What would you do to this - DPChallenge Forums

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

07/23/2005 11:54:07 AM · #1

I tookt his picture of my daughter last night. I'd like to make it more "artsy" (the final goal is bw/soft pictures of the entire family all framed together for christmas gifts)

My first pass was to desat the background and partially desat her so it's soft.

What would you do?

Or.. there's this one to work on... But I like the expression onthe first one better.

Message edited by author 2005-07-23 11:57:29.

gaurawa

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

07/23/2005 01:19:14 PM · #2

My attempt

skylen

Nikon D200

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G IF-ED

07/23/2005 01:24:58 PM · #3

My only suggestion is to try to get her closest eye to you in focus. It looks like her lips are in focus in this one. But there's something that makes us feel uncomfortable when the eyes are out of focus. I usually partially mask the eyes out of soft focus as well, to keep them sharp.

edit: also, I find that masking out the lips and mouth from soft focus to keep them sharp tends to be pleasing as well.

Message edited by author 2005-07-23 13:25:54.

Art Roflmao

Canon EOS-6D Mark II

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

07/23/2005 02:36:09 PM · #4

Congratulations - Twins! :)

pcody

Canon PowerShot G6

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8

07/23/2005 02:55:05 PM · #5

I think Colin gave some good advise. You have a few months to get a perfect picture of your little girl. And a good reason to be taking her picture all the time. These are soft in a "out of focus" way. If her eyes were in focus, they would work well for a more artistic treatment. But, imo, working with these to get the eyes sharper is going to degrade the quality of the rest of the picture.

07/23/2005 03:01:34 PM · #6

Originally posted by kpriest:

Congratulations - Twins! :)

MAN! Why can't it be that easy!!!
:) We wanted twins,never thought of just psing one in.

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8

07/23/2005 03:02:30 PM · #7

Originally posted by pcody:

Thanks guys.

Message edited by author 2005-07-23 15:10:55.

pcody

Canon PowerShot G6

07/23/2005 03:23:16 PM · #8

I can count the lashes also and I'm almost blind. Maybe I didn't express myself right. To me, the focus looks to be on the mouth. It's sharp and clear and that is the first thing my eye is drawn to. Then as I look at the picture, I see the eye closest to me and (this is the important part)compared to the mouth, it is soft. So, what I meant to say is, in a portrait, imo, the one spot that should be the most focused is the eye that is closest to the viewer or both eyes if it's a full frontal shot. Anyway. This is just my opinion and I've been wrong a lot of times.
edit: oops, typed to slow again.

Message edited by author 2005-07-23 15:24:37.

Gringo

Nikon D2X

Nikon AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 28-70mm f/2.8D IF-ED

07/23/2005 03:26:24 PM · #9

Neatimage is such a great tool for babies.
In this shot I applied neatimage to everything except the eyes. This creates an intentional soft feel and keeps the eyes as sharp as possible. I also gave this a 1.250 crop, which you should consider for prints. 4x5, 8x10 or 16x20.

But do take a bunch of pictures. They grow up so fast.

Art Roflmao

Canon EOS-6D Mark II

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

07/23/2005 03:27:04 PM · #10

Originally posted by chesire:

MAN! Why can't it be that easy!!!
:) We wanted twins,never thought of just psing one in.

Since they have this ban on Human Cloning, I had to resort to "Copy / Paste" :-P

qmdi

Nikon Z9

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 500mm f/4.0D IF-ED

07/23/2005 04:09:13 PM · #11

My attempt.

Gringo

Nikon D2X

Nikon AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 28-70mm f/2.8D IF-ED

07/23/2005 04:26:28 PM · #12

Originally posted by qmdi:

My attempt.

That's a nice look Eric... I like it.