Collaborative Edit #1

My first contribution to Stop, Collaborate and Listen, a group where someone posts an image and members submit a creative crop and edit.

 

The original image is here

 

I chose to crop tight, pull the subjects out into two edit layers, and extricate the background. I used a watercolor paint tool in Photoshop (not the native one - one I found on the internet somewhere) on the background. I then used Nik Color Efex 3.0 to pull up the contrast and punch up the saturation on the background water and grass. This eliminated the water color smudgy look.

 

Next, I selected the first of the extracted images with the human subjects, and created a Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer. I pulled down the Saturation about 1/8th and increased the Lightness about 1/8th. I then selected the top copy layer and chose "Dissolve". I then pulled down the opacity about 1/3 and selected all three of the edits on the human subjects and joined them with Ctrl-E. I then copied that with Ctrl-J, and applied a Soft Focus filter and pulled down the opacity about 1/3, and joined the layers.

 

The eyes were harder. There were no catchlights, and they started out a bit dark in the original and got worse as I edited. After I was done playing with the foreground and background coloration and contrast, I added catchlights to the eyes, softened them with the blur tool at 1%. I then used Nik Viveza to increase the brightness and saturation of each eye individually.

 

I added a Blur Vignette and touched up a couple of areas that I wasn't happy with.

 

The whole thing took about 45 minutes, and was interrupted a few times by kids and commitments. There are a few more things I would have done, but I ran out of time.

 

 

Comments and critiques are most welcome. I am open to suggestions and hints for improving my editing skills.

 

Tom

Done