Ice Cream Dream Girl

[pemmett]

This was a one of shot of my daughter. All tips welcome for improvements. Thanks.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/151/408719510_a8fd731fbb_o.jpg

[W.W. Webster]

All tips welcome for improvements.The pose appears too contrived, and the subject looks to be thoroughly bored with waiting for the shot to be taken.

[gus]

Pemmett would you mind if i tweeked it in PS & reposted it ? It needs some pop.

[pemmett]

Pemmett would you mind if i tweeked it in PS & reposted it ? It needs some pop.

Please do tweek it. Please let me know what you did though. Thanks.

[pemmett]

The pose appears too contrived, and the subject looks to be thoroughly bored with waiting for the shot to be taken.

Thanks for the feedback. Actually she wasn't waiting for me to take the photo, she didn't know I was taking it - she hates her photo being taken :-) but I hear what you're saying about the shot. Thanks.

[gus]

Ok...this is seriously not even 10 seconds worth as the skin tones could use some work but i just played with the off-set & gamma sliders in CS2 in exposure & hit it with a bit of quick sharpening.

The photo needed some contrast i though.

[pemmett]

Ok...this is seriously not even 10 seconds worth as the skin tones could use some work but i just played with the off-set & gamma sliders in CS2 in exposure & hit it with a bit of quick sharpening.

The photo needed some contrast i though.

Thanks for the help. I'll play around with the image in CS and see what I can come up with. Cheers.

[Swartzy]

I like the shot and agree with Gus. I thought I'd mess with it for about 30 seconds and post it here. Hope you don't mind. Curves with black point, duplicate layer with screen, and curves with luminocity for the eyes.

http://Swartzy.smugmug.com/photos/137972691-L.jpg

[pemmett]

I like the shot and agree with Gus. I thought I'd mess with it for about 30 seconds and post it here. Hope you don't mind. Curves with black point, duplicate layer with screen, and curves with luminocity for the eyes.


Thanks for this. can you explain what "Curves with black point" means. I think I understand what "duplicate layer with screen, and curves with luminocity for the eyes." means. Although I have CS I normally just use my RAW software that comes with the Canon 30D that I bought. I always get a bit nervous using CS as I end to loose track of what I am doing or do things randomly trying to improve the image.

Any good books or training videos / online lessons you would recommend for CS? Cheers.

[DavidTO]

Make sure you all keep this thread on track as being critique, not a how-to. The Whipping Post is about critiquing photos, not about discussing post-processing techniques. That's what Finishing School is for, feel free to post over there for that discussion. :D

[pemmett]

Make sure you all keep this thread on track as being critique, not a how-to. The Whipping Post is about critiquing photos, not about discussing post-processing techniques. That's what Finishing School is for, feel free to post over there for that discussion. :D

Thanks for the reminder, it's easy to get carried away :D

[gus]

Any good books or training videos / online lessons you would recommend for CS? Cheers.

Have a look here (http://ronbigelow.com/articles/articles.htm)...it should help you quite a bit.

[Swartzy]

Make sure you all keep this thread on track as being critique, not a how-to. The Whipping Post is about critiquing photos, not about discussing post-processing techniques. That's what Finishing School is for, feel free to post over there for that discussion. :D

I realized after posting that I was in the Whipping Post forum..eeek. Bad me...I know better.:bow

[sit]

This was a one of shot of my daughter. All tips welcome for improvements. Thanks.

While post-processing can help this picture 'pop', I'm personally more curious about what could be done before a picture is taken to get the best possible image to work with.

What I like about the picture is that it makes me think: why does a girl eating ice cream look so pensive? I would normally expect an expression of joy or mischievousness, especially when coupled with the ice. The unexpected contrast catches my interest. Technically, you've captured some nice lighting across your daughter. There is some camera shake visible though; what shutter speed was this shot at?

I think you can also pay some attention to the background and the impact it can have in a portrait-style image. For example, having recently read a piece by Ben Lifson on borders (http://www.rawworkflow.com/making_pictures/08/index.html), I notice that the bamboo and table on the bottom frame your daughter inside the image. I don't like how it makes me think she's trapped eating ice cream... :scratch The curves of the chair break that up some but I think the chair is really just distracting from your daughter. The background also offers a green/red contrast which makes me think of Christmas :D

[pemmett]

While post-processing can help this picture 'pop', I'm personally more curious about what could be done before a picture is taken to get the best possible image to work with.

What I like about the picture is that it makes me think: why does a girl eating ice cream look so pensive? I would normally expect an expression of joy or mischievousness, especially when coupled with the ice. The unexpected contrast catches my interest. Technically, you've captured some nice lighting across your daughter. There is some camera shake visible though; what shutter speed was this shot at?

I think you can also pay some attention to the background and the impact it can have in a portrait-style image. For example, having recently read a piece by Ben Lifson on borders (http://www.rawworkflow.com/making_pictures/08/index.html), I notice that the bamboo and table on the bottom frame your daughter inside the image. I don't like how it makes me think she's trapped eating ice cream... :scratch The curves of the chair break that up some but I think the chair is really just distracting from your daughter. The background also offers a green/red contrast which makes me think of Christmas :D

Sit,

Thanks for the great advice. As a beginner (5 months) I'm still finding myself focussing on composition and some what on lighting. I often forget about the background and framing and camera shake and DOF etc etc. Any tips on how to remember these things or is it just practice, time and learning from mistakes?

Thanks/Peter

[W.W. Webster]

The last thing I do before I press the shutter, is to look around all sides of the frame in the viewfinder to see what's in (and what's out, or chopped off). :thumb

[pemmett]

The last thing I do before I press the shutter, is to look around all sides of the frame in the viewfinder to see what's in (and what's out, or chopped off). :thumb
Thanks for the tip. I've started to do that, but also realised that my view finder doesn't let me see anything which means I end up doing quite a bit of cropping the edges :scratch

I also chop things off sometimes cause I'm trying to focus on the center and then move my camera to get the right composition. This sometimes to thigns getting chopped, i.e. peoples feet. I'll take this tip and hopefully start seeing good results soon:D Thanks

[sit]

Any tips on how to remember these things or is it just practice, time and learning from mistakes?

Peter,

You can come up with your own tricks but I'm a believer in the latter. There are so many things to keep track of that it is hard to keep them all in mind. Fortunately, as you practice, things like using a fast enough shutter speed to avoid shake become habit enough that you don't think about it (much). For my own path, I think I'm finally starting to get good exposures but I still have to work a lot on composition. Good luck and hope to see more of your shots here :thumb

-Emil

[pemmett]

Thanks for all you time and comments. As I wouldn't be ableto shoot this shot again, I had a go at tweaking it in CS and cropping out some ofthe surrounding stuff.

You can see the results here. (http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?p=513983#post513983)

Not sure if it's really done you all justice but I'll be back with some more shots. I like a good whipping, probably more than most :rofl