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Post processing for a portrait that is too sharp?


hpfiend

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Hey all-

 

Just an amateur photographer here with relatively cheap equipment - rebel xs and canon 50mm 1.8 no speedlite (at the time)... I took a few pictures for my sister and her new baby at the time- one needed some photoshop/gimp work to clear up some red marks her infant caused as she clawed away at her- the editing took me forever to complete as I don't know what I am doing- after that they turned out decent. The problem is that when she printed them at 8 x 10 she didn't like the results as it looked like I used a microscope... can anyone offer some advice? I don't really want to post them as she may get mad... I have the cr2 raw images and the jpegs after I tried to erase the red marks... I did try a selective gaussian filter at 15 pixels and 50% or something which looks ok but its hard to tell before printing how it will look as when I try to resize it to 8x10 I have to crop or something- again I don't know what I am doing.

 

Thanks!

Andrew

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Just an amateur photographer here with relatively cheap equipment - rebel xs and canon 50mm 1.8 no speedlite (at the time)... I took a few pictures for my sister and her new baby at the time- one needed some photoshop/gimp work to clear up some red marks her infant caused as she clawed away at her- the editing took me forever to complete as I don't know what I am doing- after that they turned out decent. The problem is that when she printed them at 8 x 10 she didn't like the results as it looked like I used a microscope... can anyone offer some advice?

 

I'm not sure what you mean by " it looked like I used a microscope " ?

 

In terms of editing and fixing skin tones, I can do it in a snap for you.

 

I don't really want to post them as she may get mad... I have the cr2 raw images and the jpegs after I tried to erase the red marks... I did try a selective gaussian filter at 15 pixels and 50% or something which looks ok but its hard to tell before printing how it will look as when I try to resize it to 8x10 I have to crop or something- again I don't know what I am doing.
No need to post the files publicly. I don't post or use much if any of my client work online without a release either. You can email the RAW files to me at lightspeedphotography@yahoo.com What I return to you will be good to print.

 

Here are a couple edits (perhaps more extreme and some are glam-shots) than what your image will need, but examples nonetheless. The impact/effect of the skin adjustments is always applied to meet what the client is looking to have done. Yours sounds like basic stuff/no glam.

 

These are from client supplied images: (before and after gifs)

http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro/image/139920706/original.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro/image/139244229/original.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro/image/137647521/original.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro/image/137746154/original.jpg

 

Other portraits I've done (static images)

 

http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro/image/130617871/original.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro/image/130320812/original.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro/image/130320793/original.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro/image/128685207/original.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro/image/137578441/original.jpg

 

 

 

Happy to help.

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damn when can i sign up for your classes.. you have some talent

 

:o Thanks.

 

Ironically enough, I do host seminars. Come join me for some tea and crumpets at the local senior centers where I work quite a bit :) One of my little niches that drives a lot of my editing business.

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Make sure the printer is not sharpening. One of the printers I use in Cali sharpens 20% by default. I'd be happy to look at it. Send it to freezeframphto@gmail.com

 

Im sure Tim will be able to do the same.

 

Thanks for the offers!

 

She had it printed at Cord Camera... do you know if their printers sharpen?

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Thanks for the offers!

 

She had it printed at Cord Camera... do you know if their printers sharpen?

 

They likely use the stock Fuji Frontier profile which will account for sharpening but normally they are on the soft to very soft side. My guess is that it's something to do with the editing process.

 

Here's another example of basic clean up. I say basic as I have it built into an action for photoshop that from start to finish is about 30 seconds.

 

 

http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro/image/140829106/original.jpg

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Thanks all and especially Trish and Tim! Trish, you are dead on with my shooting with too narrow of a depth of field and thank you for your guidance. Tim your photoediting skills are unparalelled- I cant believe you took care of that redness in a matter of 30 seconds when it took me no joke 4 hours of mind numbing scrutiny before. All edits look wonderful you are the man!
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Thanks all and especially Trish and Tim! Trish, you are dead on with my shooting with too narrow of a depth of field and thank you for your guidance. Tim your photoediting skills are unparalelled- I cant believe you took care of that redness in a matter of 30 seconds when it took me no joke 4 hours of mind numbing scrutiny before. All edits look wonderful you are the man!

 

Thanks Andrew. I'm glad it all worked out.

 

Yes, DOF wise, I would shoot that shot over at between f/6.3 and f/8. Especially since there's no background to need to blur out.

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