So last night I was given Photoshop Elements 8! *grin* However, I have not taken it out of the box, and it made it’s way over the hill to work with my husband this morning. So here’s what I want to do. I want to submit a photo that I have not edited with Elements, and ask the lovely contributors over at I Heart Faces for their help!
Thank you I Heart Faces contributors.
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You captured a great moment...both of them seem to be conveying something in a similar way!
ReplyDeleteIn CS2 I would try to "save" this by using layers, perhaps a screen layer, to try and brighten up the details but I fear that your darks are so deep that you might end up with too much grain.
I am not familiar with Photoshop Elements 8 but if you can work with layers you might be able to add light in specific places and not overexpose other spots. You would need to be familiar with masking.
For future reference, the most helpful hint I can give is the watch the light in your subjects eyes. I know that sometimes the best light leaves an unappealing background in your photo (my yard is like that...nice bushes and fence one way, but an ugly driveway/neighbors houses if I turn another)
The subjects camera-left side of their faces has sufficient light, but the other side hiding in the shadows...if you would have moved around to camera-left you would have had adequate light in their faces.
I do, however, realize that sometimes you need to snap the moment and do not have time to pose/adjust and that is fine! Lots of photogs scoff at on-camera flash (and I do not know what you are using or if you even have an external flash) but if you could have had some fill-light you would have had a totally different result.
Perhaps someone familiar with Elements can give you some tips on how to brighten up the faces!
Thanks for sharing your photo!
mindy~
Such a cute photo of your two guys! :)
ReplyDeleteI tried to take this photo into PS but it was too low-res for me to work with.
If I had the high-res file, I would have opened it in Camera RAW (it is possible to open up jpg's in Camera RAW in PS and in PSE.) While in Camera RAW you could work with the exposure, fill light and brightness layers to get rid of a lot of the darkness that this photo has.
I agree with the above advice though...as a photographer the number one thing you should be looking for is good light. If you could have moved your husband and son back into the shade so that they had nice diffused light on them, this photo could have been a lot better just SOOC (straight-out-of-camera.)
Another thing you could have done to improve this photo would be to move in closer...much, much closer. Get as close as you can so that your subject fills in the frame and all of the focus is on them instead of the green around them.
Thank you so much for sharing your photo with us this week!
~Angie
co-founder of I ♥ Faces
Gosh, are they splitting images or what? lol. I think this is a nice picture, you did a nice job.
ReplyDeleteA few things you could have done which would save you a bit of time in PS Elements is just what the above mentioned. When you place your subject, really look how the light affects your subject. You want to make sure that you don't have part of their faces light and part shaded. I would also look at possibly really closing in our your subject with the camera (lens crop).
I don't know PS Elements as much as PS, but their are lightening tools for you to use. Try to get the shot a little more sharpened, and then play around with the light. Possibly crop in to really highlight your subject.
Thanks for playing along this week.