Australian Citezenship and Postprocessing

[Hlop]

Last week my girls finally became Australian citizens. During the ceremony they've got seats .... hmmm ... OK ... far from perfect for photography purpose Another problem - ceiling in Warringah council isn't flat and grayish, so, I couldn't bounce flash from it. Basing on Atorie's example and using wonderful pen tool Matt K. (Thanks a lot!) showed me during AW mini-meet, I've tried to do some post-processing and here are source photo and result. I know it's not perfect, there are some halos left while I was selecting .... Anyway, what do you think?

[Alex]

Great photo Mikhail and great PPing. Congrats to your girls on this great occasion.

Alex

[waspo]

Yes, congratulations! I also like how you smoothed out their skin tones. How did you do this? Your daughters are beautiful by the way.
Cheers, Jase.

[marcus]

Congrats to the girls!

You should get a job with Womens Weekly retouching covers?

The softening on the girls faces works well but the background is way too harsh. I think the fire extinguisher (wow that word looks so wrong ) and watercooler look better!?

Maybe ease up on the B/G a bit and try something a bit more nuetral or a softer out of focus B/G

Hope that opinion helps

[Glen]

Mikhail, congrats and a huge improvement. Now you have a photo you could put it on the mantlepiece

[Hlop]

Thanks guys!

Marcus,
I thought about blurring background but decide it's too busy and distractive. I might have to blur wall bit more

Jase,
The softening method from Scott Kelbys "The Photoshop CS book for Digital Photographers". It's bit tricky - you have to create 2 copies of top layer, then change Blend mode of first copy to "darken" and second copy to "lighten", gaussian blur of 1st copy by 40 pixels and 60 for 2nd copy. Opacity 40% for 1st copy layer. Than set background layer invisible, create new empty layer and merge visible (1st and 2nd copies) to it. Now, make 1st and 2nd invisible and background visible. That's it. Now you can make a mask and paint or jusr erase areas you want to be sharp and in focus.

[gstark]

Mikhail,

Congratulations to your girls on this exciting and important event.

Great pp work too; and yes, I would try to blur the background just a little more.

[waspo]

Thanks mate!
A bit to digest, but I'll give it a try.
Cheers, Jase.

[birddog114]

Congrat both of them Mikhail!
Finally they're Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oi, Oi, Oi!

[Atorie]

First up congratulations both on your daughters becoming citizens of Oz and the good PP work there Mikhail, for your first try it's pretty good. The image looks a little flat, as adding the background has taken the depth out of the photo. As suggested above apple some blur to the background. Also take a look at the shadow casts on the original background, try and replicate these on your digital one. It doesn't need to be as dark, maybe pull it back to a 8% gray, it will help bring your daughters forward out of the wall. The other give-away in the right shoulder of your daughter in the red shirt, the shoulder is has a shadow on it as the original background reflected little light onto it, when in the new background it is now contrasting up against a much lighter area and look a little unnatural. But all up you've done a good job and feel free to PM me if you ever need a hand or want to ask a technique.

[Yedrup]

Congratulations to your daughters

Good work in PS the images are very good.

Winners all round, your girls on their citizenship, you on your images and
Australia for gaining another two beautiful people.

Cheers,
Terry

[Hlop]

Thanks a lot Everyone!

I must tell you there is no "daughters" There are wife (in red shirt) and daughter (white shirt and blue sweater)

Atorie,
I was also thinking about shadows but didn't come up with idea how to make them properly - imitate soft light with long transition, not too contrast. I undersood you're retouche guru - any tip or advise on how to do that?

[Matt. K]

Mikhail
They all think your wife is your daughter??? Maybe you've overdone the post processing?

Seriously...Congratulations to the girls...and The Mayor has asked would the person who removed the water cooler kindly return it and no further action will be taken.

[samester]

Thanks a lot Everyone!
I must tell you there is no "daughters" There are wife (in red shirt) and daughter (white shirt and blue sweater)

When u get in trouble, tell your wife how wonderful she is, tell her she has a youthful glow, then show her this thread as proof and bank the brownie points!!! Get out of jail free card

Congrats to your wife and daughter on the citizenship mate - wonderful to hear.

Cheers,
Sam

[vrboy]

Great shots, You have two very beautiful ladies in your midst,
you must be proud.
A good trick in this situation is to filter>render lighting effects in photoshop on the background you created, this will give depth rather than a constant plain colour if your really tricky try to remember the main light source in the room where you took the shot and emulate it with the render positioning
C.