help with this portrait

[martin_alston]

OK, I really like the look of the baby in this shot but the photo as a whole

lack any real punch. It was just something I took when the mom pick up the

baby to calm her down. Do what you can with it and let me know how you did it.

Thanks.<div></div>

[martin_alston]

Here's a smaller version<div></div>

[jay_hern]

Keep in mind that I am no professional here, but I was bored so I figured i'd give it a try.. Also the monitor im working on is not calibrated so it might look totally different on everyone elses screen.

 

Just did a quick unsharp mask, contrast layer and then a curves layer, added some saturation in the eyes. Used the channel mixer to get rid of the red and added a pink overlay layer with a mask to add some pink into some of the fleshy areas.(because I like babies with real fleshy pink colors, go fig). Also dodged the eyes.. Then I added a gaussian blurred overlay layer for a softness effect. Also pulled out some midtones in levels to make the baby seem a bit brighter.

 

Now Im just going to wait and see what the real pro's do so, because everytime I see you guys go at an image I learn something new :D

[jay_hern]

Ooops that was kind of a small view, heres a larger.. Sorry

[tommyinca]

Here is a try. Lower contrast, soften Shadow (with difused mask), soften skin (mix with blured layer), add saturation (more to eyes and lip). Some Cropping.<div></div>

[nicola inglis]

my try<div></div>

[nicola inglis]

yikes, way too dark!

[nicola inglis]

try again<div></div>

[nicola inglis]

Yuck, why does it look so different when I upload it?

[jay_hern]

Did you convert it to srgb color space before you uploaded it?

[michael_madio]

I really don't think post-processing is the issue. First, use stronger composition. Use the "rule of thirds" and place one of the eyes at an appropriate intersection. Second, use better lighting technique. Get the key light higher and further off to the side (catch lights should be at 10:00/2:00 positions). Bottom line, try your best to get it right in the camera. It's a bit more initial effort but the aggregate time/effort savings are tremendous.

[gdw]

Martin, let's call this a salvage job. Not sure what you are looking for in the photo but I thought maybe getting rid of the background would give you the expression without the distraction.<p>

 

1. Used part of the infants shadow to clone out the distracting background.<p>

2. Smoothed the edges with softening brush<p>

3. Duplicated layer and set blend mode to Screen 100% then merged<p>

4. Duplicated merged layer and set screen to Multiply 100%<p>

5. Selected triangle of face (eyes, nose, mouth) and inverted selection<p>

6. Applied Gaussian blur at radius of 15 pixels<p>

7. Merged layers <p>

8. Touched up outline of hair and face again with softening brush<p>

9. Reduced saturation slightly<p>

10. Increased Gamma to lighten overall<p>

11. Used Eyedropper to pick up shadow color under right cheek<p>

12. Used very soft low density Airbrush to paint back part of shadow <p>

13. Cropped to 8x10 ratio<p>

[mark pav]

OK, first I cropped it a bit, then I fiddled with the contrast. Next I dodged and burnt around

the eyes, lips, face, and edges of the pic. I smoothed the skin a tiny bit and then--bizarre as

this may seem--I added a very small amount of noise. the reasoning is that I wanted to de-

emphasise the hair and other "imperfections" in the shot, but I didn't want the skin to look

plasticy. I converted the shot to black and white with the channel mixer using a ratio of R:40

G: 35 B: 25. I added a colorized hue/sat layer with the saturation down to 2%, just to add a

small bit of colour back, so that the shot didn't look utterly monochromatic. I then shrunk

the pic and sharpened the area around the eyes and lips just a touch.<div></div>

[gdw]

Sorry, the photo didn't go on the first try<div></div>

[mark_sirota1]

I'm not sure this crop works because the eyes aren't sharp, but here's my take.<div></div>

[photographer lori]

Played around a bit and this is what I got:

 

I cropped it, desaturated it, tweaked the eye color, burned the lips a bit and sharpened it.<div></div>

[photographer lori]

Better crop<div></div>

[emre]

A simple B&W conversion and dodging/burning later:<div></div>

[twmeyer]

Your light is too low, the shadow of his nose is lower than his nose is... t <p><i>and</i> the kid looks like he's takin a dump.

[nicola inglis]

liquefy the corners of his mouth upwards slightly :-)