Dressing Up

As I was quite pleased with the end result, I have included the original to show the degree of manipulation that occurs with some of my shots. I don't use a studio and sometimes when capturing the shot the lighting is not always at it's best. The rescue was made using some dodging, curves, shadow highlights, channel mixer, neat image and some sharpening.

Hope you like it.

Try stopping her from dressing up like Mummy/a Princess/a fairy and

you will see tears... Yours!

See the original and note the 'improvements'.

View large as always.

Yes, it's quite clear you master all of the techniques very well and the fact that you can obtain such results without studio lightning is a plus for you and something related to your imagination. I love it, a very good "official" portrait. 7/5

Now this is more like it :) I absolutely love this one! I wouldn't change a thing & the B&W is perfect! This one is destined to be a family classic! The lighting is super, it accentuates the cute little contours of her face & then her wonderful expression, way too cool! I don't often rate images any more, just critique, but this one deserves a 7/7. I'd hang this one with pride. She looks very "Regal" :)

Thanks for playing with my other shots. I just spotted a high-key one which you (Jayme) had played with. I am very lucky that whatever we do with these, I am lucky to have the initial raw material to work with. My daughter Madison(who I must seem obsessed with) is just so expressive. It's almost difficult to believe that these are all of the same little girl (not yet 4 1/2 years old).

 

I was particularly pleased with this one as the original showed promise only interms of expression. Certainly not lighting.

 

It's always a pleasure to see other's efforts with my own photos and to see what they would do with the same raw material. This is one of the reasons I include the original.

 

Thanks for you time and effort.

 

kind regards,

Paul

Paul I would love to sit down with you and have you show me just how you manipulate your photos, you have a real eye for this and your photos show it beautifully.

I'm happy to tell you what it is I do.

The two predominant effects on this image are made using Shadow/Highlights (in PS) and Neat Image.

That said, I spend an awful lot of time removing crumbs/chocolate/eyeshadow/etc.

 

I also dodge and burn/alpha sharpen and blur.

 

First though, using Channel Mixer to convert to B&W is the most important stage. Depending on the colours and shades in the shot and what I'm after, I select monochrome and then choose a higher percentage of blues and/or greens than reds.

This tends to give the images a more 'flushed cheek' look - Like early century photos.

I often bypass the channel mixing stage and choose a single channel from the channels window - maybe the blue channel and then use shadow/highlights on it.

The shot of Mads tilting her head (in my A Gallery) uses this technique and I have attached the original so you can see the before and after shots.

 

Hope this was helpful.

 

kind regards,

Paul

I love your work, your children have similar coloring to mine, and that is what attracted me to your work. I think it was tri-color gold, that I first noticed or maybe it was a color shot of Madison in the tub. I'm very new to photoshop, and I have to admit I need a few lessons. I'll give it a shot. After seeing the original (dressing up) I think you do great things, you always see to get wonderful clarity in her eyes. The crumbs, chocolate and eyeshadow are just part of being a little girl... may all little girls be so lucky! Thanks for your help.

 

-all the best

-Letitia