I decided to participate because I'm a newbie to both photography and photoshop, and would love some constructive criticism. I really enjoy *trying* to get natural light shots of my daughter, but I'm not always lucky enough to get the exposure right so I usually wind up trying to correct/improve in photoshop.
I love using MCP Actions and the free actions so generously provided by P-Dub, so please do check those out! I'm horribly addicted to both of their blogs as well. Very talented ladies.
So, back to business...
Here's my submission for this week. Anna was hiding behind a shelf in her playroom and playing peekaboo with me. When she would stick her head out to say "boo", I just loved how the light from the window was hitting her face so I grabbed my camera. This is the best one I got between the natural light and the fact that she was moving so fast. Not a lot of time to focus and get the shot. Fire away! (But please be gentle!)
SOOCCanon Digital Rebel XT
50 mm Lense
f/2.5
ISO 1600
MCP Actions: Basic Exposure Fixer, Snap, Eye Doctor, Color Flair, Light Fog Fixer
MCP Vanilla Ice Cream
you can see my edit here: http://i39.tinypic.com/2znn3og.png
ReplyDeleteI used a square crop, which isn't the best if you want to print the photo, but it works just great on the computer :) I used paintshop pro 8 to fiddle around with the shadows, my edit is a touch over exposed, but I really like how it makes her eyes just pop out. I then lowered the saturation in everything but green and cyan (to make her eyes and dress stay so vibrant) This is a really cute shot!
ooooh, side lighting!!! I love the drama and shadows of side lighting! you captured her beautifully (I know it's hard to focus on a quickly moving target!! so kudos to you!).
ReplyDeletethis picture just screams to be a square - mostly because the white on the right (wall? window frame?) is quite bright, distracting, and adds nothing to the photo. You could crop two different ways: wider, leaving the cute buttons in; or closer, cropping a little bit below her chin and a little to the left of her barrette.
one tiny note: I might not lighten her eyes quite that much in your color version, but since you know your daughter's eyes way better than I, take my input with a grain of salt!! ;-}
overall, I think your edits are quite nice!
I had a feeling the square crop comment was going to come up...and it did. Twice :)
ReplyDeleteThe white in the right part of the frame is the shelf that she was hiding behind. So although I left it in mostly because it kind of helped tell the story of what she was doing at that moment, I couldn't settle on a closer crop that I liked.
Point taken about her eyes. I sometimes tend to be a bit heavy-handed with Jodi's wonderful MCP Actions, and I just love eyes that pop.
Thanks for the feedback! All good stuff.
Jen, I would definitely crop right in on that sweetie pie of yours. Don't be shy, just crop away.
ReplyDeleteSome of those actions, you might want to adjust the opacity some. With layers and layer masks, you can adjust as well, where here face won't get blown out on that right side.
Since you are a fan of MCP, look at her touch of lightness, it's free. You can try it out and then adjust the opacity so it doesn't seem too strong.
You did a great job and your daughter is precious.
Happy Mother's Day!
B Dad
oh man but I love this picture and think your edits are amazing! I always do the same thing to my girly's eyes - I love them to pop too! :-) oh and I tend to over-expose with actions because I just really like the high contrast look (oh and because I dont really know what I'm doing . . .)
ReplyDelete:-) great job!