Happy toddler

[ionian]

Shot with a 35mm prime (on APS-C) and a constant light source off-camera left with a 80cm shoot-through umbrella. Processing in LR. Ideally I would have used a longer focal length for a shot this close but there's no getting her to her hold still while a change lenses! C&c very welcome, especially on the PP.

[rpcrowe]

Simon, great portrait of a lovely child. I am not sure but, on my monitor, her eyes seem a bit soft while the hair on her forehead seems pretty sharp. This looks like it might be a DOF rather than a camera shake problem. Of course, this could just be they way my monitor is rendering the image. Even with a 35mm F.L. a shot from this close could have hair-thin (pun unintended) depth of field.

I brought this image into NIK Vivesa, selected both eyes using control points and then increased the structure of the eyes to the maximum amount. The structure slider produces a sharpening effect without causing artifacts. I then selected her left eye area (image right) and brightened it a bit to even out the two eyes.



Regarding shooting portraits with a fairly wide lens... IMO portraits of toddlers are the least susceptible to exaggerated facial features normally caused in portraits shot from up close with a wider lens. I think that this is because their noses are not developed to the point in which shooting from up close elongates the nose...

[Shadowman]

Nice capture.

[bnnrcn]

Lovely child

[ionian]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

Richard - that has really helped make her eyes pop. I haven't used the NIK tools myself, in still learning PP and most of my edits are done in Lightroom with a few functions in photoshop. I really need to learn how to use ps properly, as I think layered edits will help me no end - its just getting started with it all. Do you find NIK is worth having as well?

[Davejl]

Lovely shot, the shallow depth of field works well, but I too found the eyes slightly less sharp than ideal, though eyesbrows were fine. Richard's edit has definitely done the trick. It seems a real shame that Viveza plug-in now only seems to come in a package which would involve my duplicating Silver Efex Pro, which I've had for some time. Looks like a really useful bit of software.

[rpcrowe]

Simon asked if NIK was worth the expense?

IMO, if Adobe had purchased the NIK software, instead of Google, photographers all over the world would be singing its praises as the best thing since sliced bread and everybody would be happily using it...

Is NIK worth it? It is difficult to put a monetary value on a product of this type. I was introduced to NIK with my camera club years ago when NIK had its corporate office in San Diego. The company invited my club for a presentation and I was really impressed. At that time, the NIK Software was exceptionally expensive and each of the sections such as Viveza were sold separately. There were NIK programs for Photoshop and somewhat less expensive, but still costly versions for Lightroom. The Lightroom versions did not have layers capability.

No it was not worth it at that time I couldn't justify the cost without making a profit from my photography. However, when Google purchased NIK, the price was reduced dramatically and, in comparison with the original cost, the new Google NIK seemed like a bargain to me.

I purchased NIK and have never regretted doing so but, whether the program would be worth it to other photographers is an individual matter. I primarily use five of the NIK sections: Dfine, Sharpener Pro Raw Presharpener, Sharpener Pro Output Sharpener (especially for printing) and Silver Efex Pro. I also use Viveza on every one of my images to one degree or another.

Right about that time, Adobe was having a sale on its last boxed sets of Photoshop CS6 and the combination of that sale with the cost of NIK was still less that what CS6 had originally cost. Later on, I was investigating Genuine Fractals as a program for working with the really poor imagery submitted to me by our dog rescue volunteers. I learned that Genuine Fractals was purchased by the OnOne people and incorporated into the Perfect Photo Suite as Perfect Resize. I also learned that On-One had a sale on the Perfect Photo Suite for persons who owned NIK. I purchased Perfect Photo and, along with the NIK Software, my total editing program expenditure was still under the original cost of what CS6 had been.

Using NIK and Perfect Photo is a lot of fun for me. I really enjoy working with both sets of editing tools as CS6 Plug-Ins.

Dave mentioned, "Viveza plug-in now only seems to come in a package which would involve my duplicating Silver Efex Pro, which I've had for some time. Looks like a really useful bit of software." I think that Donald had and was using Silver Efex Pro and I think because of owning that program, he got a really good deal on the entire NIK Software Suite. You might send him a PM and ask him about it.

[ionian]

Thanks Richard - maybe something for the future as I already pay monthly for the Adobe cc, and for the volume I shoot it's quite an outlay. Perhaps I should just make sure I don't miss focus in future! I'll have a play with the tools I have and see if I can achieve something close to the eyes you created in nik. Maybe some local sharpening and careful dodging of the eye on the right, I'll have a play.

[rpcrowe]

You should be able to select the areas around the eyes and increase sharpness, perhaps by using a brush and a correction layer

http://www.graphics.com/article-old/...mage-photoshop

[IzzieK]

Richard's warming up the image did this trick + the eyes. I too consider using Nik's software suite worthwhile as it is all effects of your choice in sliders. I have been using Photoshop since version 4 and not into clouds at all. CS6 I have because CS5 does not recognize my D810 files so I bite the bullets on CS6. I also have On-One though I seldom use it nowadays because it is easier to do my PP in Nik's.