Hi Everyone,
I've still got some cleanup to do here but I'm not happy with the color. I tried to work with the color from the original and warm it up a touch but I'm wondering if I should have converted to B&W and then colorized? It needs something and I'm betting you all will know exactly what! Thanks!
Mary
p.s. He sure looks annoyed about sitting for his portrait! ;D
WIP
(https://i.postimg.cc/7bmCT8W5/De-Jarnett-B-15-09-2x2-5-forum1.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/7bmCT8W5)
Original
(https://i.postimg.cc/grkjpt2m/De-Jarnett-B-15-09-2x2-5.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/grkjpt2m)
Probably just really hard to sit still for long enough given how long exposures took (and who sits like that with a book held awkwardly upright and closed in one hand!!)
Take a look at this version with edits to your WIP:
(https://i.postimg.cc/RJNG13Hc/De-Jarnett-B-15-09-2x2-5-WIP-edited.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/RJNG13Hc)
I drew some outlines over the boy's hair on the original and you've given him a bit of a haircut! I also think the color is too saturated, so I dialed that back. The other thing is the relationship between the subject and the background - he looks as if he's floating in the void in the WIP so I darkened the background (curves adjustment layer in multiply blend mode and masked)
I made a couple of other small edits - the stool he's sitting on seems to have a defined edge, so I cleaned that up; some of the transitions between boy and background were too sharp so I softened them. See what you think
I think this is awesome, thank you Jo Ann! The change in the background color makes a huge difference. (I'll give him back some hair, too!)
Mary
Beautiful!