F30 - Twin blue eyes...

A wonderful photo of lovely girls!! I am sure they will always love this photo!

Sunshine_boy said:

I also asked for advice in the
Retouche forum, but if anybody in this forum has any ideas, please
let me have them...

Click to expand...

Lovely shot ... fabulous eyes on the girls.

A few ideas:

1) Smooth the skin with Neat Image ... mottled from 1600 + NR. Also removes shadow noise.

2) Catch lights in the eyes are not very attractive ... the shape seems to crawl all over the pupil and iris.

3) Skin tone might be a tad off ... seems a little too cyan.

So ... a couple of attempts just to show what I mean ... one with same skin tone, only affected by the slight S curve I added, and one with skin tone adjusted using the technique described at smugmug.
Original -- iso1600, F3.73 1/125sec, 14.10mm, no flash.







--
http://letkeman.net/Photos

Outstanding work Kim!! That last frame really gives depth to the picture. The girls actually seem to pop out of the picture. Love it!

BR,
Mike

Mike920 said:

Outstanding work Kim!! That last frame really gives depth to the
picture. The girls actually seem to pop out of the picture. Love it!

Click to expand...

Thanks Mike. I agree that the warmer one pops really well ... I over sharpened a bit ... but that should make it print beautifully at 4x6 or even larger with something like qimage.

--
http://letkeman.net/Photos

I saw the pp work by Kim about an hour ago away from home, and came back to see it again from home, to review in more detail the changes and out of curiousity to see if the impact would hold up, or if it had diminished.

Did it ever hold up...wow.

It's just breathtaking what you have done Kim, is spectacular to me. What a change to an already wonderful photo. There is no denying the benefits of pp for those who wish to do it and can develop the skill.

Kudos and thanks.

Thanks for the advice Kim. Always appreciated.
Your results are gorgeous, especially the 2nd one (imo)
Best regards
--
Sunshine (Fuji F30/OLY C4000Z)
A smile is worth nothing unless given... )

KimberlyC said:

A wonderful photo of lovely girls!! I am sure they will always love
this photo!

Click to expand...

Hi Kimberly...

I wish somebody took such a shot of me at their age, before the eyes lose the childish sparkle!...
Thanks for looking
--
Sunshine (Fuji F30/OLY C4000Z)
A smile is worth nothing unless given... )

hugbunny said:

If you upload the full size image, I can do it again and it will
give you a better print on A4. I think that one might be a bit
blocky

Click to expand...

Thanks Hug. Unfortunately I cannot upload more than 1Mb. The full size is 1.5Mb. I'll have to make some smaller prints from your contributions. I know the rest of their closer family will love them.
Best regards
--
Sunshine (Fuji F30/OLY C4000Z)
A smile is worth nothing unless given... )

Sunshine_boy said:

hugbunny said:

If you upload the full size image, I can do it again and it will
give you a better print on A4. I think that one might be a bit
blocky

Click to expand...

Thanks Hug. Unfortunately I cannot upload more than 1Mb. The full
size is 1.5Mb. I'll have to make some smaller prints from your
contributions. I know the rest of their closer family will love
them.
Best regards
--
Sunshine (Fuji F30/OLY C4000Z)
A smile is worth nothing unless given... )

Click to expand...

Sunshine -

What's the compression rate you're using for the jpg files- if the big original is 1.5Meg as you say, I think you'll find that opening it and then re-saving at such as either 8 or 9 (out of 12) on the compression scale should likely reduce file-size to below 1Meg...this is the Save screen setting as you get in PS of course - if you don't use that I'm not sure other progs may give you any choice of compression ..surely should do , but no certainty. Anyway, you get the idea...see if you can do this in whatever you use...

--
ericN-UK

ericN2 said:

Sunshine_boy said:

hugbunny said:

If you upload the full size image, I can do it again and it will
give you a better print on A4. I think that one might be a bit
blocky

Click to expand...

Thanks Hug. Unfortunately I cannot upload more than 1Mb. The full
size is 1.5Mb........

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

ericN2 said:

Sunshine -
What's the compression rate you're using for the jpg files- if the
big original is 1.5Meg as you say, I think you'll find that opening
it and then re-saving at such as either 8 or 9 (out of 12) on the
compression scale should likely reduce file-size to below
1Meg...this is the Save screen setting as you get in PS of course -
if you don't use that I'm not sure other progs may give you any
choice of compression ..surely should do , but no certainty.
Anyway, you get the idea...see if you can do this in whatever you
use...
--
ericN-UK

Click to expand...

You are right Eric!... I saved the very original through GIMP at 89% and it came to 980k. Here it is. Thanks for the tip...
Please do whatever you think is best for a A4 size print.
Much obliged



--
Sunshine (Fuji F30/OLY C4000Z)
A smile is worth nothing unless given... )

Think I have a cache lock. This image should be the one above but it is preenting itself as your old image I was using as a template. Can you check if its the same size as the big picture, if it isn't I will re-load it.

I have uploaded a new image for you. I have added a couple of ideas from the guy that sent 3 images. I couldn't get a reaplcement iris to look right so I just reduced the reflections a bit to try and get over the reflection problem. Hope you like it.

try this one

Thanks Hugbunny,
really lovely and warm picture.
Thanks a lot
--
Sunshine (Fuji F30/OLY C4000Z)
A smile is worth nothing unless given... )

Sunshine -

OK - let's take it by stages if required. It's easy enough to do so it's really a case of what YOU think .. when we get to YOUR satisfaction we leave it at that - but for starters ... this is a TRUE A4 dimension .. pic size is 1188x840 and that is STRICTLY to A4 paper dimensions and relativity , so it can be downsized in PS style by using the 'Constrain Proportions' - drop down if needed, one side and the other follows in proportion ..so it's STILL A4 proportion even if size changes.

Why I mention this is that whilst this pic is FULL A4 size, it would not be suitable for framing of course in an A4 frame - no place left for any border or Matte - so it would have to go in a BIGGER frame that has an inside Matter then leaves an opening for the A4 PRINT. Even then , if you print this as it is , it has to be true borderless to fit the paper..or you have to downsize the pic to leave such as a 10% white border when on an A4 paper , THEN it would fit into an A4 frame - see what I mean ???
Anyway - first try ... what do you think...



It COULD go a little bit sharper TO PRINT .. but I haven't tried it as it's your decision as to how YOU get it , so give that a go first and see if we need to revise...

SAVE this 'as is' then maybe reduce size to 1000 x (whatever it comes) - that will leave a narrow border on A4 paper (that's going by Euro size of course - do YOU use the A4 size..thought it wasn't used other than here...) A4 here is actually this pic size - does that match your paper size ??

--
ericN-UK

If you are using PSP you can reduce the percentage or enlarge it in the preview pane to produce a matte. Its better leaving the image as big as possible as that will reduce pixelating and this picture's size and compression ratio is such that it will pixelate, I think at borderless A4. Best to give it an inch or so round the edges.



Hope I am being helpful and not patronising

Looks wonderful Eric, in both tone and expression.

What I visualise is an A4 size print (borderless), glued on a mat off-white backing which allows about 1.25 inch border all round. The frame to cover 0.25 inch all round, leaving 1.00 inch white border showing round the print. Just like Hugbunny's illustration.

The selected frame will be made to size. That will be another 'headache' to pick a suitable frame...

I wonder if it will be better if cropped (but still be A4 size) near the sides of the heads of both girls, darkened slightly and sharpened a little bit more. It will also be great if the background is not shown at all (after cropping) or what is shown to be replaced with a kind of mauve-blue blurred drop. (They were sitting on a plastic garden swing chair..)

What an exciting project! I only hope I am not wasting much of your time.
Thank you both very much.
--
Sunshine (Fuji F30/OLY C4000Z)
A smile is worth nothing unless given... )

Hi SunShine,

You did it again, another great picture. Your moody and excellent moon light and lady shot had impressed me a lot, now this is a shot of lovely children @ISO1600. You must take more people pictures and share them with us.

BR,

Danny
--



My Albums
http://photobucket.com/albums/a44/yeeonly

danny_only said:

Hi SunShine,

You did it again, another great picture. Your moody and excellent
moon light and lady shot had impressed me a lot, now this is a shot
of lovely children @ISO1600. You must take more people pictures and
share them with us.

BR,

Danny
--

Click to expand...

Hi Danny!...

I love portraits and scenic shots. Portraits are so 'live' if you take the time to study them. They also provide good material for another hobby of mine, Physiognomy, that is recognising character traits through the various features of the face. Fascinating subject, AMAZING the things you can tell!...
--
Sunshine (Fuji F30/OLY C4000Z)
A smile is worth nothing unless given... )

Hi Sunshine,

Physiognomy?

I will never show you my picture

Nice work! Keep them coming.

BR,

Danny

--



My Albums
http://photobucket.com/albums/a44/yeeonly