The absolute worst place to take pictures in all of Walt Disney World is the throne room in Cinderella’s Castle. To do it right I’d need a hot-shoe flash with some type of diffuser at the very least. That room is like a cave. And unfortunately 90% of the shooting I do doesn’t require any type of extra lighting. So I can’t justify the money it would cost to purchase the needed supplies to get this shot SOOC.
Fortunately for me I like to play in Photoshop :). Here is my entry for this week’s I ♥ Faces contest. I lightened it considerably, fixed the red eye (gracious day!) and the color balance issues, ran noiseware (I think twice) and then ran a watercolor action to make it look like a painting. I’ve actually printed this one and it looks divine. I’m very happy considering the way it started out.
Just for fun, here’s a link to the SOOC if you want to see it. It’s really sad! Cinderella SOOC.
Now it’s your turn! Head on over to I ♥ Faces to see more blue photos or enter your own!
12 comments:
Looks great!!!! nice job!
Good job on the edit. :)
I'm glad my girl is not old enough to want to start wearing princess outfits yet, but I am prepared... heh.
Nice recover.. love the blue gowns, but she looks so bored. Doesn't she know that's Cinderella?
You did a fantastic job on the edit! Great entry for this weeks theme!
Super sweet! Lovely photo!
WOW! Hallelujah for photoshop, huh? lol Great editing on a beautiful photo! This is simply stunning!
Aj...I wanted to thank you so much for your advice about my pic this morning...and taking the time to show me your fixes! Very helpful. I had done a whole set of pics with her that day, and some of them had better lighting to them, but I wasn't exactly sure why. I had not heard of the histogram before, and will definitely upgrade my Picasa now. I'm getting advice, but so much of it, I don't even understand yet! Your advice was clear and will definitely help me become better at something I already love doing! Thanks again!
AJ Your advice is so great at I heart faces today! I just had to come over and thank you for taking so much time to help so many people! That is very kind of you : )
I am glad you got to Disney world and I am glad you could save your blue nightmare picture!
WOW! Incredible edit! I love how it ended up! Thank you so much for your advice on my picture. I'm excited to play around with your suggestions. :)
Dear AJ,
Thank you so much for the advice and encouragement on my entry this morning, all of the advice is helpful! I do need to spend more time shooting from different settings(not auto) and need to learn the basics about the settings, Thanks! Also, the cropping advice will stick with me every time I edit a photo. Thanks again for taking the time to help me both with your words and edits.
Tiffany
OK, so I have NO idea where to begin on my editing software. The fix it friday pics below (cute little blonde) how did you get all those creations? I would like to learn how to do those changes but don't have a clue which settings to change. My biggest problem is changing an under or over exposed pic. How do you do that? What software do you use and would you mind sharing any tips? You are a really good photographer and editor!!
Hi Jess! I hope you come back to see this. I tried to go to your profile or blog, but couldn't get there from your signature.
The bottom line for me is that I spend way too much time at the computer, LOL. Do you have photo editing software? If not, may I recommend Picasa? It's free and you can play with pictures to your heart's content and the original on your disk does not change. Not until you say "save as." So that's always fun.
As opposed to making it your goal to correct and over/under exposed picture, may I suggest getting it right sooc? That way you'll have much less to worry about in post processing. Google "finding the light" or "portrait photography basics." Something like that. A lot of the information can be applied even if you don't have a fancy camera. Finding good light is good light no matter what camera you use.
To make my multiple edits I always do them in the same order: 1. a clean color edit. 2. a b/w. both done without actions. Then I have fun running different actions or using textures and digital scrapbooking supplies and frames. When you start with a clean color edit all the rest is icing on the cake. I just do a "save as" after each edit naming it a new name.
Having said that I would suggest you calibrate your monitor and check the brightness. It's hard to get a clean color edit if you are not seeing things correctly. That leads to over contrasty images and oompa loompa people.
Today's digital cameras automatically underexpose to protect the highlights of a picture. If no information is recorded (a blown place in the picture) then no information will print. Which leads to disappointed customers. So what you want to do is recognize that your camera is underexposing on purpose and then use the exposure compensation or manual settings to get the picture you want. This is accomplished mainly by play, play, playing with your camera and editing software. You can google any term you don't understand and get a wealth of information about it.
An over exposed picture means that no information was recorded to print. That means you can't get any information back UNLESS you chose to shoot RAW. Sometimes you can recover blown highlights with the RAW file.
I use Photoshop Elements 5 to edit and Picasa to organize all my pictures and supplies.
Thank you so much for your nice comments about my work. I'll have to tell my husband! He laughs when he watches me work at the computer. Seriously I spend way too much time here!
Again, I hope you see this :).
Thanks again!
Amanda
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