Walk This Way

[escape]

It does look a bit overcooked. Maybe too much sky? The girls waren't very helpful. They liked it. Comments welcomed.

[mugge]

The sky looks fine to me. The girls are a tad overcooked. Still, it looks fine to me.
Cheers Ole

[The amateur]

Daniel,
A very interesting image, no doubt, representing the friendship between two ladies.
The lady on our left looks more informal, while the other is dressed in a more formal but not too much.

Both ladies are very happy to be captured by the camera, but it seems to me that the image would benefit from a shallower depth of field and the figures standing out in general in terms of brightness.

I usually like, especially in this type of images, to have the subject highlighted from the general environment, so I would start by isolating them, that is, selecting the background and giving it a lower brightness.

Another aspect that stands out here and that I find interesting is that the colours in the entire environment are more muted, less bright, and this clearly contrasts with the colours of the ladies' clothes.

+1 good photograph

[Geoff F]

Possibly try it with a little bit less sky although that might mean going to a different size ratio because I wouldn't want to lose much from the sides.

[DanK]

I agree with Antonio's and Geoff's suggestion. I also think it is a bit overcooked--specifically, over saturated.

Here's a quick edit:

1. I reduced saturation a little.
2. I cropped to make the women more important.
3. I selected everything but the people to darken the background a little.
4. I selected the sky and darkened it quite a bit more. For this, I used a luminosity blend mode because simply darkening it with a normal blend, or in anything working RGB, makes the blue unnaturally saturated.

[escape]

Thank you, Dan, for the edit and outline. It was very helpful in getting it how I would like it.

[escape]

Thank you, Ole, Antonio, and Geoff. Your input is always valued and appreciated.

[The amateur]

I don't describe the work done on an image like Dan, but I made my attempt to darken the overall environment and create shorter depth of field and therefore create a greater separation between the women and the background.
I took the opportunity to make some adjustments by erasing bushes and trees that I felt shouldn't be there.

I ended with the symmetry creating perhaps a greatest dynamism in the image
I hope you like it.
Cheers !

[escape]

I ended with the symmetry creating perhaps a most excellent dynamism in the image
I hope you like it.
Cheers !

Antonio, when I view your crop, my eyes tend to abruptly move from the girls on one side to the railing on the other. I would maintain the girls in the center. The image I posted is a cropped version of the original shot. The original showed more of everything that surrounds the girls. They were far away, with much more of the pier showing before them, which I liked. I cropped it down to make it more about the girls and less about the pier.

Thank you for editing the image, exploring new possibilities, and sharing it.

[Chataignier]

Interesting ! My instinct was to move the subject off centre too, but having seen Antonio's version (which is much as I would have done it) I think I prefer the original crop. I do like the reduced dof and the darker background though.

[pnodrog]

I agree with Antonio's and Geoff's suggestion. I also think it is a bit overcooked--specifically, over saturated.

Here's a quick edit:

1. I reduced saturation a little.
2. I cropped to make the women more important.
3. I selected everything but the people to darken the background a little.
4. I selected the sky and darkened it quite a bit more. For this, I used a luminosity blend mode because simply darkening it with a normal blend, or in anything working RGB, makes the blue unnaturally saturated.

Dan you have done more or less what I had in mind when I viewed the image. The only other thing I would possibly have done is selected their faces and lowered the contrast a little or lifted the shadows a bit and desaturated the reds.