keep it or scrap it?

[Mimi111]

Not sure if this is the right place to put this My apologies in advance if it's in the wrong spot.

I took this photo of my daughter when we were at the beach today. I just love the laughing smile on her face, the whole naturalness of it. What I don't love is it's not sharp, the printing on her shirt, and the lighting is not the best.

What do you do with a photo like this? Is it a case of what might have been? Or is there post processing that can fix it? Or is it just too spectacularly bad all round?

Be honest, but gentle. I'm still new.

[starriderrick]

Hi Mimi,
It's not bad...I would level the horizon first,Love the "candidness" of this shot,her expression.The sky is full of pleasant pastel shades.Her expression is very natural,I like that the best.Keep it...it's your daughter.
Just my thoughts,I'm no expert. There will be some...I'm sure of it.

With regards,
Rick

[Don Kondra]

Greetings,

Hmmmm, keep it or not?

You tell me......



You captured a precious moment in your life under difficult lighting conditions and a few adjustments could be helpful... as a matter of fact, that is one of the reasons for shooting in raw format, you can process the image after capture and change the overall result.

There are a number of free and low cost imaging editing programs that you may want to look at.

FastStone Image Viewer http://www.faststone.org/

Light Box Basic. http://www.lightboxeditor.com/

Just two of many, google is your friend

I used Adobe Elements 7 to do some lighting adjustments, straighten the horizon and crop. Then Fast Stone to do some minor brightness, contrast and sharpening.

Elements is ~$100 though and I find with a little practise Light Box Plus at ~$30 can do most of what you might need (you get the clone tool in Plus).

Then you could try cropping her face closer and/or with a little bit of work you could remove the extra sleeve and the lettering

Cheers, Don

[jetrim]

This is a lovely family snapshot that should be kept (either to cherish or to blackmail her with later on :devil: ). That said, there is one problem photoshop doesn't handle at all well *blurry* everything else you mentioned can be altered or repaired without much difficulty, but softness (blur) is nearly impossible to remove. It can be corrected enough to get a decent 4x6 print, but nothing larger. You've probably seen GBs pool model thread where the darkness around the eyes was lightened and the distracting drain behind her head was removed and replaced with emerald green water, so removing a t-shirt logo and adjusting the lighting is entirely within the realm of what can be done in post processing. Always try to get the sharpest shot possible to start with, and when in doubt, underexpose (dark) rather than overexpose (remember the light spot you didn't like in my glass ceiling pic? Those details in the blocks are gone forever, and I just have to live with that, or go back and shoot it again)


Here's about the best I can do with it, without going into major time:

[Mimi111]

Rick - thank you for your kind comments. Her natural expression is what I like the most as well. All of my children have become great hams for the camera but this is her real smile. Of course, I will keep it. I think I'm just too picky now that I know the possibilities.

Jetrim - Thanks your detailed response and taking the time to edit my photo. Those are just the sort of changes I was referring to. I didn't think too much could be done about the "blurry"...but I guess I was kinda hoping.

Hi Don. I like what you did with your edit as well. The sky is much more attractive now and I like the way her face has more light on it. I will check out those links. Elements 7 is on my wish list (as soon as a few spare bucks comes along.) I've been using Picasa 3 but it never hurts to check out programs as well.

[Frog]

KEEP IT! Its a memory. I have lots of memeory photos that are plum awful photographically and wouldn't give a one of them away. Can't always think about whether its a perfect photo or not but where it stands in your values list.
I like both Don and Jetrim's edits and personally I'd choose something from both but what counts is what you like. Are you sure you want to get rid of the lettering on her shirt? It says something about the time it was taken.
Elements 7 sometimes has free trials and also I saw one place where it was $79,97 with a coupon. There are deals out there and if you are willing to search you can find them.
But be careful where you buy them.
Tell your daughter she has a beautiful natural smile when she's happy.

[AgingEyes]

KEEP IT! Its a memory. I have lots of memeory photos that are plum awful photographically and wouldn't give a one of them away. Can't always think about whether its a perfect photo or not but where it stands in your values list.

I am with Frog on this. It's the memory that counts, image quality is secondary. Keep it !!

If you want to make it looks better, certainly you can as already illustrated. The main thing I would recommend is to brighten the face area. The rest is up to you. Background tells a story though.

[starriderrick]

Mimi,
Here is my attempt at some improvements.I ran this thu neat image after pushing it around extensively in Capture NX. I kind of liked the softness. Hope you like it.

Rick

[gracie_r]

I'm with the others. Keep it. Even if you don't print it, it will be a photo that will make you smile whenever you come across it in your archives.