Something not quite right - kids portraits

[dviv]

Hi all,

I took these as a favour for my next door neighbours and something doesn't seem right. Any advice much appreciated.

[the foto fanatic]

The lighting is very flat. Some fill-flash would have helped.

If you have CS3, you can apply some fill lighting in PP.

[dviv]

The lighting is very flat. Some fill-flash would have helped.

If you have CS3, you can apply some fill lighting in PP.

Thanks Trevor - I'll give it a go tonight - much appreciated

[DJT]

Yep I agree with Trev. I like the last 2 though.
Seeing since they are just next door, get 'em out for another go. Do you have a reflector that you could use, if you don't want to use flash for fill.

[the foto fanatic]

Here's one of the pix with only a simple levels adjustment. If you have the RAW file, using some fill lighting would give an even better result, but you can see that it doesn't take too much of a tweak to give it some more snap.
Good luck!

[dviv]

Yeah that's much better. Do you mind sharing which levels you changed?

Thanks again!

[the foto fanatic]

Yeah that's much better. Do you mind sharing which levels you changed?

Thanks again!

I did a very quick adjustment:

Open file in CS3
Open new levels adjustment layer
Go to the three eye-droppers; click on the black eye-dropper. Find the blackest part of the image (I used the pupil of an eye) and click
Then, select the white eye-dropper and find the whitest area (but not a blown highlight) (I used her shirt) and click.

These adjustments just compress the histogram to give you greater contrast.

That's all I did. You could also adjust the mid-tones by using the centre eye-dropper in the same way, but there was nothing I could see immediately in the image that would represent a neutral mid-tone, and I didn't want to introduce a colour cast.

The image looks slightly warm to me, and if I were working on it, I might be tempted to adjust the WB slightly.

Hope this helps.

[dviv]

Awesome!

Thanks a bunch - I'm looking forward to giving it a try tonight.

Thanks again for the help - I'm REALLY looking forward to the photoshop training mini-meet

[Greg B]

Exposure and contrast/lighting issues aside, that first shot is a great capture, very nice work.

[dviv]

Exposure and contrast/lighting issues aside, that first shot is a great capture, very nice work.

Thanks Greg, much appreciated.

Fortunately they are all pretty photogenic.

[Matt. K]

There's nothing wrong with these images that a little curves or level adjustment can't cure. They look much better when opened in PShop then they do here on the forum so I'd suggest just a slight curves adjustment to make them pop. If you have CS3 then also try a little shadows/highlight adjustment. Nice work!

[dviv]

They look much better when opened in PShop then they do here on the forum so I'd suggest just a slight curves adjustment to make them pop. If you have CS3 then also try a little shadows/highlight adjustment. Nice work!

Thanks Matt. I've been playing around with them a bit tonight and they do look a lot better just openeing them in Photosho. Any idea why?