Carlos' Simon thread reminded me of an image i took several weeks ago...little girl at the zoo. i was shooting lorikeets when i spotted her. i only had a few seconds to capture her expression, and in the end, i was so disappointed. *sigh*. Focus was not sharp. ruined. anyway, settings were f/3.5; 1/40 sec, ISO 64. settings were totally wrong for this shot. Anyway, i did some postwork to try to salvage this image even though i knew focus was bad. Unfortunately, that shadow on her neck that was there when i took the image was enhanced. :( I tried cloning it out without success. anyway, some of ya'all show your trash images. here's one of mine. i'm determined to nail my focus every time so i don't lose images again. so i guess something good came out of it! :) gotta get to work. ya'all have a nice day!! :)

Lost me on this one - I'd be happy to take shots like this! If it really bothers you the shadows could be lightened and the piece of string blurred but otherwise well I don't know........

Message edited on: 11/22/2005 08:29

I like the result of the softer focus. I've found (especially when photographing children) that a slightly soft focus often produces a better result than does a sharp focus.

I know you probably saw more to this image when you took the photo, but as it stands, I think it is wonderful. Perhaps blurring the shadow a bit will help integrate it better. What a cutie! :)

She's such a cutie - and as far as my eyes tell my, the sharpness of the image is ok... Reading your "Unfortunately, that shadow on her neck that was there when i took the image was enhanced. :( I tried cloning it out without success." was something I couldn't believe, though, and therefore gave it a quick try. I can be done waaaaaay better (not cloning it all out but leaving a smoother shadow instead for example), I know, but it might tell you that you should give it another try, because IMO this is not a "trash image" at all!!! Drea

What a beautiful child Sheila.I like the focus the way it is.I would hardly call it a trash image,as well.

Drea,I'd like to know what you did.You achieved that by cloning?I don't see the smoother shadow you're referring to,so maybe you did something else.I'd really like to know because I'm working on a pic with a similar issue and I'm new to PS.Thanks.

Message edited on: 11/22/2005 12:07

@ Marlene: Hope you didn't try too hard to find the "smoother shadow", because there is none. What I meant was, that "smoothing the shadow" instead of taking it out completely (like I did here) would also be a good idea (guess that's what Kort meant by "blurring the shadow"). And yes, I removed the shadow by cloning - but as I use "PSP" and have no idea about "PS", I'm not quite sure, whether I can be of any help... I just cloned parts of the surrounding skin onto the shadow using different percentages of the "covering mode" to get the right "toning". As I said - hard to explain (especially as my PSP is in German so I don't even know the right translations for those technical terms there). Maybe it would be easier to give you some advice, if I knew your image?!? Drea

Thanks Drea.I guess we need someone familiar with both since it's possible there may be compatible tools. I'm waiting for this image that someone wants me to attempt to fix,so I don't have it yet.Actually I do,but they sent me a ridiculously small size image so I asked them to resend. It's the jawline area.There's a weird light thrown right in the middle of the shadow on the jawline.You did such a good job here that I thought that it couldn't be simple cloning.I'm not familiar with a 'covering mode' in PS. We'll see maybe someone here knows about this.In the meantime thank you for responding.I appreciate it!

Just to let you know i use both photoshop 7 (a little) and psp 9 (a lot) for editing. The clone tool is absolutely great in psp 9. Depending on the brush used, hardness, opacity, rotation, and size settings, one can very effectively and with great precision cover a lot of things. Care has to be taken concerning where you select as a starting point for sampling and you need to pay attention to where the curser points are because the starting point moves as you move the mouse unless you pick a fresh starting point each time. This is truw for both programs. INMO almost all the functions of psp are much easier to use than photoshop 7 and this applies to the clone tool as well. I think a free trial of psp is available and psp9 is amazingly inexpensive especially if compared to ps. Just an unsolicited plug for a great program. LOL! Lee

I've heard that too about PSP.Thanks Lee.

priceless shot!!!!!!!..if that were me, woud have got lower but nonthe less, neat work!

Sheila,

As Jim (Nameless_Wildness) said the way you captured innocense is priceless.
Although this a portrait why don't you add it to the actual Simon ?

I will not add any technical comments to your capture because I see it the other way: you captured, in a master way, the real and pure 'side' of innocense in this child expression !!!.

BRAVO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Carlos.

thanks so much guys for all your feedback! sorry i'm so late in replying. i worked so many hours...so busy at the holidays...came home and crashed after work. Andrea, OMG...you're giving me HOPE!!!! You did a FABULOUS job removing that shadow!!! I use PSP7 so maybe i can do it!!! I'm not very good at postwork stuff in general, but when i see the final result of what you did, i'm determined to do it too...even if it takes me weeks!!! Thank you so much for taking the time to do that and to explain!! Kort, i did try blurring the shadow but i never liked the results. i felt like that shadow was just way too distracting. perhaps if i blur and THEN try to clone it might be easier. thanks! Richard, i took a crappy shot and had to do postwork to fix it. the way this turned out is not as i had hoped. i wanted it to be way sharper. Thanks for your nice words! Marlene...thank you!!! i hope you're able to fix that image!! :) JimBo, thank you!! :) agree with you about getting lower. i can't remember now what position i was in when i took this. Lee, thanks for the tips! perhaps it's time for me to upgrade to PSP9! Carl, appreciate your feedback! i agree...sometimes a soft focus can be quite lovely with kids. unfortunately, when i took this shot, i was striving was nice sharp focus. that's why i was so disappointed. Carlos, thanks for your very nice words!!! they have a rule about posting only one image per person on the Simon thread, but thank you for feeling like this would be a nice one to be included! :) Thanks so much to everyone for your feedback and help!! Your responses have been that this image has some merit despite the flaws, so i will continue to work on it. Andrea has shown me i can fix that ugly shadow, and I'm bound and determined to do it!!! :) thanks so much again guys!!!!! :)

I couldn't resist trying my hand at this image. I did everything in psp9 except "save for web". i don't know what is available in psp7 but i suggest you experiment with the various settings that are available when using the clone tool. It makes a major difference in the results. I also have found that what brush selection you use is very important. For skin i use the "van gogh" brush. I am pretty sure it came as a default brush with psp 9. Any assistance i can offer in this area is freely offered. It is one of the few tools i feel relly comfortable with because i use it a lot, lol. Just contact me and i will do my best to help.

@ Sheila: Even though I also have PSP9 I'm not used to it by now so I did everything in PSP7 - and of course if I could do it, you can do it, too!!! I'm sure it won't take you weeks and can't wait to see your result... But if you feel like giving up, just send me the original file ;-) Glad you liked what I did! Drea

Lee, you did a fantastic job too!! thanks for showing me! When i use the clone brush, PSP7 has 4 options for brushes (round, left slash, right slash, and horizontal.) i always use round. i never noticed paintbrush options before. when you mentioned that, i noticed a paintbrush icon in the clone tools section. when i clicked on it, there were several more icons. i'm not sure what they all are, but i guess i need to check out the help in PSP to find out...or just experiment. Andrea, hopefully it won't takes weeks!! i have difficulty concentrating, and sometimes i just have a hard time doing tedious work like this. Sometimes i'll work for 5 minutes and that's just all i can do at a time. Some days are better than others though. Lee, Andrea...i appreciate both of you offering to help me, and i certainly will be in contact if i find i'm having a hard time. I wanted to go at this today, but i've spent almost the entire day trying to recover from a migraine. Feeling better now but my eyes still hurting too much for me to work on this. I definitely will though!! Thanks so much again, and I'll show it when i'm done (or if i get stuck.) Keeping my fingers crossed that my second attempt will be successful!! ya'all have a great day!! :)