First Attempt C & C Wanted

[Carl in Louisiana]

This is my best friends daughter and my granddaughter, I adopted her as such. She was getting ready to go to a banquet dinner in her honor as she passed from 8th grade and moving up to the ninth grade. She passed the SAT test with scores that colledge folks would get. All of us who know her and love her are very proud of her.

This was with out flash, we had some lights in the house but my friend has shades with wide white blades and was able turn them so as to bounce the sun light off the ceiling for the most part. I did use a whibal card for WB and the black velvet cloth for the back drop all picked up from Colin and other posts on the forum. I am looking for anything that would help me in pursuit of my passion. Thank You.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Carl,

The lighting looks ok to my untrained eye, diffuse and with good catchlights in the eyes - however, it looks rather 'over processed'.

Are we to understand this is your first attempt at a portrait?

It looks like you may have applied sharpening and saturation adjustments that work fine for whatever you usually shoot, but I'm afraid they are too agressive for a portrait.

I'll leave it to Colin or someone else with practical portrait experience to help you further.

Assuming you shot RAW, someone may be able to help produce a good final image from this nice capture. (and if no-one else offers, I do)

All the best,

[Carl in Louisiana]

Hi Carl,

The lighting looks ok to my untrained eye, diffuse and with good catchlights in the eyes - however, it looks rather 'over processed'.

Are we to understand this is your first attempt at a portrait?

It looks like you may have applied sharpening and saturation adjustments that work fine for whatever you usually shoot, but I'm afraid they are too agressive for a portrait.

I'll leave it to Colin or someone else with practical portrait experience to help you further.

Assuming you shot RAW, someone may be able to help produce a good final image from this nice capture. (and if no-one else offers, I do)

All the best,

Thanks for replying Dave, and yes it is my first attemp at a portriat. I was afraid I over did it but wanted help from someone with much better skills than I have to help out. I have been shooting in raw for some time now and really don't like the jpeg's any longer. If anyone wants to PP it I have no problem with with that. I just want to learn how with the software that I have hopefully. Just let me know how to post the raw file. Thanks!

[smcrews]

I have to agree with dave on this one. If you post the original, I will happily let you know what I would do.

[Carl in Louisiana]

[Colin Southern]

Hi Carl,

A quick retouch for you before I head off to bed.

[Carl in Louisiana]

Hi Carl,

A quick retouch for you before I head off to bed.

Thanks Colin. What did you do to get the skin tone as you did? I need to learn what to use in LR4 and Nik and also train my eyes to know what will work and what will not work. I'm still having a problem with over doing at times. arrggg

[Dave Humphries]

I need to learn what to use in LR4 and Nik and also train my eyes to know what will work and what will not work. I'm still having a problem with over doing at times. arrggg

Hi Carl,

My advice would be forget Nik, at least until you know what you're doing with the basics of ACR/LR4.

It is so easy, when you start out, to read that someone used Nik to achieve a picture you like and think; "oh, I must have Nik", and then having invested in it, to want to use it - on every picture.

Keep things simple; ('walk') one step at a time before trying the 'time saving' features of packages like Nik (i.e. 'running').

Do bear in mind this viewpoint comes from someone (me) that doesn't use such products*, and I seem to manage OK. In fact I prefer to do things 'manually' rather than get "button/filter happy" which certainly risks leading one to over processing, so that biases me against them from the start

* That said, I do have a couple of plug-ins, but these are to deal with specific problems, like noise - and I only use them occasionally.

Please don't be offended by my forthright views on the over use of effects filters to save time, I'm not accusing you, although by your own admission ...

Cheers,

[Carl in Louisiana]

Hi Carl,

My advice would be forget Nik, at least until you know what you're doing with the basics of ACR/LR4.

It is so easy, when you start out, to read that someone used Nik to achieve a picture you like and think; "oh, I must have Nik", and then having invested in it, to want to use it - on every picture.

Keep things simple; ('walk') one step at a time before trying the 'time saving' features of packages like Nik (i.e. 'running').

Do bear in mind this viewpoint comes from someone (me) that doesn't use such products*, and I seem to manage OK. In fact I prefer to do things 'manually' rather than get "button/filter happy" which certainly risks leading one to over processing, so that biases me against them from the start

* That said, I do have a couple of plug-ins, but these are to deal with specific problems, like noise - and I only use them occasionally.

Please don't be offended by my forthright views on the over use of effects filters to save time, I'm not accusing you, although by your own admission ...

Cheers,

I am here to learn. Your comments have been taken in that light and are much appreciated. Thank You for taking the time to reply.

[Carl in Louisiana]

An attempt to get as close as I can to yours Colin and so far that is the best I can do. Hope it is as close as I think it.