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Hi All,

I am looking for some Photoshop help for the below image...

I know it is not the best image but I really like it as it captures my wife and boy playing very naturally so I want to get it printed out in large format (A3).

The image looks ok to me but I was wondering if It could be made any better through Photoshop before I get it printed out.

I only know the basics of photoshop and don't know all the tools so I am not really sure what should/could be done.

Any help is much appreciated.



Cheers,

W00DY

Hi W00DY...

I too am but a grasshopper in the world of PS, but as everyone else is having their tea, I thought I'd give it a shot for you...

My first impression was that while the foreground is sharp, the background is also a little too sharp... Personally I would blur the background before printing to simulate a lower depth of field...

something like this:


I did this VERY roughly (obviously) by introducing a Gaussian blur to the whole pic and then restoring the sharp detail of your wife and son by using the History Brush... There are probably much better ways of achieving the same effect...

Thanks for the reply John,

I forgot about this technique, I like it.

I actually have a plug in which puts an OOF ring around the image.

Thanks for the help.

Any other suggestions anyone???

W00DY

Actually the effect you reminded me about is where you darken the edges of an image so to make the main subject stand out.

To do this I guess I would need to:

- select an area around my wife and son
- inverse the selection
- apply a feather (how much?)

Ok, this is where I get stuck, how would I then darken the selected area only?

Thanks

W00DY

W00DY wrote:...Ok, this is where I get stuck, how would I then darken the selected area only?

I'm not a PSCS guru, but I thought when you apply any effect it only works in the selected areas, that would protect the areas you don't want to affect... Try it, you'll soon see, use an effect that's really obvious as an experiment, and that'll confirm it...

Hi Woody
perhaps if you introduce a layer mask, you can play around and not affect the original layer ?

Once masked, you should be able to only affect the background with PP work. Perhaps you could try turning the background into "black & white" which would really highlight your wife & son ???

As the background is much darker, taking it more OOF might help also (as previously suggested).

Please post your final PP'd pic so we can all see what you end up with

Hi Woody,

Leave as it is..looks great to me as it is. No need to change anything.

ps. Maybe crop tighter?

mudder wrote:

W00DY wrote:...Ok, this is where I get stuck, how would I then darken the selected area only?

I'm not a PSCS guru, but I thought when you apply any effect it only works in the selected areas, that would protect the areas you don't want to affect... Try it, you'll soon see, use an effect that's really obvious as an experiment, and that'll confirm it...

I believe this to be correct

mudder wrote:

W00DY wrote:...Ok, this is where I get stuck, how would I then darken the selected area only?

I'm not a PSCS guru, but I thought when you apply any effect it only works in the selected areas, that would protect the areas you don't want to affect... Try it, you'll soon see, use an effect that's really obvious as an experiment, and that'll confirm it...

Hi Mudder,

Yeah that is true, problem is I don't know what effect to use

I am not sure how to darken a section of an image???

leave it alone there is nothing wrong

Aussie Dave wrote:
Perhaps you could try turning the background into "black & white" which would really highlight your wife & son ???

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the idea.

I am not sure that is the look I am after in this particular image though.

I plan to hang it on the wall so would like to keep the "effects" to a minimum.

I'll post the finished product once decided.

W00DY

once you've selected the area you want to affect, perhaps try playing with Brightness/contrast to darken the image ??

Or maybe use Shadow/highlights ???

Once you apply the adjustment, toggle Ctrl+Z to undo/redo to see the differences.....

blow it up A1 size....it will look great.
Just blow up 2 of my kiddies at HNorman (1/2 price March month at Auburn) it was tops. Just got it back today from the mounting labs.

shutterbug wrote:
Hi Woody,

Leave as it is..looks great to me as it is. No need to change anything.

ps. Maybe crop tighter?

jethro wrote:
leave it alone there is nothing wrong

Thanks Shutter & Jethro....

Yeah I do like it as it is I was just hoping to get some subtle hints on what might need to be done.

I think I'll try and work out the dark corners look and then probably leave it at that.

For a family shot it is a nice one

W00DY

Aussie Dave wrote:
once you've selected the area you want to affect, perhaps try playing with Brightness/contrast to darken the image ??

Ahhhh, that's what I was after.....

THANKS

shutterbug wrote:blow it up A1 size....it will look great.
Just blow up 2 of my kiddies at HNorman (1/2 price March month at Auburn) it was tops. Just got it back today from the mounting labs.

That might be a good idea.

Do you mind me asking how much it was to get blown up and where you got it mounted?

I think it's a great image. It should look fine printed out mate. The gaussian blur will only enhance it further.

G'day,
This was just a quickie, selected your wife and child, inverted the selection, then adjusted the middle levels slightly daker then slight blur on the background, inverted the slection again (back to your wife and child)then slight mid-tone upward adjustment, maybe should've made the adjustment a bit more obvious or exaggerated to show the diff...

Cheers...

Hi W00DY...
Just had another thought... rather than blur the background, you might want to try turning the background into B&W, leaving your wife and son in (slightly saturated) colour...
Try MattK's method documented in this thread

Ok I have made the edges darker in the below image what do you think?

Better or worse? Or not much difference?

Do you find the darker edges leading your eyes to the main subject or just plain distracting

Looks better.

leek wrote:Hi W00DY...
Just had another thought... rather than blur the background, you might want to try turning the background into B&W, leaving your wife and son in (slightly saturated) colour...
Try MattK's method documented in this thread

Yeah Dave suggested that also but I'm not sure it would work in this image...

Besides I woudln't be able to select my wife and boy well enough to do a good job

dont touch it dof is excellent. sometimes we all get critical about our own shots and sometimes we get paranoid about anything that anyone says about the image. be happy that you have shot a sharp great contrast family shot that you will cherish for years to come. print the bugger!

jethro wrote:dont touch it dof is excellent. sometimes we all get critical about our own shots and sometimes we get paranoid about anything that anyone says about the image. be happy that you have shot a sharp great contrast family shot that you will cherish for years to come. print the bugger!

Now you sound like my wife!!!!!



I will open an image and she will say "That's great, can we print it?" then I usually go "Yeah but it's a bit blown out here, and see this little bit of rubbish, I shoudl have moved that etc...."



Yeah I'm happy with it so I will print it.

Cheers

I think the shot looks great Woody. Not withstanding it in its own merit, I would also like to see a tight cropped version (landscape). It would be a different picture and loose some of what it has now, but probably place a lot more attention on the expressions of joy and playfulness.

Cheers,

gday woody,

Nice capture, nice happy look.

Something I play with occasionally is to remove all colour except from the people ... zoom right into the edges of the persons with a small desaturate tool and create a buffer of desaturation, then enlarge tool and desaturate the large areas. I find it to be quite drammatic ... might be a case of love it or hate it. Might also be bordering on the wrong side of the rules for purists and photoshop haters. (albeit a tad misguided.)

A couple i did if you want to see what i mean ;

That's cool Darb! I tried that one on a recent photo. It really makes the subjects stand out. Here's the pic... not quite as refined as yours though

Hey Darb,

That effect works excellent in your first image... I like it.

This is not the effect I'm after in my image this time though. I sort of like to keep the effects to a minimum when printing images out if I intend to frame and hang them.

I am pretty happy with the last version I posted with the dark edges... However now my wife is saying she prefers the first version

W00DY

hi woodly,

i gave it a rough treatment but here a few things usually do

yeah, look im with your wife on this one. Maybe some fake vignetting, but, meh, its fine the way it is. Go print it

W00DY wrote:

shutterbug wrote:blow it up A1 size....it will look great.
Just blow up 2 of my kiddies at HNorman (1/2 price March month at Auburn) it was tops. Just got it back today from the mounting labs.

That might be a good idea.

Do you mind me asking how much it was to get blown up and where you got it mounted?

It was $50 bucks for a A1 print at Harvey Norman at Auburn last months. Mounting, got it done at
http://www.graphicartmount.com.au

shutterbug wrote:
http://www.graphicartmount.com.au

Thanks for the link.

My take:


Diffuse glow
lens blur
channelmixer
vignette
curves

Joolz

joolz
Nicely done!