Family Picture for Xmas

[GoddessE]

I'm just about done with my first project ever on Photoshop. I have the before and after attached.


I whitened our teeth, took the white glare out of our eyes, cloned some grass to go over the drainpipes, then I cloned the high weeds to go along the bankline to cover up some of that white rock. Then, because I felt the grass was just too brown and "blah", I used the pattern clone stamp to make grass, then put grass underneath us, and cloned a couple of ducks from another image so that the ducks the kids liked would be in there. I brightened the leaves with a hue/saturation adjustment. I also cropped it a little, then sharpened the image some. I like the way the picture appears after the sharpening, but I like the softer look on our faces without the sharpening, so I may play around with that some. All that is left is for me to make an oil painting effect for my fireplace, but this will be the image I use to print for the set of photos I've been working on. Oh, and I'll also be using a black frame that someone suggested to me earlier...just need to work on that as well.


Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks.

[tamlin]

I think you've done a real good job of this. The grass maybe looks a little bit too "uniform" in some places (if you know what I mean), but overall it's a very good effort.

[GoddessE]

Thannks! I think it's because I did straight rows with the grass, and towards the end I saw that, "hmmmm if I do these curvy random lines it looks much better." Then I figured hey I'll leave the other stuff because it leaves contrast and my family, except for my sister who had ps courses in college, do not have a trained eye, so they'll like the pictures. I'm also hoping that it will look really cool when I finally get the oil paintings done. Not to mention, I have other pictures to work on and I'm short for time before the holidays. *sighs.* But thanks for the compliment and the honesty I appreciate it a lot.

[unleash]

Yeah it looks really neat!! the grass is indeed a bit uniform as tamlin pointed out, but it looks way beter than the original!

PS: the extra duck is missing a trail...don't know if you mind but it looks a bit strange....

[tamlin]

Originally Posted by unleash

PS: the extra duck is missing a trail...don't know if you mind but it looks a bit strange....

It's got a tail - it's just not very obvious because of the angle of the shot.

[stiney51]

I think he said "trail" not "tail" meaning the wake from the duck.

I think it's a pretty darn good job for a first run. Keep in mind we're all looking a lot closer at this than probably anyone will (unless you tell them you did x,y and z to the image).

Great job, keep working.

[tamlin]

Originally Posted by stiney51

I think he said "trail" not "tail" meaning the wake from the duck.

Oh - now I understand! I stand corrected.

[willypt]

LOL i saw the improved version of the pic first. first thing i noticed was the missing trail on the water from one duck, that little think denounces that it was manipulated. Overall its great though!