My kids at the beach

[mvandenburg]

We went for a family portrait with a friend/professional photographer and before we left we walked down the beach and I took a few shots. I did not have a flash or reflectors or anything, just set it on portrait and snapped a couple and then we left. I wish I would have had more time for getting the right settings but they came out OK...just need a little adjusting. I am curious to see what someone with better PP skills could do with my photo. Here it is. You can download the full size image at:
http://gallery.mac.com/mvandenburg#gallery
This is my generic family web album. The photo is under the album titled "photo edit".

Thank you

[Kaye]

Hi Mike, I downloaded the two photos from your link, but they are still tiny.
Maybe just manually post the full size shot, so when members do an edit, it will be worth keeping or printing.

[Hype]

Hi Mike,

First of all, What a lovely family you have.

Now :)Using the the above image I managed to do some editing.

As Kaye has said if you post a large sized version we can then maybe come up with something your be wanting to keep or print off.

Anyway, Here is what I did, It took only a few minutes.

I will have another go though if you post a larger file and make a list of what I did on the edit.

[Pat]

Hello Mike. Being on a dial-up, I just used the pic you posted here. My workflow went as follows.
Duplicate background layer. Rename "Shadows/Highlights".
Open Shadows?highlights filter in Photoshop and apply the following settings: Shadows; 64/62/46. Highlights; 0. Colour correction; +20. Midtone contrast; +12.
Duplicate Shadows/Highlights layer and rename it "Dodge".
Open Dodge tool and apply to teeth and whites of eyes at 18%. Fade this layer to 65% and merge it down to the Shadows/Highlights layer.
Duplicate the Shadows/Highlights layer and rename it "Sharpen".
Open the Smart Sharpen filter and set up thusly: Amount 65%; Radius 1.0 pixels; Remove-Gausian Blur; More Accurate setting-on; Fade Sharpen From Shadows-100%; Fade Sharpen From Highlights-0%.
Duplicate top layer and name it "Colour Cast".
Here I used a specialised filter from DCE Tools in an attempt to fade the brown sand reflection from the white clothing. You might be able to do it with Photoshop's "Image-Adjustments-Hue/Saturation or colour Balance filters. In the end I failed miserably in removing the brown cast but decided I liked the new colour balance so kept it. Settings for DCE Tools'-Colour Cast were simply the selection of the colour cast function with the slider set to maximum outdoor and other boxes unchecked.
I then faded the Colour Cast layer to 68% and merged it down to the Sharpen Layer.
Duplicate Sharpen Layer and rename "Cosmetic".
Apply selective blur to facial artifacs in Normal Mode with blur tool set to 50%. I then set the blur tool to 100% and removed jpeg artifacs and fringing from around the hair/sky and water/sky junctions.
Finally, you appear to have a dustspot just above and between the older girl's heads which I removed with the Spot Healing Brush Tool.
Saved as jpeg at Level 9.
And there you have it.


And might I add; lovely family.

[mvandenburg]

Pat,

Thanks for the edit and the explanation, that is very helpful.

Kaye and Steve,

At the risk of sounding ignorant I have no idea how to post the full size image. I was hoping the link to the gallery would provide that but it appears the resolution is only 72dpi from the gallery. I will try to figure it out and re-post the image.

I think what I really needed was a white sheet to diffuse the sunlight and at least one OCF to compete with the sun.

[ladyups]

Hi Mike...I'm not editing your image...I think I'll leave that up to folks who know PS better than I do.

What I want to suggest...even if you don't have an OCF, your on camera flash set to fill light would have improved this image greatly! I'm always reminding myself to use my flash when I take images outside. Using it would have opened up the shadows on their faces.

You have a lovely family!