I've shot the portrait, now what to do in PP: I shot several portraits of my niece and her husband. I can think of some set up things like reflectors that would have been helpful in...

manofhg Loc: Knoxville, TN

I shot several portraits of my niece and her husband. I can think of some set up things like reflectors that would have been helpful in the shoot, but with the shots I have, I'm curious how others that have more experience with portraits would do to this PP. I'm really trying to learn how to do portraits and I'm a pretty slow learner. Please feel free to work on it and repost (if that is allowed on this channel). Please explain how you approach PP for portraits such as this, no studio, etc.

eric

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IBM

manofhg wrote:

I shot several portraits of my niece and her husba... (show quote)

It is is not bad I just enlarged it on my Samsung pad tell there is no more yellow edges ,and centered it ,his hair line is touching
The top ,could be softenedon on the face ,with less esposure,and the green back ground could be soften also uh

manofhg Loc: Knoxville, TN

IBM wrote:

It is is not bad I just enlarged it on my Samsung pad tell there is no more yellow edges ,and centered it ,his hair line is touching
The top ,could be softenedon on the face ,with less esposure,and the green back ground could be soften also uh

Thanks for your comments. You said his hairline is touching the top? Top of what?

mrpentaxk5ii

What camera and lens did you use? the focal length looks good, but you could go to a F-Stop of 2.8 or less to soften the back ground.

djtravels Loc: Georgia boy now

I downloaded your photo, selected the background and changed the hue and saturation of the background. Then I increased the blur using gaussian blur. Next I worked on the people using either the spot healing brush (PSE 15), or the clowning tool to remove the darker shadows under the eyes. Works for me, but I'm just an amateur.

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manofhg Loc: Knoxville, TN

mrpentaxk5ii wrote:

What camera and lens did you use? the focal length looks good, but you could go to a F-Stop of 2.8 or less to soften the back ground.

I have a Canon 5D mark III with the Canon 24-105 mm f/4.0, so I couldn't go to a lower f-stop, but could have blurred the background selectively in PP.

manofhg Loc: Knoxville, TN

djtravels wrote:

I downloaded your photo, selected the background and changed the hue and saturation of the background. Then I increased the blur using gaussian blur. Next I worked on the people using either the spot healing brush (PSE 15), or the clowning tool to remove the darker shadows under the eyes. Works for me, but I'm just an amateur.

Thanks for working on it and explaining what you did. Yeah, I can see some things I could try, but reshooting with better light control, would be helpful.

jim quist Loc: Missouri

I wish I was talented enough to remove his hand from her shoulder.

IBM

manofhg wrote:

Thanks for your comments. You said his hairline is touching the top? Top of what?

I expanded the frame all way around tell there was no frame, like cropping it to the size of my pad looks a lot better with out all that faded yellow mustered colour

IBM

IBM wrote:

I expanded the frame all way around tell there was no frame, like cropping it to the size of my pad looks a lot better with out all that faded yellow mustered colour

I read years ago about how common it was to see a married couple , who look rowas they could be brother and sister , me and
My wife have been mistaken for that , and when I looked at all my marred friends at least half of them looked enough alike
To be bro and sis

yorkiebyte Loc: Scottsdale, AZ/Bandon by the Sea, OR

Really, this is a decent quick portrait! Does your Canon have a pop up flash? At low power that would have saved a lot of PP work right there! Fill flash is a life saver. Plus highlights in the eyes. You won't get red eye in daylight. Also, that hand thing....just say no. Don't let people do that or the wrap around the waist thing. Have them put that hand on the spouse's lower back so as not to look like a growth on the other person.
Keep workin' at it....the less PP you have to do, the better!
dj travels did a good job on post with this image!

manofhg Loc: Knoxville, TN

Thank you all for the comments and advice. No, my camera doesn't have a pop up flash, but I do have a flash and should have used it (with a soft umbrella) to fill in the shadows and put that sparkle in the eyes. This photo was made on about their 1st year anniversary and was taken just after her twin sister got married (the day before). I shot that wedding, but not as the pro, just as an uncle who likes to take pics. I'm very careful to communicate with the pro so that I'm not doing something they don't like or getting their way, violating their contract, etc.

yorkiebyte Loc: Scottsdale, AZ/Bandon by the Sea, OR

manofhg wrote:

Thank you all for the comments and advice. No, my... (show quote)

Rick36203 Loc: Northeast Alabama

Hi Eric. Sometimes you take the shot and don't like the lighting or the background. You can't re-shoot, but there's something in the image that makes it worth the time and effort to try to save with pp.

I took your image first to ACR filter in Photoshop and made minor global adjustments to exposure, black and white points, and also vibrance.

Next, I took a copy to a Portrait plug-in for a little skin softening and blemish removal. I believe there was also eye sharpening and enhancement.

I added two curves adjustment layers to reduce shadowing around eyes and enhance the eye highlights. Another layer to darken pupils on the young lady. I used a technique to smooth and blend some colortones on the forehead. Another curves adjustment to add contrast to the blouse.

I cloned out the distracting background highlights above their heads. I also lowered the midtone exposure a bit on the remaining background to serve as a vignette.

(Download)

traderjohn Loc: New York City

Rick36203 wrote:

Hi Eric. Sometimes you take the shot and don't lik... (show quote)

Much better. Nice job.