Something out of the norm for me

[peter]

Here are two pictures that I will be entering for a portrait competition later on this year. I do not do people or weddings so I guess I may have pushed my luck with subject but its worth a go I think.

[ekkl]

Re: Something out of the norm for me

Mate both excellent pics but I was instantly drawn to her chin in the first picture. Looks like she has a small black thing on the end of it...

[peter]

Re: Something out of the norm for me

Mate both excellent pics but I was instantly drawn to her chin in the first picture. Looks like she has a small black thing on the end of it...

Hi I think what you see is the background between her chin and the dress. I will look at doing an edit on that bit. Thanks for pointing it out.

Pete

[devilgas]

Re: Something out of the norm for me

peter, i'd consider darkening the background in both pics as then more emphasis will be placed on the bride. they're not overbearing as they stand, but do draw the eye away from her.

[peter]

Re: Something out of the norm for me

Thanks for the input. I will try that before printing them out.

Thanks Pete

[devilgas]

Re: Something out of the norm for me

had a very quick play with the 1st. duplicate the layer, change blend mode to colour burn, set opacity to about 60%. mask the bride. apply an 's' curve to the base layer and you can get an image with more punch. i'd suggest warming the first photo as well.

concept posted below but not had time to do a proper job on the hair, nor have i done any warming...

[peter]

Re: Something out of the norm for me

had a very quick play with the 1st. duplicate the layer, change blend mode to colour burn, set opacity to about 60%. mask the bride. apply an 's' curve to the base layer and you can get an image with more punch. i'd suggest warming the first photo as well.

concept posted below but not had time to do a proper job on the hair, nor have i done any warming...

Thanks for that. I do like the edit but why use the blend mode "colour burn". I would just mask the bride and darken the background ?. I know you can do the same thing in so many different ways in cs just wondered why you did it your way ?

[devilgas]

Re: Something out of the norm for me

colour burn allows you to still retain a natural look as though the background was intentionally underexposed, but it's a case of just using what works. multiply also works but is less intense than colour burn. for me it was faster to use the blend mode and quickly paint a mask over it. ordinarily, i'd have pushed the photo a lot further to really make use of the contrast & detail in the hair, but the aim was to isolate her a lot more from the background.

the edit was literally less than 2 mins.

have had a quick play with the 2nd image.
1. apply 's' curve adjustment layer
2. duplicate base layer
3. change mode to multiply, set to 90%
4. draw mask on this multiply layer to isolate bride
5. add colour adjustment layer and add mask so that only the skin is affected



deffo needs more work on it, but is again posted as a proof of concept

[peter]

Re: Something out of the norm for me

colour burn allows you to still retain a natural look as though the background was intentionally underexposed, but it's a case of just using what works. multiply also works but is less intense than colour burn. for me it was faster to use the blend mode and quickly paint a mask over it. ordinarily, i'd have pushed the photo a lot further to really make use of the contrast & detail in the hair, but the aim was to isolate her a lot more from the background.

the edit was literally less than 2 mins.

have had a quick play with the 2nd image.
1. apply 's' curve adjustment layer
2. duplicate base layer
3. change mode to multiply, set to 90%
4. draw mask on this multiply layer to isolate bride
5. add colour adjustment layer and add mask so that only the skin is affected



deffo needs more work on it, but is again posted as a proof of concept

I have tried this on a few picture's but I find that I have a nasty colour cast on the skin. I must be going wrong somewhere.Here is my try with the first one.

[devilgas]

Re: Something out of the norm for me

this is the first photo again (redone as nothing's been saved) with the colour tweak and curves tweaks shown



these are very rough and ready but give an idea of what can be done quite simply. in reality a lot more time needs to be spent to get a much better job - i'd do multiple exposures in lightroom and combine later.

[Stephen]

Re: Something out of the norm for me

Peter, don't wish to rain on your parade so to speak, but the second shot shows a definate lack of detail in the dress and this is made worse after using the technique described by Devilgas. Have you a raw file you could work with to pull back some detail?

[devilgas]

Re: Something out of the norm for me

Peter, don't wish to rain on your parade so to speak, but the second shot shows a definate lack of detail in the dress and this is made worse after using the technique described by Devilgas. Have you a raw file you could work with to pull back some detail?

like i said, the stuff i posted was proof of concept for darkening the b.ground and not meant to be a final rework of the original images

[peter]

Re: Something out of the norm for me

Hi Guys

I think I will go back to the start and see what I can come up with. Thank for all the input devilgas it will help me out no end. Hi Stephen I saw you were back from your trip hope you had a good time. Yes I know it does look blown on the web but I did a test print the other day and it is a lot better then it looks. There is a lot of detail still in the dress. I always shoot raw never use anything else just for reason's like this. so this will give me a good place to start over again.