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Sweethearts

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What precious little girls! Thank you for the play. Here is one from me, and I have it in the original size as well if you want it. I had to scale down a copy for Photobucket.

Karen

 
It is perfect Karen.

You have brought a zip to the image. What beautiful little girls they are

Pat
 
If I may would you consider to make a different version to show ofrrf the blue eyes instead of the blue dresses? the dresses change but the blue eyes are shiny forewere so maynbe you make them the strong point, please try if you dont mind ! Be well and Best wishes !
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--Grazie,Thank you, Sal ..

 
Al,

I like your retouch. Here's a great tip I learned a long time ago that I like to share once in a while. I learned it on this forum when I was just getting started. I use Photoshop, but it works basically the same way in most editing programs. The tip is simple. Add a blank top layer and fill it with black. All you should see is a black rectangle. Change the blend mode of the layer to 'Color' or whatever blending mode removes the color in your editor. You should now see the image in B&W. With the color removed, adjust the lighting in the image using whatever method you prefer. When you're done adjusting, delete the black layer. That's all there is to it. The reason this helps so much is that removing the color allows you to see the brightness and contrast much better.

Below I included three pictures to illustrate the technique:

I started with your version. The picture below is your retouch just with the color removed (new top layer, fill with black, blend mode set to Color as described above).



The picture below is my edit that I created from your version. With the color removed, I was looking only at brightness and contrast. I didn't change much. I darkened the sky a little and made the faces brighter with more contrast. I used a couple Levels adjustment layers and spent about 30 seconds making the Levels adjustment and 30 seconds masking on each adjustment layer. More could have been done and the masking could have been cleaner, but I was just trying to illustrate the technique.



To create the final picture below, I simply deleted the black fill layer. I made no adjustments to color even though it may look like I did. Enhancing the lighting can really make the colors pop. So this picture is just your version with a couple tweaks to the brightness and contrast, nothing else.



Hope this helps,
jbf
areidjr said:
I'm new here (not to DPreview, though) and have been lurking and appreciating the great work that you all do here. I thought I'd throw one in just to test the waters. So here it is.



Let me know what you think. I'm still learning.
--
Al

My Photo Gallery: http://photoweb.reid-home.com (Updated 9/8/2008)
Pentax Photo Gallery: http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/albertreid
My Blog: http://areidjr.blogspot.com/



WSSA Member #199PX
Click to expand...
 
areidjr said:
Interesting tip. Thanks. I hadn't run into that before. Would one get a similar result by working just on the l channel on a lab?
Click to expand...
Yes, the key is removing the color and working on the lighting in a separate step.
areidjr said:
I think, for my taste, I would probably go somewhere between your and my versions.
Click to expand...
As I said, this was just a quick illustration. Also, there could be a monitor calibration issue. Your version looks a little washed out on my monitor. I'm not saying it's necessarily a problem with your monitor. It's been a while since I calibrated mine. I'm going to recalibrate later today. Regardless, I recommend giving this technique a try. It helps quite a bit.
areidjr said:
Thanks again.
--
Al
Click to expand...
 
jbf said:
areidjr said:
Interesting tip. Thanks. I hadn't run into that before. Would one get a similar result by working just on the l channel on a lab?
Click to expand...
Yes, the key is removing the color and working on the lighting in a separate step.
Click to expand...
I gave both a try and had quite similar results. I'll give them both a few more tries to see which is better and if neither is better, which takes less time to use.
jbf said:
jbf said:
I think, for my taste, I would probably go somewhere between your and my versions.
Click to expand...
As I said, this was just a quick illustration. Also, there could be a monitor calibration issue. Your version looks a little washed out on my monitor. I'm not saying it's necessarily a problem with your monitor. It's been a while since I calibrated mine. I'm going to recalibrate later today. Regardless, I recommend giving this technique a try. It helps quite a bit.
Click to expand...
I keep my monitor calibrated using a SpyderExpress2. Things that look goon on that monitor look dark on my work monitor. Hard to tell exactly which monitor is truly accurate, though I always assumed that my calibrated monitor was pretty close.
jbf said:
jbf said:
Thanks again.
--
Al
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Thanks again.
--
Al

My Photo Gallery: http://photoweb.reid-home.com (Updated 9/8/2008)
Pentax Photo Gallery: http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/albertreid
My Blog: http://areidjr.blogspot.com/



WSSA Member #199PX
 
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