[Dabhand16]

After seeing Veddie's lovely shot of his Son, I just had to have a go too.



Do you think I should have cloned out his little bogey first?

Didn't notice until after posting!!

[Toonie]

It needs a little work in levels, too dark + no pure whites

[Angela]

Not sure I'd have cropped it quite so close. Handsome little chap though

[Dabhand16]

I had no choice. The only crop I've done is a bit off each side! I'm working on what Toonie suggested. I was trying to get the light even, and he is right with his comments. It is difficult to lighten up without overdoing the facial highlights though.

Thanks for the nice comment.

[VeddieEdder]

Awww shucks, im blushin!

Try doing shots like this outdoors in shade. Light is rarely wrong in those settings. Either that, or by window light, later in the day, with something to use to fill/reflect.

And we love kids, boogers and all. I CANT get a shot of my son without a chinful of drool. Its just not happening.

[Dave]

Cute little fella Good to see a nice tight crop like this.

Not knowing the conditions you shot in , but if using Channel Mixers for Mono conversion , the best starting point for natural looking portraits is Red 40%, Green 30%, Blue 30%. Hope that helps.

[Dabhand16]

Thanks, Dave. Have you a preferred output channel? The PSP X channel mixer will output in either R,G or B, but not in RGB.

By the way, Oliver was just lying on the floor (bit like his Grandad from time to time), and I used the built-in flash switched down a bit. You can see the flash shadow at the bottom sides of the print. Shows you how close I was!

[Dave]

In PS CS they have a little tick box for "monochrome" alongside the channel mixer. Can't comment on PSP X as never used it

[Dabhand16]

Yes Dave - PSP X has that too, but I'm not sure if that checkbox turns the image into greyscale i.e. 256 colours. I've been trying it as a layer adjustment withoput this box being ticked, and with another layer - hue/saturation to do the mono conversion by desaturation.

I hoped this would retain the RGB information, and perhaps give a bit more control on the tones.

From my efforts you might think I'm wasting my time

[Dabhand16]

Taking Toonie's comments on board, here is my next effort. Didn't clone out the bogey - tell it as it is. Very difficult to get it lighter and keep the facial highlights in check. Translation, I'm pretty crap at doing this.

[Toonie]

Thats better Dabhand16 & it WILL get easier, believe me

Regards Toonie