Hi Guys,

I know it's been a little while since I was actively posting in here (although I do check in and read the threads several times a week) but..... I've been having a bit of a downer with my photography lately!

Since getting my 30D, I've been struggling to get any decent shots and have seriously struggled to find my "mojo" again however, on Friday, we spent a day at a friend's wedding and took our cameras with us.  I thoroughly enjoyed getting back behind the lens and despite many, many really bad shots (usually because I had the settings all wrong and they ended up way too dark!) I did get some reasonable ones and are certainly worth a little effort in post-work but at the end of the night, we ended up back in our local bar (not the wedding party, just me and Carl!) and I, having had copius amounts of alcohol by this point LOL!!, was happily shooting all of my friends in their natural surroundings, pints in hand, playing pool etc, etc, and I took a shot of a lovely lady called Gemma, who happens to be the licensee of the bar (I also work in this bar on a couple of evenings, so I know them all pretty well).

Anyway, I knew straight away that I like the shot of Gemma, in my opinion, I like the composition and the pose she so happily did for me but due to the alcohol, I didn't have the focus right on her eyes and find it more on her nose - nothing wrong with her nose, but not where the focal point should be!!!

I've tried postworking it doing the obvious healing to remove unwanted sparkly pixels and flash in her eyes but I still feel the photo looks "flat" somehow and my levels of expertise in PS is minimal to say the very least.

I've included with this the original shot (in .jpg format only - no RAW!) and obviously resized it for the thread here and I will upload the "finished" working from me so you can see what I've done.

My question is, is there anybody out there who has good editing skills for portrait shots that fancies a go at this one?  I'm not doing this to make any money, but Gemma has said that she'd like a print of it and I really want to give her the best possible one I can so your help would be appreciated.

I will obviously need to get the full size orginal to anyone that fancies a try, so I can either email it to you or upload it to my website and allow you to take it from there - let me know if there are any takers!!

Thanks guys, I'm really counting on you to help me out if you can.

Hugs

Chrissy xxx

Here is the one I have post-worked - I like the toning although again, not sure if it is the right toning as far as contrast etc is concerned - your advices and help is appreciated.

Huge hugs

Chrissy xxx

I haven't seen her apart from on your portrait of her. I personally like the origial more than the postworked one.

I had a quick go at it and in case you like this one, I did the following:

1/ open in PS.
2/ image>mode>16bit . This is because that way you won't have too many lost values (gaps). In case your version of ps or other soft does not permit to do this, it's no drama.
3/ Open the channels panel. The red one is too bright, the blue one too dark. Dark means not influencing on a mask. So select the green one, drag it to copy at the bottom of the panel a,d Ctrl-click onthe copy's icon. It is now loaded as a mask. Reselect the to one and deselect the copy so you get the "normal" image back.
4/ Go back to the layers panel, select your image and drag it to copy. Then click the icon to add a mask to this copy. Your channel will automatically be loaded. What is white on the mask , ie the light colours on your photo will be most influenced. The dark ones less,and black not at all. You already have enough darks and blacks.
5/ Now select the layer with the copy of your original -not your mask!!- open the levels dialog and select first the red, then the green and then the blue channel and do the following per channel:
6/ While holding down Alt, drag the right part of the slider inwards. The image will become black. Drag untill you start seeing some colour appear. Stop, and do the same to the next channel.
7/ You now have much more contrast. Select the mask by clicking on it, and open curves for it. Play a bit with the curve to see what it does.
8/ Take the sharpen tool and set it to some 10% and carefully sharpen the highlights in her eyes.

You can do a lot more, but this is in my opinion a good way to start.

have fun!

Just a quick go at bringing out some contrast but there are obviously other things you can do depending on how much work she considers to be postwork (i'm talking bags under eyes and stray hairs etc). 

I'm not keen on the toning - it is a lovely natural portrait and I would keep it as such.

i give it a try... your shot is very nice, so natural ... it's pleasure to play with !

just thought i will have a go and c if u like the outcome

Just a quick bit of postwork  that may not be what you are after Chrissy

Hey Guys!!

Gosh, I go away for the night to work and come back to so many wonderful responses - thank you all so much!!

I'm spoilt for choice, there are so many different ideas here to be playing with and there are aspects from all of them that I like - I love the "glammed" look of Dan's shot but I love them all - but I get the general idea that you all prefer the original shot to my post-worked one, so I shall leave the toning alone and just try with the original again to see what I can come up with.

Thanks so much for all your help and advice - I really must learn how to do these things, if only I had more time!!

Hugs

Chrissy xx

Hi, Did this in about two minutes in PS. Went to levels and moved the middle slider to the left. Went to HUE/Saturation and selected red and reduced saturation. Went to filter>reduce noise Went to hue sturation agian and just improved on the master tog. Went to Sharpen>unsharp mask. As an ex portriat photographer I would also say that rule is never to photograph a female with a bunched fist.Bunched fist is masculine,I can give you a few tips on feminine hands if required. Hope this helps,criticism is merely to help,not to be destrcful. Eddie  

PostWork:
-adjust colour balance
-duplicate layer and set to "Soft Light"
-blur "SL" layer to 30px
-Adjust levels
-Adjust curves

-save

Attached Link: http://www.optikvervelabs.com/

Try this free filter - **VirtualPhotographer -** for Photoshop Paintshop Pro etc etc...   Real bacon saver for times like this :)

Hey Guys,

Thanks so much, I've drawn much inspiration from all your variations and have been trying with so many different effects this evening (I do already have OptikVerbelabs MrsSparky, and that is what I have used to create this one, but thanks anyway!)

I followed a portrait tutorial first and spent a lot of time touching up the image to remove all blemishes and imperfections (not that Gemma really has any, but from a photographer's point of view I mean!) - I enhanced the white in her eyes and teeth and gave it a soft focus effect before running it through Optikverbelabs and playing with different tones.

This is the end result - still obviously a long way away from anywhere near perfect as I can tell that Carl doesn't really like it, but your opinions on whether you believe I am progressing or not would be appreciated - if not, then I shall go back to the drawing board and start again!!

Again, many thanks for your input!

Hugs

Chrissy xx

I think the toning takes a bit of the 'life' away, Chrissy. Gemma looks like she can 'sparkle', so I tried to bring that out in this attempt... Don't know if I succeeded ;o)

I think you have progressed well from the first image and it does take time and a lot of patience.
Keep playing with photoshop or what ever and it will get faster and easier.
Before you invest in anymore gadgetry like or loading freebie bits and pieces if you have Photoshop then I doubt there are many attacthments that you cant already do with Photoshop.
keep learning,look at other peoples images for inspiration,read a few free tutorials and you will get on top of it all.Takes time but good luck.
Eddie

Heres my attempt.