Heels and Guardians

I had opportunity this weekend to do some shooting at my step-daughter's

wedding. I'm working on learning Lightroom. I like the basic shot, but the

blown sky and weirdly colored foliage in the way back need some attention.

Any ideas for the best way to deal with these issues are appreciated along

with any other comments or suggestions. Thanks for looking.

Amy, I like the curious environment of this picture. It is a wedding party but there isn't fun at all. The street is shabby with the leaves from the fall and the bride has problems with her shoes. It is a kind of caricature. I like it. Best regards.

Amy, the image is nice. The problem is that the subject is in shadow, with a bright background. As if that were not enough, the small sensor adds a capture noise in underexposed areas, mostly visible on skin tones. So my advice is to try a b/w conversion, thus getting rid of color altogether. Also b/w (with a somehow tighter crop) could enhance the overall nice mood. Just my thought. Oh, and congratulations!

Marco: it's nice seeing a photo with fresh eyes. Thanks for your input. 

Roberto, thank you so much for the concrete suggestions. I think you are right about the crop and probably about the BW, I will work more on this one when time allows. (My employer awaits...sigh!) I had really hoped to keep the color but I'm open to trying BW. I really appreciate your taking time to comment.

Amy

Amy.  I agree with Marco that it is a curious tableau and therefore compelling.  I agree with Roberto that a BW conversion might be the way to go.  I kind of like the current crop because the foreground suggests/anticipates some movement towards the viewer.  All the best.  Dana...

I quite like the image. The chaps either seem to have starch in their pants or they are indeed thugs with the proper posture for guarding the bride :=D

The greens. In the develop module go to the HSL/Color thang down below the 'basic' and 'tone curve' units and noodle with the luminance, the hue and the saturation. Bear in mind that oddly the greens are often mostly controlled by the yellow sliders.

Blown out sky. If you have also photoshop... Adjust one version of the image in Lightroom for the majority of the image and open in in p shop by right clicking in the image and clicking on the edit in tab and then indicate photoshop. Go back to lightroom and re adjust the image for the sky and then open it in p shop. 

Click on Window in the bar at the top, then arrange then float all windows. then using the selection tool drag the better image over the sky image while holding down the shift key (this is register the two layers perfectly) and then put a layer mask on the top image and 'paint' through it to reveal the darker sky.

I'm hoping that you always shoot in the RAW mode as this has a much greater dynamic range. 

Should you not have p shop... In lightroom adjust the majority of the pic to your liking and then use the adjustment brush, at the top of the development panels and 'paint' the sky and then lower the exposure for that area...

Confused??? Well... you did ask :=D

google using layer masks in photoshop in youtube and there are videos of the process... google using the adjustment brush in lightroom in youtube for the same.

Prolix am I not... or... Verbose and even wordy... HA.

good luck. raymond

For what its worth... I like the color version much better.

@ Dana: thanks for your input. I like having the foreground too, but the crop makes the bride larger in the frame, so I went with a small crop. You may have seen the sepia version by now. I'm still up in the air on it vs the color version. 

@ Raymond: THANK YOU for the detailed suggestions. I'm still getting the hang of PS and LR and am a long way from proficient. I will be working more on this one and will definitely be referring to your comment above. I really do appreciate your taking time to do a bit of training.

Amy

Looks like a fun party.  Was she about to toss her shoe at you?  In some cultures that's an insult, but I consider it flirtation when it happens to me in a dark alley.

Sumo-seriously, I prefer this color version but the square crop of the other.  Mostly to eliminate the foreground and bring the viewer closer to the photographer's point of view.

Regarding boosting detail a tiny bit in the faces, Lightroom 5 finally added a selective feature that had already been in Snapseed and Nik.  The selective mask doodad helps with dodge/burn and clarifying without making the effect too obvious.  With Lightroom 4 it's a bit trickier - you'd need to very carefully brush the effect in.  But it's easy to go too far, and what looks good in a small online JPEG may be too much for a larger version or print.

With a photo like this, there's always a temptation to make it something it isn't, overwork it, and spoil the spontaneous vibe.  It's a lo-fi photo, and probably works best that way.  Sure, you could rework every pixel in Photoshop, but... why?

I piddled around in Lightroom, clarified the faces and clothes a bit, tried a color version and... didn't like it so much.  Then I thought, heck, try the one-click faux-film effects in DxO FilmPack.  After all, isn't that the point of phone pix and apps?  To retain the spontaneity.

So here's a b&w version (after the Lightroom retouching) in DxO FilmPack using the Tri-X with yellow filter look.  Sorta suits the vibe.  Especially for the godfather on the left.  He's my favorite character in this bit of street theater.

And here's the color version, via lots of subtle brush retouching in Lightroom.  Feels overworked to me, but what the heck.  Might change my mind tomorrow.

Lex, thanks so much for your interest and effort put into this shot. I'm sorry it took so long to respond- my weekend turned out to be busier than anticipated.

Ot these two versions, I think the Tri-X/yellow filter approximation is the one I like best. I will try my hand at this with the suggestions folks have so generously given.

I was able to show it to the bride this weekend and I think she liked it.

As a total aside, the "Godfather" character was the best dancer on the floor that night, and there were many.

Many thanks,

Amy

Well, I'm not sure how helpful I've been.  I keep returning to this original photo and finding myself liking it pretty much the way it is.  Maybe a slightly tighter square crop to eliminate just a wee bit of the overhead and foreground.  But it would depend on the intended size of the display.

Frankly, I'm reluctant to mess around too much with your innate knack for recognizing or capturing the offbeat and off-kilter.  I like that you photograph so freely and see things in ways that most folks might overlook.  It's that sense of fascination with ... everything.

So I wouldn't want to mess with that by implying that there was any significant deficiency in your original photo.  There isn't.  We're talking nths of a degree of difference between your original and my suggestion of a stark b&w.  What really counts is the moment in time that you snagged, which would come through no matter how it's processed.