gerund

<p>Digital Image Mag has an informative review of Fine Art America at<br>

http://www.digitalimagemagazine.com/blog/featured/marketing-a-review-of-fine-art-america/</p>

<p>There is a whole spectrum of touch up capabilities on the way to a plastic looking skin.<br>

I have found excellent abilities in Portrait professional 10 to ease away wrinkles without<br>

affecting the rest of the face at all.<br>

You can download a trail version and see for yourself.<br>

I suggest starting with all of the sliders set to 0 and using the touch up brush alone set at<br>

about 21 strength. This touch up brush used sparingly imo is one of the most excellent I have found.<br>

At any rate I am sure you will find your best technique with a little practice should you so choose.<br>

No way do you need a plastic look to effectively do away with small imperfections or wrinkles.</p>

<p>My suggestion would be to quiz your grandmother if possible about what it is that she does not like about her photos. Does she look too old? Is it the lighting? Maybe she just does not like a harsh flash and feels it makes her respond with an unnatural expression.<br>

Only in this way can you have some direction on how to proceed.<br>

I also perceive that in the photo you show, that she appears to have lightened sunglass rings around her eyes.<br>

A little photoshop touch up can correct this.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Hi Annette,</p>

<p>If you just want to take the yellow out of the photo quickly and easily, go into PSE 8 editing workspace and under enhance click either the auto levels or the auto color correction. Either one will take the yellow out.<br>

If you are planning on a large photo resize, you can do the same with a levels adjustment layer without worrying about creating jpg artifacts.</p>

<p>Gerry</p>

<p>I have used PP for several years. I have found the latest edition has no trouble handling 2/3, 3/4 face or profiles, whereas the earlier editions had a problem doing this. Additionally you can use it for full body and extend it to any area of flesh or hair that you want with the extender brush. Don't forget to update along the way. It is free within certain parameters and they fine tune it a lot as they go along from one level to the next.<br>

You have a wide latitude of adjustments in almost every facit of retouching. It even adds a variety of different textures back in for you to avoid that plastic look. If you have given the<br />portrait an artificial look however, it is not the software's fault, it is more than likely that you<br />have overcooked some part of the adjustments and you merely need to back it off. You<br />can then add a preset so you will start off with the right look the next time. <br>

This software is a real time saver and if you process lots of portraits such as seniors,<br />you will really appreciate it. </p>

<p> </p>

<p>Since not a pro, I am not able to comment from a business point of view. However from an aesthetic<br />standpoint, I am surprised that any pro photog would let a client demand photos as is without and<br />white balance or color balancing and a certain amount of skin smoothing. I can understand leaving the wrinkles alone, but I use Portrait Pro on a regular basis and have found that there are a number of minor adjustments that can be made in that program that could have avoided such honest photos from occurring. </p>

<p> </p>

<p>A very versatile lens that does all you describe can be found in a Tamron AF 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC LD Aspherical IF Macro Zoom Lens with Built in Motor for about $600. See reviews on Amazon for a consensus about this lens. I use an older Tamron 28-300mm and keep it on my camera about 90% of the time.<br>

Mount that on a D90 along with an SB800 and you still have a good $6-700 to play with for<br /> assy. Speaking of which, one assy I would not be without for outdoor shooting in strong sun is a hood loupe. Expensive little gadget but is the only thing I have found to eliminate glare on your LCD without bulking up your camera with a hood attachment. This one hangs on a lanyard around<br /> your neck and magnifies to get at the detail.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I use Portrait Professional 9 studio edition and find it quick with good results. <br /> I am currently testing a demo in CPAC imaging pro. I find it to be extremely quick with<br /> excellent results also. With it you can obtain a very natural look with a lot of softening and<br /> sharpening control. It is rather expensive, however it autoselects which speeds up the process.<br /> for volume type processing.</p>

Mike,

Liked most of your shots. A little CC on no 18, The left man's head is noticeably distorted. Try camera distortion correction to about a -8 in PS. That should line him up.

.

You might try the Smugmug concept. You can have your own website and interface it with a gallery by SM which

includes flash I believe as well as a selling interface.

 

My opinion-don't reinvent the wheel.

You might look into the Lumiquest Promax system. I have found it to be very versatile in bounce deprived situations.

Penny,

 

You can also achieve background blur in PS. Simple select what you want to stay in focus and do a Gaussian blur on the background. Sometimes you can get better control in PS than you can utilizing a lens to do it.

This is also easier when you have to control lighting as in outside shots and cannot use the larger lens opening because of excess sunlight.

A gift to those of us who use the Firefox browser at

http://imagezoom.yellowgorilla.net/install/install.html?old=0.0.0&new=0.3

Many clients do a great deal of planning long in advance for their photography. Looking at it from the clients viewpoint. Your services were represented to her at a certain rate at the time she was in the process of making her decision. She more than likely made an appraisal that your services favorably competed with other photogs at that rate at the time you came under consideration. That being said, of course you are well within your rights to raise rates when you please, however this should be only to clients that become established after your rates are raised so their assessment may be made accurately at the current rates.

 

IMO, business pyschology 101 applies,contract or no contract.

Fareine,

 

You are excellent at capturing the private, intimate moments and expressions in the wedding setting.

Do not underestimate yourself. This is an ability that many wedding photogs simply do not have no matter how many weddings they shoot. It is priceless. You are definitely worth more than you are charging in my book.

You state your raw files do not have the noise. It would seem that if the iso is good for raw, it should be same

for PS and you should be getting the same look when you open in PS. Really, in my experience 640 iso is not

excessive in bright sunlight and noise from it should normally only be really showing up to this extent in

enlargements of heavily shaded areas. Since I use PS Elements, I do not know what type of preset capabilities PS

has, but this looks like a noise filter has been applied. Is there possibly a noise filter preset in your

preferences dialog that mistakenly got turned on?

Yes, my colors are slightly cooler on the calibrated monitor than

uncalibrated. The whites are a good clue.

I would suggest a good starting place to explore is the filter gallery in PS or PSE.

You can experiment with many types of textures there starting with just a good

old noise filter. Selections on different surfaces will place your desired texture at

just the section you want it on.

 

Gerry

I am running much the same set up as you are, however I calibrate my monitor

with the usb second drive plugged in and leave it plugged in. I also

am running an additional e-sata hd. You might benefit by plugging in the usb and then calibrating with it already plugged in. Then unplug to see if it changes the calibration on your screen. BTW, are you running everything off the same electrical socket. Might try to plug in power to usb hd on separate wall socket or perhaps even just pull the plug and replug. Lots of factors can affect or limit watt deliverance

 

Gerry.

MS Digital Image was my favorite for many years. Very simple and effective to use. However, it did not have layers capabilities. As I recall it also did not

have the ability to open raw photos either. I gradually had to move beyond it

for more creative work.

Many computers these days come with barely adequate power supplies.

Even additional ram consumes quite a bit of additional power. If you have

a barely adequate power supply, it could be affecting your power to the monitor when you plug in yet another power consuming second drive. Not saying this is absolutely the problem, but is worth exploring.

 

Gerry

Hi Marissa,

 

Although it's not a substitute for good lighting in the original, in many cases

you can salvage an otherwise excellent photo in PS. You can do selections

on the areas you want to salvage and either lighten them or do almost whatever you need to do. Remember often that in order to lighten too dark areas,

you may also have to do some noise removal and resharpening of that area.

 

Gerry

Nivaldo,

 

Looks pretty good for a first try. How long did it take? I use an excellent

retouch software program called Portrait Professional. In this program

you can obtain excellent results in a very short time. I think they

have a trial download. I am not in any way connected to this company but

I am amazed at what you can accomplish with it in a short 10 minutes.

 

Gerry

I suggest that among the many choices you make, invest in a software editing program, PSE 5.0 can be had cheaply or PSP X. Lots of deals on the web.

Then learn to use those programs. Unless you are really good out of the camera you will need an editing program to process your pics.

Unfortunately in photography, the income does not come first. In most cases you have to make a reasonable investment in time and money to be credible.

I think you have a genuine talent for unique composition and posing,

better than the norm and you seem to easily capture the animated look that children are prone to give so naturally, except in front of cameras. The photoshop actions look great with children. Would use on adults or serious photos more sparingly but this look can really be used to emphasize humor,antics or fun in almost any situation.

You don't really need the wide open lens in natural daylight to capture movement and you might find more subtle textures with less exposure in some cases are beneficial to use for variety and juxtaposition.

If you plan on being a true artist then establish your own style and never ever let the client or anyone else dictate it. Just circulate the style and stay true to it. The folks who love it will become your clients. These photos are superior to a lot of whats out there and are definitely marketable IMO.

 

Best of luck in your future.

 

Gerry