PS the POW--Go! 3/1/10

[picturesque]

<p>This week's image for Photoshopping was submitted by Katie O'Dell--thank you.<br /><br />You may post one reworked image, so make it your best effort. Any explanations about why and how you did what you did are encouraged and appreciated. Any critique is also welcome. Please remember to make your image 700 pixels wide and post a caption.<br /><br />For those of you wondering what this thread is about, this is part two of an exercise called Photo of the Week, in which an image is chosen from submissions to be critiqued, or, in this case, 'photoshopped' by others. You may find the thread with image submissions by looking for the most recent one with a similar title.<br /><br />Have fun!</p><div></div>

[erica_pheysey1]

<p>I cropped tight and long, not something I'd probably have done in camera, but I don't think the angle as is, is quite flattering. I'd maybe use this type of crop in an album layout more than as a photo printed on its own. Also a bit of blur, which increased saturation, a little too much.....</p>

[erica_pheysey1]

<p>woops,</p><div></div>

[alexandrutunschi]

<p>My take on this... Cropped a little, processed and a little vignette.</p><div></div>

[katie_odell1]

<p>@Erica - this angle isn't something I would've picked either, but the bride specifically requested it, so I shot it her way and my way. I am really interested in seeing how others would crop it - I completely see this being something she would add as a central image in the album, but it's not a print photo.<br>

<br /> @Alexandru - I really like the how the green popped in your version!</p>

[maile_lani]

<p>I've never done this before, but here is mine! I rotated it a little to the left, pumped up the contrast/saturation, and added a slight yellow tone to it. I also softened the hard shadows on her face :) It's a cool picture, I love how full and detailed her dress looks!</p><div></div>

[KenPapai]

<p>I didn't look at any of the others and didn';t try for anything artsy or dramatic.</p>

<p>1. Some simple Shadow/Highlight filtering (CS2)<br>

2. Color boost (saturation boost and Hue to the right, away from red)<br>

3. Localized sharpening</p>

<p>Nothing more for me to do. Cropping not possible as the apparent purpose of this D90 shot at 17mm was the wide dress. (shot at high ISO at f/2.8)</p><div></div>

[david_schilling___chicago_]

<p>Here's my attempt to add more fill light and pulling back the blown highlights.</p><div></div>

[KenPapai]

<p>I re-edited this at my home office, on a calibrated monitor, using CS4 and it's much better -- but I'll not post it. David's edit above is pretty nice.</p>

[JohnWebster]

<p>Selected arms and face with magic wand to brighten, used levels and curves on various areas, dodged some, retouched hot spot under her nose, lightened lower part of dress, selected top area around windows and wall and lowered those values globally---always fun to see if I can pull a rabbit out of the hat in photoshop!</p><div></div>

[tom_mann1]

<p>Using PS, I attempted to make the image look as if there were some warm fill lights in the room to reduce the extreme contrast due to the strong backlighting. If anyone happens to like this look, I can enumerate the important layers in my stack.</p>

<p>Thoughts?</p>

<p>Tom M.</p><div></div>

[markonestudios]

B&W conversion<div></div>

[david_schilling___chicago_]

<p>Thanks Ken. Here's grayscale with just a hint of color.</p><div></div>

[JRCrowe]

<p>More of an ethereal look done with Lightroom and three graduated filters one from each top corner and one from the bottom. Plus on exposure/ brightness and minus on the saturation/ clarity sliders. Adjustment brush to the bride sofa area with added saturation /sharpness.</p><div></div>

[david_schilling___chicago_]

<p><em>"....this angle isn't something I would've picked either, but the bride specifically requested it, so I shot it her way and my way. I am really interested in seeing how others would crop it - I completely see this being something she would add as a central image in the album, but it's not a print photo." -Katie<br /></em><br>

I'm curious what you mean by it's not a print photo. Also, wondering if you took a shot with some flash fill and a higher DOF.</p>

[katie_odell1]

<p>Let me explain the back story for this bride... She had bought a very expensive gown from a high-end retailer here in Cincinnati. They (the alteration department) butchered the dress in alterations and it was not fixable so that it fit the bride. So, she ended up purchasing this dress off the rack at David's Bridal. She ended up loving this dress more than the first, mostly because the skirt was so fluffy. The series of shots I did straight on were all about showcasing the fullness of the gown, and not the bride's face. There are plenty of other shots where we showcase her and use fill flash, etc. - but the bride had a concept and we went with it.<br>

As for it not being a print image - very few of our brides purchase large prints - and if I crop this the way I think I will in post, I think it won't have the impact the bride intended as a smaller print. Unless she orders this as a large print or a custom gallery wrap, in my opinion, it's not an image that should be made into a 5x7.</p>

[tom_mann1]

<p><strong>Katie:</strong> <em>"... The series of shots I did straight on were all about showcasing the fullness of the gown, and not the bride's face. There are plenty of other shots where we showcase her and use fill flash, etc. - but the bride had a concept and we went with it. ..." </em></p>

<p>A good shot of the dress does not require a poorly rendered face, and similarly, a good shot of her face does not imply a poor rendition of her dress.</p>

<p>The two are anything but mutually exclusive. In fact, IMHO, they compliment each other. Unless her face is almost invisible in a particular shot (ie, intentionally, because of posing), IMHO, 99% of viewers (including her mom and other family members) will always look at her face first, and then look at the dress. If her face has a bad expression, has poor color, or is poorly lit, often, that's enough for most people to give a thumbs-down on that image. In my experience, unusual "concepts" generated by the bride often need to be tempered a bit and receive input from other folks (typically, her mom) who will receive the pix, and often are the ones paying for the pix. ;-)</p>

<p>Fortunately, in this case, the bride has a wonderful, engaging, warm, relaxed, open expression, so it's only a technical matter to bring it out.</p>

<p>Just my $0.02,</p>

<p>Tom M</p>

[richardsnow]

<p>Just a little dodging and burning...cropped to standard print size. Forgive if the color is a bit off as I did this on an uncalibrated monitor.</p>

[richardsnow]

<p>Oops, heres the image</p><div></div>

[dawn_tyler]

<p>Hi Katie,</p>

<p>I happen to like this image, I think the idea was a good one but it just lacked a little something to pull it off 100%. The angle perhaps as well as the exposure. We unfortunately lost her eyes in the shadowing which isn't great!</p>

<p>When I saw the image I knew immediately that I wanted to get rid of the bits of stained glass as they attracted my eye to them straight away. Not in all, but in most bridal portraits the bride should be the first thing on your mind, especially when she takes up so much of the frame! I also removed the lamp to the left which was an odd distraction and messed with the symmetry of the picture.</p>

<p>Secondly, I knew I wanted to over extend the dress to the corners of the image. As I think I got the idea, to look as if she is billowing over with material and a lovely dress indeed. Almost like a child in an adult's dress, being consumed, etc. I think this makes the effect work better overall. I did both of these adjustments with the clone brush, set to opacity 100% and a bit of patience. It's not as perfect as it would be if I was presenting it to a bride.</p>

<p>I also added a little warmth in the tones, as the sun is so bright through the windows (even a little blown out) but the color palette felt cold. I felt this would make the picture feel more cozy. I did this by adjusting the levels accordingly. I used sharpening, and clarity adjustments to help her face come through a bit more as well as lighting her face with a light tool to make her more the focal point rather than darker and hidden behind the darker tones. I also used the liquify brush to make her arms appear more slender to help with the overall fluidity of the image. I also cropped the image halfway through the stained glass images as I feel it brought more of the bride into focus with less of the windows in the picture.</p>

<p>Finally I used the burn tool around her waist and top to bring back a bit of the shadowing in the material to give it a bit more detail. Et voila! I find the adjusted image quite lovely, one of my favorites thus far! I hope you like it, and if you are feeling generous I'd love the original file to have a go on. :)</p>

<p>Thank you Katie!</p><div></div>

[david_schilling___chicago_]

<p><em>"There are plenty of other shots where we showcase her and use fill flash, etc. - but the bride had a concept and we went with it."<br /></em><br>

<em></em><br>

I'm always more than happy to shoot anything the bride wants anyway she wants it, but......if I publish an image with my name on it on a world-wide forum I'm very particular with what images I showcase.</p>

[e._hughes]

<p>I think this was a cool, interesting, unique bridal portrait. I like the idea and what you were going for. This is how I would edit it...</p><div></div>

[JTG1]

<p>Would have done this sooner but had computer issues.<br>

Enjoy.</p>

<p>~Jack</p>

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