Buy a ballon, mister?

[Frog]

I snapped this during our town celebration this summer. I've tried different crops on it and coloring out the back ground but am never quite satisfied. What would you do?

[GB1]

Frog - Hard to believe 91 people viewed this w/o anyone responding.

The shot had potential. I see what you see, the girl with the ballons sneaking in on the side of the pic. It is interesting. The problem I see that there's too much busy stuff in the background (eg, streetlight pole, tent, yellow stops, etc) that dont offer any countering point of interest. If the fellow who was standing there was facing the camera, and there was something about him that was different, I think the girl and her balloons would be a neat counter-subject. I also wish her face was a little more in view.

Definitely it was worth a shot. Perhaps you could crop out all except her and see what you get.
GB

[Frog]

Ty, GB. Yes, I've tried several cropping variations but even the tight ones leave too much.
It just had such potential. Was doing all auto point and shoot due to all the activity. Perhaps less depth of field would have helped too.

[snaphappy]

Hope you don't mind me editing your work... this is a (very) rough version of the vision I have for it. I agree that this photo had/has a lot of potential, but I'm not really sure how to bring it out...

[livin4lax09]

too much bg blur. I was thinking the exact same thing, but the blur needs to be towned down. It's too obvious when this much and the balloons are still in focus, because the DOF doesn't match up correctly. But it definitly has potential, it's just too ad her left eye is cut in half.

[gahspidy]

Frog, I think it's a good shot. The girl is up front with an expression thats worth the shot alone. The bg may be busy, but I think it works because it puts her in a setting of festivity and here she is up front in a "moment" I think this is more effective if converted to b&W. I had good results using the channels mixer, select monochrome and adjust the red level to -50 and the green level to +50. Very important to reduce the red channel or the balloons will blow out. btw, I feel that the balloon half covering her eye helps make the shot. It looks like a shyness about her as she is peeking out from her balloons.

[Seb]

I snapped this during our town celebration this summer. I've tried different crops on it and coloring out the back ground but am never quite satisfied. What would you do?

I too see why you shot this. The young girl with her ballons makes for a very compelling subject.It might be too easy but I'd simply crop the left side of the picture to focus on the girl and I'd blur the slight part of background that is still showing up. The picture then works superbly well for me. Just my 2 cents.

Seb

[Frog]

Ty, all! I'm glad that you see why I took the shot and I'll continue working on it. Gary, I hadn't thought of working the colors but will give that a shot too.

[Chunk]

Ty, all! I'm glad that you see why I took the shot and I'll continue working on it. Gary, I hadn't thought of working the colors but will give that a shot too.

I'd suggest this crop. I did a slight dodge around the face and you could burn in the remaining BG a bit too.

[Frog]

Ty, Chunk. What's BG?

[Chunk]

Ty, Chunk. What's BG?

Background. I didn't realize I'd used the shortcut.

[GB1]

I like snaphappy's edit. The blur might be a tad overdone, but I think it allows me to see the child better without fighting all the other things going on in the photo...

gb

[Don Schaeffer]

I like the photo. The trouble I see is that the top of the tent is blown out, You need to burn in the top middle of the picture and darken the sky if you can. You might try to neatly clone out that utility pole but if you can't it's not that bad. I think the girl nicely frames the rest of the shot.

[Ronnoco]

Try Snappy's edit combined with Chunk's crop. The blur is not overdone in that it is typical of what you get from a low f stop and a medium telephoto.

Ronnoco

[Frog]

Thanks again everyone.
I'll work on it again when its raining. Just wish now I would have followed her around more,(from a discreet distance), as the rest of the shots that day were ok but nothing with the potential this one had.

[Rocket_Scientist]

Sorry... I think a tight crop on the girl removes the "life" from the picture, and makes it look like an ad for a photo printer. A slight blurring of the background is nice, but I prefer to leave a little appreciation for the context. Here is my feeble attempt at illustraing this. I did not adjust any colors, but, while I could not remove the utilitiy pole (I'm just not that skilled!), I did find it effective to try to remove the guy wires. The pole can pass for part of "life", but the wires are just distracting.

P.S. A rotation of about 3 degrees left can also be very effective. It makes the poles vertical, does not tilt the girl back too much, and you do not lose a lot in the cropping.

[Ronnoco]

Sorry... I think a tight crop on the girl removes the "life" from the picture, and makes it look like an ad for a photo printer. A slight blurring of the background is nice, but I prefer to leave a little appreciation for the context. Here is my feeble attempt at illustraing this. I did not adjust any colors, but, while I could not remove the utilitiy pole (I'm just not that skilled!), I did find it effective to try to remove the guy wires. The pole can pass for part of "life", but the wires are just distracting.

P.S. A rotation of about 3 degrees left can also be very effective. It makes the poles vertical, does not tilt the girl back too much, and you do not lose a lot in the cropping.

The problem Rocket_Scientist, is that along with the blown out top of the tent, there is also the TILT in the background which no one mentioned. For these reasons, crop or blur or both are necessary.

Ronnoco

[Rocket_Scientist]

Yes, I mentioned the tilt as an afterthought, and someone had already discussed the tent, and I wouldn't know what to do about that anyway. I know I'm new at this, but can someone tell me... when I uploaded this photo here, it also shows up in my "user gallery", as if it is my photo, complete with a copyright. Can I delete it from my gallery without affecting its presence in this thread? Or should I not "upload" this way? How does one insert an edited photo only for the thread?

[CLKunst]

You've technically done it right although download of others work is generally a no-no although there are some who don't mind so make sure to check before you do. If you find you need to delete something go to the Photo Gallery under the Share tab at the top of this page. Go to the My Photos link. Select and open the image you wish to delete. Scroll down to just below "Additional Info" section and you will see a small check box marked "delete?" check the box and submit it and that will take care of it.

[Ronnoco]

Yes, I mentioned the tilt as an afterthought, and someone had already discussed the tent, and I wouldn't know what to do about that anyway

In Photoshop, under image there is a rotate function. Inputting 2 for example means 2 degrees in one direction and inputting -2 means two degrees in the opposite direction.

In PaintShop Pro X, there is a straighten function, where you place a line along a tilted horizon, click on the apply (checkmark) icon and it will straighten the image. The line can be applied horizontally or vertically.

Ronnoco

[Chunk]

Yes, I mentioned the tilt as an afterthought, and someone had already discussed the tent, and I wouldn't know what to do about that anyway. I know I'm new at this, but can someone tell me... when I uploaded this photo here, it also shows up in my "user gallery", as if it is my photo, complete with a copyright. Can I delete it from my gallery without affecting its presence in this thread? Or should I not "upload" this way? How does one insert an edited photo only for the thread?

I posted a message about this problem in the Site Feedback forum a few days ago. PJ is working on it. Add a message on that thread or start a new on in that forum if you have more info.