Black and white photos of kids

[Maestro]

The majority didn't turn out. I was playing with the aperature values. I had trouble going any lower that f/5.6 because of lighting issues inside my house. Even outside in the evening when I took some of the shots, unless I was in direct sunlight I couldn't get the low AV that I was looking for. I am still new at this though. These shots are bit softer than I wanted but they are the best of the bunch.

Here are two of the better examples:







The rest of the gallery can be seen http://Maestros.smugmug.com/gallery/688770/1/29900380 It's not much.

[alfredo]

1. Excellent.

The top is a bit blurred, but applying the unsharp mask filter can clean it up a bit. I just tried it, and it seemed to help. My wife said the unsharp mask darkened the image a bit. She liked the before image better for that reason.

both images should make you proud for many reasons.

[Maestro]

2. Alfredo

Could you give me some pointers on using that? I have done what Photoshop says to do but I am not noticing the difference. At least I don't think I am seeing a difference. Thanks.

[alfredo]

3. It's not bad as is, so any improvement will be slight.

On its own you may not notice, but alongside the other picture you can see that the focus is softer.

With Photoshop you can read books on it, but still playing with it is essential to really learn it. It's probably the most amazing piece of software I have ever used. I still feel like a novice. There's just so much to it.

Practice on a copy.

[The Straight Story]

4. reminds me of something I would see in National Geographic

Simple and to the point, clear, and captures the mood of the kids.

Maybe we need a photo story contest. Someone submits a few photos and see who can come up with a story that matches :) Due to the lack of reference in the actual photos one may have no idea where these kids were from, what their lives were like, etc. One often wonders what someone thinks about a photo when they first see it with no explaination. Would be interesting to see what people came up with...

[In_The_Wind]

5. beautiful photos

thanks for the link

[Redstone]

6. Mask the eyes, and sharpen them only.

Old portrait photographer's maxim.

Portraits are about the eyes. Everything else can be in soft focus. especialy if the subject has eyes like your kids do.

Redstone

[Maestro]

7. I will try.

I need to figure out how to selectively sharpen in PS CS2.