eye pop

[rpcrowe]

Portrait Professional is a fast and easy portrait retouching software. Enhancing eyes is just one of the capabilities of this program. You can download and play with a free version at:

http://www.portraitprofessional.com/...FRBNgwodlyuNzw

Note, everything you can do with Portrait Professional, you can accomplish using Photoshop alone. However you don't need Photoshop expertise to use Portrait Pro and using that plug-in makes portrait retouching quite fast.

[jconti3]

Ok, I took a shot of son today and gave the eyes a try. After watching some paths and selections videos on 'meet the GIMP' here is what I came up with., I need to work on resizing I think next.

[Colin Southern]

Hi John,

I'm not sure if you're seeing what I'm seeing (or if you're working from a profiled monitor), but the image above is about 2 stops under-exposed - has a wicked colour case - and also needs sharpening. I've done a quick retouch / resize so you can see the difference (I also toned down the whites of the eyes a bit).

[jconti3]

Where are you geting that bright white light? I tried again but still not even close. I thought it was so nice until I saw this! So, now what do you think?,

[jconti3]

Colin, I have worked this picture from every angle I can think of. How did you get rid of all the warm colored light? Brightness,saturation,color,contrast.........where is it?

[Colin Southern]

Colin, I have worked this picture from every angle I can think of. How did you get rid of all the warm colored light?

Hi John,

White balance. You're is (still) set way way waaaay too warm.

In Photoshop once simply moves the temperature / tint sliders in Adobe Camera RAW - not sure what the equivalent GIMP controls are though sorry.

[jconti3]

OK, I have been at it for sometime now with lots of different results. I have made it my mission to try and get the same cool value that you achieved. Even though , the photo was taken on a reddish wood floor with sunlight through red curtains next to a red couch.(gosh, that sounds aweful but, it looks nice) Its amazing to me what can be done in PP. I will post again when I get closer to the results. Thanks alot for such a cool forum.

[jeeperman]

John, I needed some practice so hope you don't mind me having a go. I also use Gimp so I thought maybe I could at least give you possabilities. I first went to the color dropdown and picked levels. In levels I used the white eye dropper to pick on the whites of the eyes to get a little better white balance. I then used the slider in the same levels to fine tune, leaving just a little more color in the skin. I then went back to colors and picked brightness & contrast and used the sliders to gain a little of both. A little quick sharpen in the filters dropdown with the unsharp mask....and here we are. I think there are some things I would change with mine as I don't care for what I did to the back ground and I think things look a little degrade. Still need practice.

Oops, first posted wrong attempt. =}

[Colin Southern]

OK, I have been at it for sometime now with lots of different results. I have made it my mission to try and get the same cool value that you achieved. Even though , the photo was taken on a reddish wood floor with sunlight through red curtains next to a red couch.(gosh, that sounds aweful but, it looks nice) Its amazing to me what can be done in PP. I will post again when I get closer to the results. Thanks alot for such a cool forum.

Hi John,

The "short answer" to white balance accuracy is to shoot a grey card as a reference shot first, and then use that to balance the other shots later.

[jconti3]

, This is my latest attempt.Now, I have washed it out and lost all the softness of the skin. It's bright and white though.Ugh! Jeeperman, I'm happy that you use gimp and also that your image is still a little warm. I like the warm but, mostly I am trying to reproduce Colins take on this just for a project......thanks guys!

[Colin Southern]

I am trying to reproduce Colins take on this

Catch me if you can

Seriously (for a moment) - you're getting there. A couple of things have happened here ...

1. You've made good progress with the colour cast.

2. You've made good progress with the "exposure" - unfortunately though, you've up-shifted ALL the tones, to the point where things that should be a deep grey are actually closer to a light grey (or equivalent colour). What you need to do here is raise the black clipping point to force the darker tones to be darker still, and then (possibly) adjust the midtones to get the skin texture looking good.

Also, it still needs sharpening, but that can wait until later.

[jconti3]

, This was alot of fun. We got a little off the subject of 'eye pop' but, I learned something. Thanks for participating. It just snowed here in Oklahoma for the first time this year so, I'm calling in sick to work and going to shoot some photos! Here is my final post on this one. Colin, thanks alot for the advise!

[paulwilbur]

We (I) call these "catch-lights" I think that is the appropriate term.

Simple in a paint program... small soft edge brush with a off-whit color andd a single puff/click on the corner of the eye


paul