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Friday, October 2, 2009

Constructive Feedback Friday


It's "Constructive Feedback Friday" over at I Heart Faces! The first 40 people to link up on their site will get some constructive criticism on a photo of choice.

I took this photo near sunset in the shade and there wasn't quite enough light I think, because it turned out a little blurry/out of focus. For editing I used Picnik and Photoshop CS3. I wanted to brighten the photo and make it in focus. I tried to sharpen it some and added some boost. I also did a little edge burn to hopefully make the face stand out brighter, but it didn't turn out like I wanted it too. Instead the photo looks too dark and too boosted. I did achieve some clarity and sharpness, but I lost the brightness. Do I need to up the exposure? Is there a better way to fix this? I especially want to get rid of the blurriness. Thanks in advance for your constructive feedback!!

The Original


The edited

10 comments:

Tanya said...

Very cute baby!!!

I would lighten the picture, crop a little tighter, make the eyes pop by bringing out the white of the eye and better defining the pupil by dodging the inside and burning outside. Very nice shot overall. You have a beautiful family.

Jen said...

Your girls are so adorable. I also have twin girls, Grace and Faith.
Aren't girls so much fun!!!

Amydeanne said...

what a cutie.
I played with it:
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o209/amydeanne/S7009829.jpg

I cropped it, blurred the background, sharpened the eyes and lightened it as well as added a little warmth to the skin.
hope the visual helps!

Amydeanne said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Skeller said...

Oh!!! She's a total cutie!!! Shade always makes the light "blue". Yes, your exposure is way too dark, so I bumped it in my fix. Truth to tell, I can't really see your blur, because this is such a tiny, low-res image on your blog.

I posted my fix in my Flickr stream. You can find it at this link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/skeller5/3974956104/?edited=1

Thanks for letting us play with your picture,
Susan

Sarah said...

Thank you all for your feedback! I really appreciate all the ideas!!

Amydeanne,
I really like your edit. What program do you use?

SKELLER,
I don't quite understand what you mean about the photo being tiny, low res...what do I need to change? Do I need to resize it or something? Your edit looks nice too, only I wish I could see it bigger...but I think that's my problem??

Skeller said...

Whoops, Sarah.
My bad. If I had tried clicking on your photo, I would have found the full-res version. Instead I copied the low-res version that shows on your blog. I'm so sorry!! (blogger resizes photos)

AJ said...

She's a little doll! I love that expression on her face, LOL!

One thing I want you to check is the brightness of your computer monitor. You actually made her a lot darker than she is in the sooc. Don't worry about the blown out sky. No biggie. Next time your in-camera meter decides to underexpose the subject like this, you'll know to make it overexpose about a stop in order to get your pretty girl looking her prettiest. You want her skin to be much lighter, not so gray.

I'm getting tired, so I'm not sure you want to critique my color edit too closely, LOL. But you can tell I've brought the exposure up a LOT. She's a lot brighter looking. I put in a slight vignette, but erased it back from her skin. I don't like the way it makes the skin look gray.

I think it's a sharp picture. You just need a little unsharp mask. On the full resolution file use the settings 200/.3/4 or somewhere around that. For web I use 350/.2/0 most of the time.

Here's a color edit:
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y286/NanasMama/S7009829edit.jpg

And a b/w.
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y286/NanasMama/S7009829editbw.jpg

I hope that helps a little!

Nicolasa said...

What a beautiful picture! Great job editing it!
I have left you something at my blog!

Amydeanne said...

Hi Sarah,
I use Paintshop Pro X; very easy to use!