Need help to decide if I should use these pictures or not.

[piyo]

Hi,


My moms birthday is coming soon and I want to surprise her with a picture of her as a gift.
I took a few pictures of her in Ottawa during the Tulips festival, but wasn't happy with the result.
I am somehow not sure if there is anyway to improve the quality of the photos.
Can you guys help me decide if these pictures are worth printing and framing?

The first picture is in Black and White because it wasn't looking great with colors.
It was too green for my taste and her skin didn't look right.
I don't know about the second one.

[theantiquetiger]

The color image is not good (IMO). You have her cropped way to far to bottom right and cut off her feet.

I really like the BW image. You may want to level to water, the left side is lower than the right side. I would crop it just below the bench leg to rid some of the dead space at bottom. It is a little gray. I would work with the whites and blacks to make it pop. The sky will be amazing with just a little work

Do you mind if I play around with it?

[piyo]

Hi theantiquetiger,

It took a while before I could reply back for some reason my account got locked for too many attempts.

If you can help me it would be greatly appreciated!
I've uploaded to my G drive two CR2 format pictures so you can modify them if needed.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwgT...it?usp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwgT...it?usp=sharing

I can't do anything for the missing feet. it was taken like that :(

The color image is not good (IMO). You have her cropped way to far to bottom right and cut off her feet.

I really like the BW image. You may want to level to water, the left side is lower than the right side. I would crop it just below the bench leg to rid some of the dead space at bottom. It is a little gray. I would work with the whites and blacks to make it pop. The sky will be amazing with just a little work

Do you mind if I play around with it?

[theantiquetiger]

For some reason your link is not working.

I did a little modification with just the image you posted. This is just an idea. You can do alot better in RAW. I am not the greatest editor to start with.

Before and After

[piyo]

Wow, I like it.

I'll try to make one now.

Thanks for your time!!

[piyo]

Is there a way to make the sky darker a bit like yours?
I'm not too good at editing pictures.
But I hope it's pretty close to your work.

[theantiquetiger]

Is there a way to make the sky darker a bit like yours?
I'm not too good at editing pictures.
But I hope it's pretty close to your work.

I used a graduated exposure filter to darken the sky. You may want to level the image. The water needs to be level across the background shore.

Used a spot tool (brush in Lightroom) to work the hot spots on her face.

[theantiquetiger]

One other thing, you may want to clone out the park bench growing out of her head. It is pretty easy since you just have concrete and grass. It should hide pretty easily.

If you want, email me the RAW image, I will give it a try to clone out the bench. My email Theantiquetiger@yahoo.com. I will give it a try tonight.

There are others here 1000x better than me at this stuff, but the bench should be pretty easy.

[Runmonty]

I hope you dont mind me having a go as well. I had a play with the first image, and this is what I came up with. If you like it send me a private message with your email address and will email large copy for you (I shrunk this for posting on the forum)

[Marko]

I liked the original bw overall but i found your mom's face dark in that shot.

RM did fab PP on the colour version! I'm sure your mom will love it.