any more PP needed???

[carrbowl]

Ok I've done what I think needs to be done---what else do you think I need to do??? (I have taken as many wrinkles out as I can...if I take any more out, they won't recognize us!!!!)

[jamiewallace]

The whole thing feels a little fake and overprocessed. Did you change out the background?

[carrbowl]

NO...the lighting was not good to begin with...

[carrbowl]

this is the original

[Paulo]

Renae-only a suggestion but you may consider including the original image along with your post-processed one.

I'm no processing expert but I think you did a fairly decent job with what your were trying to accomplish...decreasing wrinkles. Based on my own style, I would probably decrease the overall brightness of the image. But of course, adjust it the way YOU like it most.

Based on what I learned from other photogs here, in the future, it really helps to put some distance between your subject and the backdrop. It helps lessen or eliminate those strong shadows and allows you to take full advantage of your lens' DOF capability in blurring out the background.
How or what did you use light this? On-camera flash? Studio light?
If flash, have you tried turning the flash-head up and bouncing off the ceiling?
If some other steady light source, maybe diffuse it with some sort of material.


EDIT: OOPS! Sorry, you posted the original while I was typing out my reply.

[carrbowl]

This was a photo my brother and I rigged up at Christmas. We used his Nikon --which was probably the problem...we should have used my canon I can't remember, but I'm almost sure we had a flash on top of the camera, I think he has a 50D or D50...however Nikon goes. We also had two flashes on either side and bounced them off a sheet. From what the forum told me when I posted them at Christmas, they said we shouldn't have bounced it off the sheet as it absorbed the light. I think we tried bouncing them off the ceiling but weren't happy with the results. I do know what to do next time with the photos, but I still would like to fix this photo.

[Paulo]

Originally Posted by carrbowl

This was a photo my brother and I rigged up at Christmas. We used his Nikon --which was probably the problem...we should have used my canon ....

Ha-ha! So bad! I'm a Nikon shooter...

For my own work, I prefer natural lighting. Mainly because my indoor lighting skills need a lot work.

Honestly, I think you did a good job with the post processing:red eye, wrinkes, skin/clothing colors. I love the contrast/saturation. But it may just be my monitor at work but over all, it just seems a little too bright to me.

[saber]

The lighting seems a bit off indeed. But I think it is something that can be repaired. I hope you don't mind me editing a photo of your.

What I did in Photoshop:
1. Adjusted the levels to the histogram, not to far or it will get to saturated and parts will be clipped off.
2. Removed the red-eyes with the, you guessed it, the red eye tool.
3. Than I removed the very strong shadow behind the girls. Note use a diffuser or a box the next time, this will give the light a better coverage and less hard. Harder lights make wrinkles appear 2 times larger.
I removed it with the clone stamp tool at a very small pixel, the background is very well suited for this. And than used the healing brush to regain the texture of the background.
Also removed some light in the glasses with the clone stamp tool.
4. Unsharpen filter it a tiny bit, too much will make them look very bad.

Hope this will help you out, easy steps and minor work...

Regards,

Frank

[jamiewallace]

Or in Black And White?



Deep Blue filter Applied in Photoshop.

[carrbowl]

I look haggered enough in the color...thanks, but the black and white adds more years than I need!!!!!!

[engstrom]

Just a suggestion for the future, if you have two flashes off camera you could try putting them behind white sheets (if your sheets were white and they were thin enough) to diffuse and soften the light. Be sure and set the flashes to wide angle zoom and get them 3 or 4 feet behind the sheets.

[picasso]

I desaturated it a little

Image -> Adjustments -> Desaturate

Blurred the background with Gausian Blur then did a layer mask/hide all and painted it back in.

It was a little over saturated for me and the background was a little distracting.

[ngoduyviet]

Originally Posted by carrbowl

This was a photo my brother and I rigged up at Christmas. We used his Nikon --which was probably the problem...we should have used my canon I can't remember, but I'm almost sure we had a flash on top of the camera, I think he has a 50D or D50...however Nikon goes.

Weird, one of my brothers uses Nikon, the other Canon, my dad's a Nikon...I guess we are not too dysfunctional after all
BTW, I like Picasso's PP version.

[Paulo]

I like Frank's version of the subject combined with Picasso's version of the background.

Thank you all for posting the steps.

[carrbowl]

WEll I guess this is a perfect example of not being able to please everyone!!! Everyone has their own preferences and you have to make the photos look the way you like them...BUT..when you point out things you like and dislike, it makes me look at things I make not normallly look at. Thanks for the comments and the different ways of PP. I downloaded a 30 day version of Paint Shop Pro...we'll see how that goes.