Kids and Family Challenge #9 - OCF/OCL - ENDED

[nicko97]

Originally Posted by transcape5

That's very true, Mark. Not Nick.
BTW, what do you use to edit your pictures? I notice that there's a pinkish color cast on your daughter that is no doubt coming from the pinkness of the surrounding and perhaps the white balance can be adjusted.

Hi Tom,

Thanks for pointing that out the white balancing that is an area I'm having trouble with.

I use Photoshop elements on the mac. I'm having trouble with the white balance in that room, photo's often have a yellow tint to them. I tried changing white balance on the camera but it didn't help. I shot the picture in RAW and tried adjusting in PSE, I've only been using it for about a week and this is what I did.

White Balance Auto, its the one that looked best to me.
Increased clarity between 50 and 75, don't remember exact number.
Increased Vibrance to around 50
Increased Sharpness to around 50.

I have no idea if these adjustments are correct but the picture did look better to me after the change. Do you think I used to much Vibrance or something else.

Thanks,

Mark

[transcape5]

Originally Posted by nicko97

Hi Tom,

Thanks for pointing that out the white balancing that is an area I'm having trouble with.

I use Photoshop elements on the mac. I'm having trouble with the white balance in that room, photo's often have a yellow tint to them. I tried changing white balance on the camera but it didn't help. I shot the picture in RAW and tried adjusting in PSE, I've only been using it for about a week and this is what I did.

White Balance Auto, its the one that looked best to me.
Increased clarity between 50 and 75, don't remember exact number.
Increased Vibrance to around 50
Increased Sharpness to around 50.

I have no idea if these adjustments are correct but the picture did look better to me after the change. Do you think I used to much Vibrance or something else.

Thanks,

Mark

Was a pic included with this post, Mark? I don't have PSE but if you shot in RAW it should make WB adjustment easier, I'm sure. Did you try using Tungsten for your WB instead of Auto? I tried adjusting your shot in PS, using the white part of her shirt for a white point on a curve adjustment and it seems a bit better.

[nicko97]

Originally Posted by transcape5

Was a pic included with this post, Mark? I don't have PSE but if you shot in RAW it should make WB adjustment easier, I'm sure. Did you try using Tungsten for your WB instead of Auto? I tried adjusting your shot in PS, using the white part of her shirt for a white point on a curve adjustment and it seems a bit better.

Hi Tom,

I'm attaching the original file as a unedited jpeg. On my camera I tried incandescent, I don't have tungsten. I didn't think to try changing the white balanced based on her shirt. I'm not sure what curve adjustments are but I bought a PSE book written by Scott Kelby and I think it might have a section on curves.

Thanks for taking the time to review my image.

Mark

[mrpalmer420]

I think this may be one of the advantages of Full Ps over PSE. I don't believe that PSE has curves but i may be wrong.

[nicko97]

Originally Posted by mrpalmer420

I think this may be one of the advantages of Full Ps over PSE. I don't believe that PSE has curves but i may be wrong.

Looks like it has color curves. Is that the same thing?

[nicko97]

Hi,

Does this one look any better? I used the Enhanced color for skin tones tool in PSE.

Thanks,

Mark

[HighMark Adventures]

Ok couple more using a 60 inch octa. I will be going outside with my son to try something using the old vivitars next and squeak it in before the deadline tomorrow.

[transcape5]

Originally Posted by nicko97

Hi Tom,

I'm attaching the original file as a unedited jpeg. On my camera I tried incandescent, I don't have tungsten. I didn't think to try changing the white balanced based on her shirt. I'm not sure what curve adjustments are but I bought a PSE book written by Scott Kelby and I think it might have a section on curves.

Thanks for taking the time to review my image.

Mark

Hey Mark,

Your edit is a bit better. I took your original file and apply that curve adjustment that I mentioned earlier using the white part of her sleeves as the white point and got the result below. Now, that's a really quick and dirty adjustment and I'm sure other savvy PS users can really tweak it, but I just want to show what it can do. Here's a whole discussion on correcting color cast that you can read up at your convenience. The curve adjustment stuff is mentioned at the start of it. Emmanuel (Epphoto), who is one of our amazing Camels, started that discussion. I hope it will help some.

Correct a color cast like a Pro

[transcape5]

Originally Posted by HighMark Adventures

Ok couple more using a 60 inch octa. I will be going outside with my son to try something using the old vivitars next and squeak it in before the deadline tomorrow.

Those are excellent entries, Shawn. I'm glad you're able to get them in. Can you share some lighting setup info for the outdoor shots with the sun in the background?

I may have to consult with Jeff to see if we can extend this challenge to buy some time for us slackers (me) to get our entries in.

[HighMark Adventures]

Thanks Tom.

For the outside shots they were shot on the 5D Mark II with canon`s 17-40 as you probably guessed I started with sun directly behinh him and one vivitar 285hv camera right on stand about 6 feet from him. To get the sky and clouds where I liked the look it ended up being f16 at 125th ISO 100.
Now the vivitar was on max but it was not enough so I moved it closer but it was still not enough. Was not getting the coverage I was hoping for.

So I get the bright idea of dragging out a studio strobe(600ws) with octa figuring it would work. Well lets say it did not and the wind blew it over and I broke the pocket wizard attached to it. So I then just put on the 6 inch reflector with no diffusion replaced the PW and voila it started to come together. I ended up using the vivitar to light up his bike and rocks on camera left.

First time I ever tried this and I like it. I like the look and as everybody know I`m always a bit heavy on the contrast side of things, just my taste. I played with the images in cs5 briefly.

Now I still plan on working this image later. I have vision of a grungy edge and some pattern coming through layered in for final effect.

If it was not for this little competition I would never have got off my bumholio to try this. So thanks to all involved for keeping these going.


Tom in your first pic what lens were you using. I like the look of that one a lot. Great DOF