i ♥ faces - Constructive Feedback Friday
Today is Constructive Feedback Friday at i ♥ faces. The photo I chose is of my daughter, feel free to tell me what you think! What could I do to make it better?(or what could I have done to make it better?)
I knew as soon as I snapped this picture of my daughter that I would love this photo. And I do :) The expression on her face is just too cute. It's not a perfect photo by any means. The shadow on the side of her face is what bothers me most. I know if she would have been facing the window that shadow would have been gone, but sometimes with toddlers you take what you can get. The side of her face that is facing the window is washed out. The colors are very cool. I tried a few things to adjust that, but I am not sure if I really like it. The background also bothers me... but that's what you get with a snap shot :)
I used Picnik to edit this photo. I am new to photography and I am not familiar with Photoshop, but I would love to learn. I feel that I am limited in what I can do with Picnik, but for now it is what works for me.
EXIF data:
f/4.5
1/30 sec
ISO 640
29mm
Original:
Adjusted temperature and saturation:
1960's effect:
Black and White:
Thanks for all of your help!!!
11 comments:
Hi Jessica,
I really love this photo of your daughter. It is a great photo, and I love her expression. You did a great job editing the colors (warming it up). The thing that bothers me is just what you said - the shadows on one side and washed out on the other. Thats not something that can be fixed with picnic though. I did some adjusting with photoshop to the levels to even out the lighting on the face and bring back some color, and you can see my edit here:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2485/4195630330_78905d7ced_b.jpg
I also reduced color saturation to the background (to help it fade away) and sharpened the eyes to make them pop. I definitely recommend learning how to use photoshop, there are lots of tutorials, and everyone at i heart faces is really nice and helpful :)
This is what I LOVE about this photo:
Her expression is WONDERFUL! Quick capture, I know! I'm so glad you caught it!!
The lighting in this photo gives her face DIMENSION! That's really nice. The left side of her face is really bright, a little over-exposed. You could try moving her a little further away from the window (or door....whatever the light source is) or wait til later in the day when the sun is not SO bright right on her face. But, I LOVE the contrast you have between the 2 sides. It gives the face a 3D effect. GREAT job!
I love that you were able to catch the light in BOTH eyes, even though the one side is in the shade.
The crop is nice and I love how she is on ONE side of the photo! It draws your eye RIGHT to her face.
The 60s is my FAVORITE I think of all of them. I love the rounded corners as well!
Overall, a very nice job! It's clean. It's simple. And very well done!
Your daughter is precious!! Just wanted to say hi and let you know that i'd be following along. I love that you have all the photo sites listed!!
For kids, and portraiture, I can't stress enough the need for a faster shutter. 1/30 is far too slow, I'd bring it up to atleast 1/200, then back out of your fstop, leaving a very wide aperture. This will allow more light, and give you the chance to back off your ISO. As for this shot ... how much more natural can you get?? :) This is a natural light shot, one I can relate and congratulate. Her expression is priceless, her eyes are clear and focused. Tweaking your settings a bit will allow you more artistic freedom when shooting indoors and make it so that the background will not come into play as much. Which is why I love a wide aperture :) GOOD JOB!
Thanks for all the tips! This helps so much. I love the natural light as well. I just want to learn to use it better. Thanks Terrano Photography for your tip on aperture what I need now is a lens that allows me to use a larger aperture :) 4.5 is as large as mine can go. Thanks Tiffany, I love your edit and I think she was a little too close to the window. Things to work on... I am still so happy I got this shot!
Wow, what beautiful eyes! I second everything Terrano says. I suppose my job here is done! :) If you'd like to see my edit, you can find it here: http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn88/racheldurik/tutorials/IMG_3092copy.jpg
Since there was a bit of noise, I added one of the textures that was recently featured on the Faces site and just played a bit with the levels and color balance.
Great picture and keep at it! Thanks for participating!
Thanks American Mum! I LOVE your edit!!!
I had fun with yours! It was a fantastic photo and just needed some minor tweaking. I did a small crop to take out some of the edge on the left. I then went into Lightroom and warmed it up literally just a tad. I think used a Lightroom preset I have called 'fix the highlights'. That helped with some of the overexposed highlights. I then went into CS 4 and used some Kubota actions on the face/skin. I hope you like the edit!
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v206/chelleh24/?action=view¤t=20091218-IMG_3092-Edit-1.jpg
Thanks Michelle :) I really love your edit! I am so glad I chose this picture... everyone has done an excellent job with it!
I love this photo and the cute little look of surprise on her face. :)
You have gotten a lot of great advice already! The one thing that was bothering me was the railing behind her head. To make that more blurry in the camera, I would have opened up my aperture (made the number as low as it could go) so that the background would have been blurred more. My favorite lens of all is my 50mm 1.4 lens - I can open up that lens all the way to 1.4 if I need to and it gives me that yummy look of bokeh to hide everything I hate inside my house. LOL!
I have edits of your photo up on my blog: http://thearthurclan.blogspot.com/2009/12/constructive-feedback-angies-edits.html
Thanks so much for letting us play with your photo a bit!
~Angie
co-founder of I ♥ Faces
P.S. Would you mind sending me an email at iheartfaces (at) hotmail (dot) com? I'd like to ask you a question. :)
Angie, thanks for the info on the lens... I am looking forward to buying one, hopefully soon! Your edits are great, I love them! Thanks for taking the time to help out.
Post a Comment