These two girls are sisters.  When we met the younger one was crying and saying she didn't want to take pictures.  We got her warmed up after awhile and I was tickled with some of the smiles I got!  I would like to have critques on color/lightness brightness.  I just calibrated my moniter then got a whole set of pictures back that were too dark and I don't want that to happen again.  Oh, and if you have any other critiques feel free to share them!

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I love these! what cute girlies.

1. can you sharpen her eyes a little? its probably just the forum or my monitor it just looks a tad bit soft to me but its BEAUTIFUL.

3. maybe try to add a little bit of brightness to her? she looks a little dark in contrast to the background.

like i said, probably just my monitor:)

the little one pulled through for you - those are stunning! great work!

The last one is fabulous!

The rest could use a little more sharpening (although it could just be how they are posting). 

Sarah

Thanks so much for your feedback!

This is funny, when I've posted stuff before, people usually tell me it's oversharpened.  This time I sharpened them even more than I normally do and they're showing up soft. :)  

Does #2 look yellow, to you?

Wow these are great!!!  Mom will be delighted that you got the girls to cooperate 

#1 looks a little pink on my monitor

#2 Does NOT look yellow to me. It has a warm temp but I really like it! 

#3 Is bothering me for some reason.  Maybe she is to centered, perhaps it is the line of cars?  Maybe a different crop and a touch more contrast

#4  I really love what it could be, but it looks pretty soft almost OOF on my screen, could just be me

#5 Very nice

#5bThis one has a yellow cast on my monitor

#6 Stunning, I LOVE IT, could totally see this as some amazing card front about the sweetness of being a little girl!

Great job

Alicia

3girls:

Wow these are great!!!  Mom will be delighted that you got the girls to cooperate 

#1 looks a little pink on my monitor

#2 Does NOT look yellow to me. It has a warm temp but I really like it! 

#3 Is bothering me for some reason.  Maybe she is to centered, perhaps it is the line of cars?  Maybe a different crop and a touch more contrast

#4  I really love what it could be, but it looks pretty soft almost OOF on my screen, could just be me

#5 Very nice

#5bThis one has a yellow cast on my monitor

#6 Stunning, I LOVE IT, could totally see this as some amazing card front about the sweetness of being a little girl!

 

Great job

Alicia

 

I agree w/ points mentioned here. Also #2 I think needs a bit of a crop...but just my personal taste I think,  And #3 there are too many distractions in the pic. (cars, etc,), the steeple right behind her head is the most distracting.  I really LOVE the last one.  Its such a great angle and unique shot.  I really liked #4 also.  The composition, color, and texture are great on that one....just a bit soft as mentioned.

Thank you so much for those helpful responses!!!  I'm not seeing pink in the first one and the second is looking yellowish to me.  This is scares me becuase I just had a batch of prints done (edited on laptop not this one) that I didn't like.  Would you mind correcting the pink one so I can see the difference?  I'm not sure if it's my eye or my monitor that's off.  :)

You know I think shots like #6 are some of my favorites, but I'm not sure anyone everpurchases them.  Maybe I should make a collection and do something nice with them.

here is my play....added quite a bit of green and cyan on a color balance layer.  Then I erased it from the hair at 30% opacity as it was looking too green once the skin tone looked right.  Still seems a little off to me but this was best I could do on it.   Then I just cropped it to get the eyes in the top third.

 Also I think part of your problem w/ color not being right in prints might be your color space. This picture was in Adobe RGB color mode instead of sRGB.  You should be using sRGB as this is what the industry standard is for printing.  If you use adobe RGB when you work on them in photoshop,  then send that pic. to lab for printing the colors will turn out different in your prints.  You need to convert to sRGB either in camera or when you pull it up in photoshop.  You can set photoshop to automatically do this...just ask if you need pointers on it. Its just a quick fix in the Edit or Image Drop Down menu (I forget which).

I love all your shots.. sply 5 + b, 6.. can feel something (mood) in it. Good photography.. CLAPS.

mckelle:

here is my play....added quite a bit of green and cyan on a color balance layer.  Then I erased it from the hair at 30% opacity as it was looking too green once the skin tone looked right.  Still seems a little off to me but this was best I could do on it.   Then I just cropped it to get the eyes in the top third.

Okay, yeah, I see now what you're talking about.  Color balance layer..do I have that in elements?  I usually adjust the color in saturation.  Is there an easier way?  Also the crop definately helps the picture!

mckelle:

 Also I think part of your problem w/ color not being right in prints might be your color space. This picture was in Adobe RGB color mode instead of sRGB.  You should be using sRGB as this is what the industry standard is for printing.  If you use adobe RGB when you work on them in photoshop,  then send that pic. to lab for printing the colors will turn out different in your prints.  You need to convert to sRGB either in camera or when you pull it up in photoshop.  You can set photoshop to automatically do this...just ask if you need pointers on it. Its just a quick fix in the Edit or Image Drop Down menu (I forget which).

 Thank you so much for telling me about the color space! 

...one more question...should I change the resolution before printing?  It's a 72 when I download them and I thought they should be at 200 for printing.

super star:

I love all your shots.. sply 5 + b, 6.. can feel something (mood) in it. Good photography.. CLAPS.

 

I take that as a huge compliment, especially since it comes from you.  (Love your work!!!)  Thank you.  My goal in photography is to make the viewer able to feel what I see.

captureamoment:

Okay, yeah, I see now what you're talking about.  Color balance layer..do I have that in elements?  I usually adjust the color in saturation.  Is there an easier way?  Also the crop definately helps the picture!

I don't think there is a color balance option in Elements.  You can try clicking on a white point for a more automatic adjustment.  You could also adjust the color channels in levels, but I don't use this method so not sure how to do it (you might be able to do a search and figure it out)  You can use the saturation too as you mentioned, but I don't think its always the best method by itself. I usually do it in combination w/ color balance for pics. w/ a heavy color cast (if there is still a little extra of the undesired color after a color balance) then I will reduce it in saturation.  You could also add a green/cyan filter to the picture or whatever color it needs.  Biggest thing is being able to identify what the problem i,...once you can do that you have a lot of options for how to correct.  Also I am sure you know this already but try to get it as good as you can in camera.  Its much harder w/ outdoor pics. though and variable lighting conditions.  I can never seem to get WB right outside for 100% of pictures in a single shoot. 

captureamoment:

...one more question...should I change the resolution before printing?  It's a 72 when I download them and I thought they should be at 200 for printing.

That is a normal resolution coming out of your camera.  If you don't crop it you can leave it that way if you like if you are printing in 4x6 or any 2:3 ratio size. But if you crop you might want to put in a different resolution #.  I crop mine to 300dpi b/c one lab that I use recommends it and it works for.  Some will tell you not to set dpi when cropping (leave the resolution box, to the right of your crop dimentsions blank) and see where it falls...if its below 100 you have a problem and can't crop that much.  I prefer to crop w/ 300dpi. and have not had a problem doing that.

Thanks for taking the time to explain that. I appreciate it!

I LOVE the last one!!

mckelle:

Also I think part of your problem w/ color not being right in prints might be your color space. This picture was in Adobe RGB color mode instead of sRGB.  You should be using sRGB as this is what the industry standard is for printing. 

Just wanting to confirm this...Just read on a photo blog today that you should use sRGB for web use and Adobe RGB for printing.  Now I'm confused.

No, most labs use sRGB.  As far as I know.  I know WHCC requires it.  Maybe if you are printing at home I don't know.  But if its a prolab you should use sRGB.

 McKelle