I need some PhotoShop ideas... what would you do?

Pentax DA 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 AF

11/29/2004 02:16:37 PM · #1

I shot this yesterday. I like the posing, but it still seems a little "ordinary". So I'm curious... what would you do, after the fact, to make this picture stand out from the crowd?

Original:

For what it's worth, here is my first stab at trying something different. I didn't care for the mix of colors too much, so I thought of going b&w. But sepia looked a lot better. Then I had this idea of going sepia ... while still holding onto a small amount of color information. So tell me what you think of this:

Partial desat with Sepia (and tighter cropping):

Feel free to experiment ...

Message edited by author 2004-11-29 14:21:19.

faidoi

Pentax K10D

11/29/2004 02:18:04 PM · #2

Cropping out the edges to get closer to the people who add to the composition.

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

11/29/2004 02:20:42 PM · #3

Originally posted by faidoi:

Cropping out the edges to get closer to the people who add to the composition.

I did that in my sample... are you meaning to crop it even more? (I didn't crop any further for fear of cutting the girl's foot off)

KaDi

Canon EOS-300D Rebel

11/29/2004 02:32:09 PM · #4

Here's a direction you might take a crop...

(Quick and dirty, no adjustments other than the cropping diagram.)

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

11/29/2004 02:47:08 PM · #5

Originally posted by KaDi:

Here's a direction you might take a crop...

(Quick and dirty, no adjustments other than the cropping diagram.)

It would need the right edge to be trimmed ... but yeah, that worked out pretty good. It got rid of all of the unnecessary information and left you looking right at the people.

Now the question is ... is this something you think they'd want to hang on their wall?

I happen to like borders even though the DPC crowd generally does not ... but ... I would *never* put a border in a picture I was going to hang on the wall. Cutting out a matte that is the appropriate size would be good though... I have a friend with a matte cutter, I'll have to ask if it does ovals or only square edges.

KaDi

Canon EOS-300D Rebel

11/29/2004 02:59:21 PM · #6

Again, really fast edit just to convey the idea. (I've seen much better here with brush strokes defining the outer edges.)

I think with something like this you could get away with a rectangular matt. But then again, perhaps this is a dated format?

GoldBerry

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM

11/29/2004 03:26:37 PM · #7

Not feeling the sepia/desat or the oval crop (the latter being pretty outdated..as suggested).

A simple black and white with some increased contrast (or curves/levels in PS) would clean it up reallllll perty :-).

Sorry, don't have PS at work so can't muck around with it.

P.S. for a family shot of my own family I blacked out the background and made the image black and white..it looks good. But it wasn't as large a group and we were all dolled up (at a wedding) so our 'look' went with the dramatic processing.

Message edited by author 2004-11-29 15:29:21.

aznym

Fujifilm X-T3

Fujifilm XF 23mm f/2 R WR

11/29/2004 03:34:17 PM · #8

Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS

11/29/2004 06:52:16 PM · #9

Originally posted by xion:

How are you applying the canvas-like texture?

Canon EOS-60D

11/29/2004 07:01:46 PM · #10

Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS

11/29/2004 07:05:28 PM · #11

Originally posted by laurielblack:

I take it you like the existing colors ... it looks like you used levels to brighten it and then just added a border. Is there something more that I'm not guessing?

Canon EOS-60D

11/29/2004 07:08:03 PM · #12

I did an auto contrast and auto levels adjustment, then used the virtual photographer filter called "natural portrait." Then I cropped it, and ran it through the auto fx "dreamy" plugin ever so slightly, and with a gold cast instead of the default red. I added the border in some photoshop action I had loaded but I have no idea where it came from. Just a hodgepodge of stuff. But I do like the natural colors better myself. :o)

aznym

Fujifilm X-T3

Fujifilm XF 23mm f/2 R WR

11/29/2004 07:23:44 PM · #13

dwterry: The canvas like texture is from Photoshop. In PS CS you can do it with:
Filter > Texture > Texturizer
and selecting Canvas
Adjust the sliders to your tastes.

11/29/2004 10:08:37 PM · #14

Okay, I think I'm going to go for natural color and just do some fixups. I've changed the hue a bit to remove some of the red, then I did a little dodge and burn to fix some of the shadows and highlights. Added a very slight vignette and cropped it.

It's all very subtle... but see what you think now.

Original:

After PS: