Cookie Monster

[Pure Image]

This kid was working the parents the entire shoot. Should have been wearing a shirt that said "I pose for cookies". Fortunately I managed to get some good shots. Comments and critique ALWAYS welcome!

[photosensitive]

Brigett, you've got some really nice captures here! LOVE the first image! (and LOVE the "cookie monster" title! yeah, I'm not above bribery myself if it will get me good images!) I do feel these are under-exposed - I realize these are probably SOOC images, so don't expect them to look like finished images, but consider adjusting exposure before posting to avoid having nitpickers like me point this out! (I don't mean to be annoying, really I don't... :) ) I've run a defog and bumped the upper end of the curve for this image to show what I mean...I'd love to see more from this session, he's such a cutie! (AND a redhead and I love redheads!)

grins,
Denise:flowers:

[butterflykiss]

I love #2. What a cute and natural looking pose! You are very talented. I do like the adjusted image posted as well...had you already processed the posted images in photoshop?

[Pure Image]

Thanks for the feedback ladies. These were without any post processing. To be honest I hadn't considered doing much to them because I used a light meter, and the histograms looked good. I don't like to bump the levels too much because I think you loose the detail in his pale skin. Here is what I ended up doing.

Now for the bigger questions. So I metered and the histogram looked good. I would to get good exposure without adjustments so what can I do to get them better straight out of the the camera?

[photosensitive]

Brigett, I ALWAYS do a basic amount of post-processing to all my digital images - it's just not like film, where if you nail the exposure, they just "drop out of the camera"...each camera is different, so we'd have to know what you're shooting with and what settings you are using - do you have sharpening on or off in camera? what color mode/temp are you working in? are you shooting large jpeg or RAW? can you tell us what you are looking for in your histogram/where you are placing your shadow and highlight? how are you setting your white balance? and lots of other questions...me? I use the standard settings, sharpening off, custom white balance and then it's Basic Post-processing...

and please, use CURVES rather than levels to adjust your exposure in post-process - the reasoning being that using Levels and Contrast to make these adjustments is a "destructive" process (bad for pixels!) whereas Curves is not - this also means you are much much more likely to retain that lovely detail in this little lad's skintone by using Curves rather than Levels...

Denise:ranger:

[Lamblight]

All three of your images are very cute. The third one is my favorite! Got to love that red hair! My husband and I hope to have a red head at some point.

I know Denise is right on when she is talking about using curves instead of levels. I married an amazing photoshopper, so I usually leave all the photoshop work to him. But, he has shown me the difference between a pic processed with levels, and one processed using curves, and the difference in detail is unbelievable!

Great work!

Lamblight

[Woden Photo]

Great images, I would strongly suggest shooting RAW if your camera has the capability. No matter what you do if you're shooting digital you are going to have to do some photoshop every digital camera I've seen shoots a little flat so even on a perfect exposure you need to get some contrast from somewhere. Shooting JPGs you will always loose some info when you save them, thats just a matter of how the JPG compression works.

[Pure Image]

I am definitley still in the learning mode. I can do RAW, but I know nothing about it. I am taking a workshop next week to learn the basics. Same goes for curves. I am definitely not comfortable using it. I think I need to get a photoshop book to learn the basics of curves. Thanks for the comments!

[RickG]

and please, use CURVES rather than levels to adjust your exposure in post-process - the reasoning being that using Levels and Contrast to make these adjustments is a "destructive" process (bad for pixels!) whereas Curves is not - this also means you are much much more likely to retain that lovely detail in this little lad's skintone by using Curves rather than Levels...

I think you're a bit off on your comments here, Denise. First, ANY exposure adjustments you make, whether with levels, brightness-contrast, or curves, (as well as any color adjustments you may make) are "destructive" if they aren't done with adjustment layers. By destructive, we mean that the changes to the pixel values are permanent once you've saved your file and closed the image (or once you've exceeded the limits of your history palette). The solution is to always use adjustment layers, which are totally re-editable and don't make changes to the actual pixels themselves. My work flow is to adjust the basic exposure in camera raw by watching the histogram and tweaking the exposure and shadow values. I then use an adjustment layer for levels to make any final adjustments to the overall tonality of the image and then use a curves adjustment to tweak the midtone contrast.