PS Reworked Photos That I Delivered

[largelylivin]

Here is the before and afters of a job that I did recently. My current method of proofing them is to show my wife who, although untrained and certainly of questionable taste, is a good test to see if my alterations are good enough. I thought maybe it was time for some Pro feedback. This was an extremely problematic shoot in that I wasn't able to move the cars arround freely. The wife and daughter wouldn't drive dad's retored 1964 Corvette and he was out working in the barn. I was also using a new camera and accidently shot exerything 2 stops under.

Also, my 10-17 zoom didn't show up in time so the distortion effects are via PS too.

Be honest.

http://smile-123.smugmug.com/photos/197331435-M-1.jpg
http://smile-123.smugmug.com/photos/245703585-M-1.jpg

http://smile-123.smugmug.com/photos/197343257-M-1.jpg

http://smile-123.smugmug.com/photos/245703529-M-1.jpg

http://smile-123.smugmug.com/photos/198130088-M-1.jpg http://smile-123.smugmug.com/photos/245703663-M-1.jpg

http://smile-123.smugmug.com/photos/197391507-M-1.jpg

http://smile-123.smugmug.com/photos/245703780-M-1.jpg


Here's the gallery if you want to see them all. http://smile-123.smugmug.com/gallery/3384458/4/197377841 She didn't buy the more artistic selections like this proof.

http://smile-123.smugmug.com/photos/197391141-M-1.jpg

[pyrtek]

I'm sorry if this is harsh, but you wanted honest. In every single case I believe
the reworked versions are inferior to the untouched ones. The cloning is
probably the worst offence in your retouches, but you also lose a lot of the
vibrancy and pleasant contrast of the originals.

[photodoug]

the chick driving the car has man hands.

[pyrtek]

the chick driving the car has man hands.

An honest critique is one thing, but that is just nasty and unnecessary.

[largelylivin]

I'm sorry if this is harsh, but you wanted honest. In every single case I believe
the reworked versions are inferior to the untouched ones. The cloning is
probably the worst offence in your retouches, but you also lose a lot of the
vibrancy and pleasant contrast of the originals.

No appology necessary, although more specific points would be appreciated. I work in too much of a vacuum and need critique.

In posting these I guess my primary concerns, in order, were: (1) the sufficency of the obvious cloning work (2) the quality of my attempts to reduce noise in the dark areas (3) overall composition, color, contrast etc. (4) subtle use of warping to achieve more dramatic lens effects.

Regarding (2) you cannot see the noise issues in this size print, but believe me it was horrid. I eventually made a heavily filter copy of each car using NeatImage, overlayed it at 100% Normal, and then created a mask to let the edges, lines and higlights through.

Lessons learned: don't under expose in digital, recovery is much more painful than film, and watch the saturation of those reds (That older red 'vet was really a saturation problem).

With regard to your opinion that I lost the vibrancy and subtle contrasts, I see that only in the photo of the girl. She was shy and I only got off one snapshot: a bit off-focus, dirtly mirror and windows, flawed reflection in the mirror, but her mother wanted the pic.

In the other pics, I don't see it. Maybe someone else does?

[pyrtek]

No appology necessary, although more specific points would be appreciated.

That's very reasonable. I will write up a more detailed reply later this evening.