commenting. It's funny you should say that she looks synthetic--that's just the way she is. #1 above is straight out of the camera, no PS other than a resize and a crop from 2:3 ratio to 4:5 ratio since they want this photo in an 8x10. Honestly I've done very little processing, just some levels adjusting, and touch of healing brush under her eyes, and on his face in a place or two (scars.)
Thanks for looking!
Regards,
***EDIT***
OOPS!! Sorry, wrong forum. Here's the straight out of the camera shot:
Is that straight from the camera jpg auto-corrected for exposure (via ACR?) or something? It seems like some of your range is missing? If you post a JPG with no exposure compensation (if it exists), it might help more
anthony_ wrote:
Is that straight from the camera jpg auto-corrected for exposure (via ACR?) or something? It seems like some of your range is missing? If you post a JPG with no exposure compensation (if it exists), it might help more
I'm not sure what ACR is, I've only had the camera for about a week now. I shot in JPG+RAW mode. There were two files for each exposure and I downloaded the file that didn't have a .jpg extension, so I assumed it was the RAW file.
For the picture above, I simply resized the RAW file and and saved it as a jpg. I'd upload the RAW file so you could see it, but it's about 22MB and I don't know that I have the space.
SJMD wrote:
Money?
Is that not what we spend to get all these toys
steve
Nice start.
Exactly! As the average price of the things on my wishlist go up, my wife has laid down the law. This habit has to be self sufficient inside a year....
I think you have the start of a really good picture here. Dont you just hate people with perfect skin, hair and teeth?. I copied it to photoshop, did a very minor amount of work on it with highlight/shadow, and desaturated it a small amount, then reduced the red slider in hue/saturation. It seemed to help when viewed from this monitor, and gave a more even look to it, but it did not take much. Of course, its all a matter of personal taste. After years of trying to oversaturate everything, i think my eyes have finally started learning to appreciate something less intense.
ronbo wrote:
I think you have the start of a really good picture here. Dont you just hate people with perfect skin, hair and teeth?. I copied it to photoshop, did a very minor amount of work on it with highlight/shadow, and desaturated it a small amount, then reduced the red slider in hue/saturation. It seemed to help when viewed from this monitor, and gave a more even look to it, but it did not take much. Of course, its all a matter of personal taste. After years of trying to oversaturate everything, i think my eyes have finally started learning to appreciate something less intense....Show more →
If you don't mind, I'd love to know what you did, like actual numbers and what not. I thought about trying the shadows and highlights sliders, but the previous settings were so screwy I didn't even know where to begin.
, at this rate, I'll never make any money!!!
