Friday Fixit Week #18

Every Friday over at I Heart Faces is Friday Fix-It. They take a image that needs some post-production attention and let everyone have at it. Professionals and amateurs alike share their secrets and findings. Please go check out their site to see many other great fix-its.


ORIGINAL IMAGE

What a sweet little boy this week. I think this is a pretty decent photo right out of the gate. Maybe lighten his face just a bit and pop his eyes. Other then that I think a good crop and we are good to go.

Editing Programs:
Adobe Photoshop – CS2
Lightroom 2

This is really just going to depend on each image and your taste. Just remember with photography being subjective, there is no wrong or right. Now I'm sorry on this one, I just was playing around and didn't write down all the steps, so I'll try to remember.

Always add a layer. So CTRL-J.

Zoom into the eyes. Sharpen his eyes up a little bit. Click on the Dodge tool. Adjust the brush size for your zoom, now brush with a 30% exposure over the catchlight of his eyes.

Then I clicked on Burn, to burn over perimeter of the iris.

Next click on Blur and set it around 40%, then blur out the lips.

Go into Image - Adjustments - Brightness/Contrast. I adjusted these a bit until it looked about right for my taste.

Layer - Flatten Image.

I then imported this image into Lightroom, ran a preset called 7up. Then exported it back into photoshop. I can't stand still can I, I'm all over the place? :)

Next I ran an action by MCP, Hide & Seek. This darkens the outer area almost like a vignette. I then clicked on the lighten bar, choose a brush and lighten his face up just a smidgen.

CTRL J, new layer.

Click on Clone. On the upper bar, change normal to replace. Now you will need take multiple samples when you work away. Click the alt to take the sample just like you did with healing brush. Now just color everything in dark to make him really pop. .

Next, go to Filter-Sharpen-Unsharp mask, set it to 75 Amount 2 Radius 3 Threshold. These settings work pretty well for portraits. Then go to Image-Mode-Lab color. Over on the right side, click on your channels, highlight the lightness tab, now run Filter-Unsharp mask again. Next go up to Image-Mode-RGB color.

I decided to crop the image, but make him the complete focal point of the image. The point of really cropping in close and blackening the background is to really make this different and special.

Click on Layer-Flatten Image, to combine the layers if you are happy with the results. POW, you are finished!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial again this week. Take care and have a beautiful weekend!

EDITED IMAGE