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Author Topic: Photograph help  (Read 3085 times)

Shirley Bracken

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Photograph help
« on: January 13, 2010, 08:35:28 am »

Here is an photograph I took but don't know WHAT to fix.  I thought being an artist already that I would naturally know what needs fixing, apparently I don't.  What would you fix on this picture.  Are the cheeks too rosy?  I have applied many different layers but it never looks better to me.  Play with it if you like.  All critiques welcome!
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Jonathan Wienke

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Photograph help
« Reply #1 on: January 13, 2010, 08:39:41 am »

The color balance is way off--too blue-green. Fix that, and the rest will start making more sense. Hopefully you shot RAW and convert with a better white balance setting.
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Ken Bennett

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Photograph help
« Reply #2 on: January 13, 2010, 09:42:55 am »

Color balance is an aesthetic choice, not a hard and fast rule. This image looks fine to me -- there is little or nothing that I would change. The expression is wonderful.
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ckimmerle

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Photograph help
« Reply #3 on: January 13, 2010, 09:47:57 am »

The image definitely needs some work. Color balance may be somewhat subjective, but it is far less so when dealing with faces. Aside from this photo having too much cyan and green in the face (check the INFO palette), there is nowhere near a white point. The boys forehead, near that point of hair, read something like C-29, M-22, Y-23, which is much closer to a cadaver than a small, happy boy.

Here's what you can do:

First, open a levels adjustment layer and set the white point for each RGB color. That will help with the initial color balance and give you a white point, which you do not now have, which is why it looks muddy.

Second, go into a curves adj. layer and add a bit of yellow and magenta into the midtones of their respective blue and green channels.

That should get you very close to what, I think, you are looking for. But as was said already, you might want to think about starting over from the original file. It's a good learning process.

Important note

In cases like this, the INFO palette can be invaluable. I set my palette up with one side reading K (gray) and the other CMYK. I used CMYK rather than RGB as it's easier for me to think in terms of 0-100% as opposed to RGB's 0-255. If you try this setup, a rough starting point for Caucasian faces is somewhere in the neighborhood of C-12, M-25, Y-30. The gray (K) can read zero for faces.

This is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, Shirley, but it's much closer to what I think you are looking for. I used the above two adjustment layers I mentioned as well as a photo filter adjustment layer with a warm tone set to 10%.

« Last Edit: January 13, 2010, 10:18:38 am by ckimmerle »
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Slobodan Blagojevic

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Photograph help
« Reply #4 on: January 13, 2010, 10:31:08 am »

I think you might want to check this (from the help section of SmugMug - Pleasing skin tone):

http://www.smugmug.com/help/skin-tone

An interesting and detailed read (with instructions and illustrations). Two relevant excerpts:

"... A fair-skinned pinkish baby could be as light as 15% magenta, 16% yellow. Most Caucasians fall in the range of 5-20% more yellow than magenta. A fair-skinned Caucasian adult could be as low as 20% magenta, 25% yellow..."

and

"... On pleasing photos, cyan usually falls between 30% to 50% of the magenta value. Less than 30% of magenta makes sunburn; more than 50% of magenta makes makes them ghostly blue..."

tokengirl

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Photograph help
« Reply #5 on: January 13, 2010, 01:07:50 pm »

Shirley,

I agree with others here that the white balance is off - the boy looks like he's freezing to death!  I don't think his cheeks are too rosy, kids are supposed to have rosy cheeks.  

Easily fixed in Lightroom by playing with the white balance sliders, here is a before and after:



I think the white balance is the only thing that needs fixing - other than that, it's lovely.
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Ed Blagden

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« Reply #6 on: January 13, 2010, 01:11:38 pm »

All good advice here, but you could be a cowardly custard like me and convert to B&W.

Ed
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Shirley Bracken

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« Reply #7 on: January 13, 2010, 01:43:42 pm »

This is all great informantion.  This is not a shot I took in Raw.  It is one sent back to me after I lost all 40,000 of my photos.  I'm starting over in Raw and photoshopCS4.  

Anyway, now that I am able to use the tools, I could not identify what I needed to do.  After I see a few before and afters, I will know what to look for.  I'm sure it will jump out at me.  Do any of you have some before and afters?  I really need to see them.

What several of you did to this photo has shown me a lot.  Thanks!  

One thing that might help me is to see the old shot next to the one I'm fixing.  I can get two up but they both change at the same time.  How do I get one to work on and one I can see with no changes?  

Thanks for taking the time to help me.
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