The Completely True Adventures & Lamentations of OctoGal & OctoPup in Highlands

Shutter Community Saves Girls!

Karmardav took the most adorable shot of her girls this past weekend..one problem…shot 15 minutes too late. The afternoon sun had receeded and left Karmardav with two perfect yet grainy smiles in her photo. Enter the shutter community…Karmardav ask us Photoshop doo wop gals to wield our magic wands and try to recover an other wise great photo.

Here is the SOOC shot

First to answer the charge was IvoryHut with some very creative solutions:

ETA: CHOSEN SHOT

Then Jenfera, new to Photoshop Elements, applied some excellent technique

I applied my Kelby points…and I looked up a new plugin that Kelby uses to reduce noise in shots called NoisewarePro.

Urgh! excuse the vanity…I forgot to turn off the copyrite, sorry.

Then Renae took a mighty crack at it…

Karmardav is certainly appreciative of all our efforts and made the suggestion that we show all the fine work everyone did.

Hey, Karmardav, what did you end up doing?

Great stuff…thanks for all the sharing!

shrewspeaks

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11 responses to “Shutter Community Saves Girls!”

  1. brc Avatar
    brc

    Well y’all have been very busy! Since everyone else participated that leaves me to respond…

    Okay did Ivoryhut Ortonize Karma’s girls? The first shot looks like a Monet painting. Ivory’s second color shot and second B&W shot are excellent. The second color shot is just the right blend of enhanced color an exposure. The third color shot and first B&W look a little overexposed.

    Jenfera I’m impressed at your attempt as well. Though I can’t put it side by side with Ivory’s second color shot, yours looks like it has slightly warmer tones than Ivory’s. I think they’re both beautiful. It really comes down to whether you (or in this case Karma) like the cooler or warmer tones better.

    Shrew I like your first version the best. It actually most closely resembles the original in color and tone but gets rid of much of the noise. The second and third versions are nice in that they are bright and have less noise, I think we sacrifice the true=ness of the colors for the brightness.

    Renae I also like your first attempt best of your three. It’s clear with nice color. The second one is a bit too purple.

    It seems that all of you have come up with an acceptable improvement on the original. While it’s a tough call, I think if I had to choose I would pick Jenfera’s due to the warmer tones in the skin, hair and leaves in the background.

    Reply
  2. texan Avatar
    texan

    I pass thru often to see your work! I am dazzled and amazed by all of you! You are all gifted artists. I am a grateful spectator! The foodie photos are remarkable! The photo editing skills …spectacular!

    I hope you are all well! I think of you often and send a tsunami of good vibes to you all!

    Reply
  3. ivoryhut Avatar
    ivoryhut

    Hey Texan! Nice to “hear” you. I sure could use that tsunami of good vibes, so thanks for sending it over.

    Brc, I kinda agree with you. I like Jenfera’s warmer tones. It really evokes the feeling of autumn. I was so focused on trying to get the portraits as clear as possible that I forgot to step back and think about the effect of the photo as a whole.

    I did not Ortonize the girls. Actually, as of yet, I still don’t know how to Ortonize. The first one was an art filter that makes a photo look like a painting. In fact, my second b&w one was also an art filter, this time a sketch one. I didn’t go overly aggressive with it, but if you look at the leaves in the background, you’ll see how they look like they were sketched.

    For the non-art filtered color ones, the first one was the straightforward edit, and the second one had an added lighting effect to brighten the girls faces. The first b&w was simply a tritone conversion of the colored one with the lighting effect. Then I think I added a portrait diffuser effect. (Confused yet? I know I am.)

    Renae, good job with the rework. I really like the color tones of your first try. And Shrew, I use Noiseware Pro too. It does wonders for macro shots.

    Reply
  4. KD Avatar
    KD

    I really think the black and white versions do it for me. 🙂 Very nice.

    Does anyone have an opinion on which Elements version is the best? I keep reading very mixed reviews on version 6—version 4 doesn’t seem to have many fans either. I’m coming to my trusted friends for advice! I see Jenfera uses it…anyone else?
    *waves to Texan* Good to see you over here! 🙂

    Reply
  5. karmardav Avatar
    karmardav

    Perhaps I should preface my comment for those who don’t know: this photo is destined for a photo calendar. Each year, I make a calendar of the girls for their grandparents for Christmas. This was to be the “November” shot. For the purpose of the calendar, I was looking for the clearest, “color-truest” shot. The one that strikes me as closest to what I am going for, is the 2nd one of ivory’s.
    Thanks again for all your help and effort!

    Reply
  6. shrewspeaks Avatar
    shrewspeaks

    Texy…hey gal…how is you?

    Reply
  7. texan Avatar
    texan

    Gee, how long have you guys been doing all this cool stuff? I think I wasted the first forty+ years! I don;t think I have even one picture that compares! Did you take classes at school? at a camera store? trial and error? When did you get started?

    :::waves back to all:::

    I are good sistah! You?

    Reply
  8. jenfera Avatar
    jenfera

    Hi Tex! Nice to see you!

    KD, I just got Elements 6.0 and I am still a newbie. Renae, however, has at the very least used both 5.0 and 6.0, so maybe she will come out and play and give us her opinion.

    All I did on my version of the pic was select just the girls and adjust the “temperature” of that area to warm it up. Now that I see it next to the rest, it looks way too warm. Looks like those girls have been eating too many carrots!
    😉

    Nice work, everyone!

    Reply
  9. Renae Avatar
    Renae

    My picks are Hut’s first B&W and Shrew’s 2nd for color. Like I told Karen, I think b&w works better for this shot. It just seems to be more forgiving with the “noise”.

    Like Hut, I too focused on the faces rather than the background. The first thing I did with each shot was to increase the sharpness as much as possible without getting too grainy (which didn’t go so well as you can see!). In the second and third shot I tried to remove some of the shadow under one of the girl’s nose…it bothered me! It looked like a little Hitler mustache. In one shot (I can’t remember which now) I tried to remove a “color cast” but that didn’t work very well either because you need a true white, black, or gray section to click on. I also tried to use the skin color correction tool, but the girls came out too orange. Is that what you used, Jenfera? On the B&W, I used something called the “newspaper” choice. Elements 6 has all kinds of new and improved features for black and white! Speaking of which…

    KD, I went right from Photoshop Elements 4 to 6. I don’t think there was a version 5. I highly recommend 6. Don’t spend the money for 4. My only issues with 6 is that the background color in the display went from white to dark gray (I think it’s harder on the eyes) and I can no longer create free greeting cards. But that’s no big deal, I’ll get over it! That’s small potatoes compared to new features like face recognition detection, guided edit, and other editing improvement tools.

    Howdy Tex!

    Reply
  10. KD Avatar
    KD

    Thanks for the input Renae and Jenfera.
    That’s where some of my Christmas money will be going! Merry Christmas to me! 🙂

    Reply
  11. karmardav Avatar
    karmardav

    I just wanted to let everyone know I ordered my calendars and with the help of this great site and its readers/participants, “November” looks great! If anyone is interested in seeing my other months, let me know ( I just love to show off my girls!) and I could probably plug the other months pictures into my gallery. Thanks again everyone!

    Reply

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