been trying to work out how to improve these

suggs

suggs

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Harry
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Been messing about all day and learning the ropes (trying to learn) with Elements 6.

i put these pics up on the critique forum and soon realised they were somewhat murky looking and was told the white balance was out.
Having shot them in Jpeg im limited in adjusting the WB so had a go with the remove colour cast tool, also adjusted the brightness and dabbled with the unsharp mask tool, im after some advice on what else i can do to improve on them if needed.

ps is the unsharp mask meant for sharpening ?

Heres the originals

(1)


066 by harrylessman, on Flickr

(2)


065 by harrylessman, on Flickr

and the edited version

(3)


066fix1 by harrylessman, on Flickr

(4)


065fix by harrylessman, on Flickr
 
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You really should shoot in raw to give yourself more options.

These are still a little on the warm side - given that it's a dull day I think the WB should be cooler. Elements is not great at fixing this either I don't think - but then I try to avoid using it. Lightroom is the way to go! :)

Unsharp mask is for sharpening yes - did you not see a difference when you applied it?

Ay almost 1/2 meg each these pics are also pretty big for showing on screen - you could reduce the jpeg quality - to reduce file size - quite a bit without any noticeable change in quality for on screen viewing. Aim for under 200k.
 
Thanks, i do need to start using raw, will Nikon files work with elements or will i need an add on for this?

yes i did notice a difference with the unsharp tool, just struck me as odd being called unsharp and theres also another sharpening tool.

how can i reduce the warmth? i have a colour temp tool in windows 7 editing suite.

ill looking into reducing the jpeg size, although dont no how to do that as im new to PP

The advice is appreciated
 
a very quick edit in Lightroom - less than 30 seconds to get this:

WB improved - but very limited choice from the jpeg
horizon straightened
cropped for more impact
vignette added to draw the eye in to the subject
jpeg output size reduced to 200k

test.jpg


You'll need to check the list of Nikon cameras Elements 6 will work with. Look on the adobe website.
 
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thanks, looks a bit dark to me now but maybe my screen. It does give an atmosphere i guess, was a pretty bright afternoon just not much in the way of blue sky, looks like i may need to add lightroom to my list :)
 
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Download the free trial - takes a little time to learn - but once you do you'll never look back.
 
Hi Harry, not sure if the wb is out so much :shrug: just a case of tweaking saturation levels etc. I am not sure what the exact lighting was like at the time or the true colour of the subjects hair or colour of her jumper. So it is hard to get the feel of what it should look like really. Here is a quick edit and will remove if you wish. And yes the unsharp mask is used for sharpening.


girl3.jpg
 
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thats not bad mate.

landscape about right, jumpers correct hairs very close but skin tone is too pale and eyes are a more piecing light blue. As a guide she had play painted her finger nails bright red, if you look at your edit there more a pale pink..

cheers
 
5520483852_15c094ab44_bB.jpg


I've desaturated the reds, brightened the image a bit to compensate. I've also desaturated the yellows as the jumper was going a bit florescent.

I haven't touched the eyes but a spot of local lightening would sparkle then up, plus maybe a bit saturation increase to give the blue a bit of "pop" You need to be careful else you end up with a zombie look. Not a really good look on a young girl.

I don't know how much control there is in Elements 6 but I did this in CS4.

Lightroom would have done a similar job
 
it does look kinda creepy lol, the one ive just done in lightroom in my post above is pretty much spot on for what she looks like, but think ive blown the background and sky a bit
 
try the vignette 2 - lightrom preset - it will take time - and if you shoot in RAW you'll have even more control. Good luck!
 
Just a 30 second basic adjustment in Elements using hue and sat , and levels adjustment layers to adjust the colour and tones. Finally a composite layer upon which I ran the skin tone tool .I could do more but just stuck to the basics, if you need to know how to use hue and sat and levels just shout, hope that helps.:)

1215834443_9PAug-XL.jpg
 
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Once you get the hang of it - it'll be 10 times faster than PS - catalogue feature is a winner too - you can search for pictures on keywords, lens used - aperture - camera - almost anything.
 
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