likes and dislikes

[carrbowl]

So I don't usually post my photos, cause they aren't usually good enough. I usually like them when I take them and the next day I find a million things wrong...so I'm feeling brave!!! What do you like and what could I do better. I saw this friend holding his one month old at the 4th celebration that I was snapping photos at yesterday. They want me to take photos of the newborn and this one looked perfect...we'll see what y'all think!!! (not that you are the final vote...mom and dad are--but your critique helps me gets better)

[Daniel Bates]

I like the composition. The picture seems a bit soft and flat, though - some USM will fix both.


Recipe: (yes, it's oversharpened... my USM actions are a little heavy-handed; I'm still fine tuning them)

USM ( 100/1/0 )
USM ( 15/50/0 )
USM ( 50/1/0 )
Levels (moved black point in some)
Curves (made a slight S curve)
duplicate layer on Screen blend mode, 33% opacity
duplicate layer on Soft Light blend mode with a 15-px Gaussian blur, 33% opacity



--Daniel

[Cope]

Soft? Maybe, but this is a portrait. I like the composition and the overall picture.

[Craig]

I agree with Daniel that its flat. The focus is on the dad, not the baby. When I look at it, I think of it as a dad portrait, not a baby portrait. The re-do from Daniel is better, but still way more focussed on dad, not baby. There's my 2 cents.

[Duffy Pratt]

I cropped it some to put more focus on the baby, and make it more symmetrical. I wrote basic RGB curves, then toned down the saturation some, and fiddled a little with the color balance (its a pretty yellow for a baby). Then did a high radius, low amount sharpen, like 35, 33, 1 in USM.

Duffy

[Daniel Bates]

As usual, your magic looks very good! I like your edit, Duffy.

[jstpeter]

Not to steal this post, but daniel I am very impressed with your sharpening. Do you care to post a new thread about USM 101?

[Daniel Bates]

Sure, I'll put together a write up if y'all are interested... I don't know much about it though, compared with others on this forum. (I'm just a hack. )

[Patti Edens]

I think this is a photo that Mom and Dad will love. I like the original the best. I prefer the softer look. It might be good with just a very little bit of sharpening but not too harsh.

Looking again - do a selective sharpening on just Dad's eye. That's all.

[carrbowl]

This is why I like to post ...sometimes!!!!!! When I shot this, I really did want the focus to be on Dad. He just married a woman with two kids and this is his first so he is so happy. He is great with her two boys, so I know he will be great with this one too. So it was curious when you thought the photo was about him. I do like the crop that shows more of the baby though. I personally llike it sharper, but then again alot is about personal preference....thanks for all the different ideas. It always makes me look at a photo with a different eye, which is what I wanted to do...thanks..

[DJ.]

This is a really nice image with a lot of possibilities. Hope you don't mind a little
experimentation.

[amadjuster]

I like the first one with the soft focus on the baby.

[carrbowl]

Dj...that is cool...something different...I like it thanks...and I don't mind...the more the merrier!!!

Daniel you can post your USM here if youd like or on the other post where I was asking about it...I don't mind at all...the more we learn the better.

[amadjuster]

Originally Posted by carrbowl

Dj...that is cool...something different...I like it thanks...and I don't mind...the more the merrier!!!

Daniel you can post your USM here if youd like or on the other post where I was asking about it...I don't mind at all...the more we learn the better.

Amen to that!

[Daniel Bates]

Well... here goes:


I have two USM sharpening actions. (I use PS 7 so I don't have Smart Sharpen.) The first action is the heavier one; it combines LCE (local contrast enhancement) with edge sharpening. There is one iteration of USM at 15%, 50 pixels, 0 threshold (that's the LCE) and another iteration at 100%, 1 pixel, 0 threshold (that's the sharpening).

The second action is for light sharpening: it's 75%, 1 pixel, 0 threshold. I use it to put the 'finishing touch' on a print, or when I don't want to use LCE.