Other things I can do to improve image?

[smugger]

Hi,

Playing with photoshop and have VERY limited skills right now that I'm looking to expand. So far I did some auto-color correction, cleaned up some baby acne (I didn't even know it existed but that's what her mother told me it was), and sharpened. The lips are out of focus still I know, not sure how to fix it (just sharpen??). I'm open to criticism as long as it's constructive, thanks!

http://www.smugmug.com/photos/111530810-S.jpg

[pathfinder]

Welcome to dgrin smugger.

Your portrait has good color and tonality. The depth of focus could be larger as you mentioned.

I might try to crop one side so that the iittle tyke is not so dead centered in the image.

Show us some more of your work.

[smugger]

Thanks for commenting! Wow, 80 views and one response...I am just as guilty though of just looking, ha ha. :D

I agree, it's a bit too centered, if I can shoot a similar pose again sometime I'll try to change my angle. For this image I tried to crop it to make her a bit more off centered. The extra cloth in the lower right hand corner was bothering me as well. I ended up doing a bit of stamping to get rid of it and cropping to get her off center. I sort of like the white framing the top and bottom but I cropped the bottom for this version to keep a somewhat rectangle shape. The lips were a bit too shiny putting focus on the fact they were OOF. I toned it down a bit.

I might in the end keep her in the middle, but thought I would post the cropped one for comparison as I toned down her lips as well.

http://www.smugmug.com/photos/111785414-S.jpg

Does the crop look better? I dont' know which I prefer right now, been looking at this too long =/.

I'll try to post more in the near future Pathfinder, I appreciate the response you gave!

[Art Scott]

I really don't see that much difference...what I would try to do is this crop out that upper left hand corner.....no much just start at hte upper right of that funky background color and go strait down...then you have light blanket, dark blanket and sheepwool looking blanlet..baby with drip guard:rofl below neck...(oh yeah forgot they call those bibs don't they)....and blankets in reverse order....

other than that, I think it is a great portrait.:thumb

[pathfinder]

I like the crop much better, but I think that Art is correct that losing the little tan corner on the upper left is worthwhile also, by cropping a little bit along the left side of the image also.

Those large white areas just compete with the baby's face for attention.

Generally, I prefer a subjects face to be brighter than the surrounding background - not talking high key shots here, just standard portraits. Otherwise the subjects face gets overwhelmed by the brightness surrounding it.

[mwgrice]

I'd reshoot (not so easy if it's not your baby, I know) and zoom in on the little guy's head. It usually doesn't hurt to take a couple of shots from different spots--zoomed in very tightly, a little further away, a little further still, etc.

[smugger]

mwgrice, thanks for your suggestion, I will try to sometime though I have some other images from that day too I can try to improve. It wasn't a controlled portrait setting, she was just chillin' in her seat so I shot her. If I can do something more controlled, I'll try to get her in a less distracting background and definitely from different angles.

Cropping that corner totally made a difference for this shot to me. I like it so much better. It's not a perfect portrait shot by any means (i.e. background might be too busy, odd angle, etc), but I feel like the image got much improved with your feedback. :clap Thanks again and Happy Thanksgiving!

http://www.smugmug.com/photos/112032292-S.jpg