New Baby

[Katreester]

I think I'm done.  I took liberties on bottom and left side.  Can't tell what it is.  Hard to know when to stop.  Thoughts?
Not much info on bottom area...should it be cropped?

[Katreester]

Also...what do you think that brownish is under her arm?

[Mhayes]

Katrester,

What a great job you have done with such a mess. I would have to agree that maybe a crop wouldn't hurt, but that is something you will want to discuss with your distributor---Jonas. If it was cropped it needs to say to a 4 x 6 and when I did that it cropped part of her hand. That might be good, because right now it is the hands that that I can tell belong to someone else. You did a good job, but we try to stay away from borrowing body parts--in this case I am going to defer to others.

I think the brownish part under her arm is dirt from damage and being blown around by the tornado.

You did a good job on mother's face, but I think her white gown comes around her neck rather than just a sweater (?) showing. A little more work on baby's cheek to even things out. You have done such a good job, there is another one almost like it still in Jonas's gallery.

Margie

[Katreester]

Hello Jonas
Please tell me if I've done too much or not enough.  This photo might look better if the bottom and left are cropped.  It has been a little overwhelming with so much info missing.
Thanks, Kathleen

[Jonas.Wendorf]

Hello Kathleen,

it's amazing to see how much you could extract from this photo!
I'm guessing what could improve the hand a little would be to select it and reduce the saturation a little as well as lower the contrast, so it's more uniform with the face.
Also you need to check your blacks on the left, some still have a little damage in them, that can fortunately easily be removed by just increasing the black point in levels and painting over the areas.
If you could upload two versions, one cropped and one uncropped, that'd help to see, what looks best :-).

[Katreester]

Jonas
Here is the image cropped and uncropped.

[Jonas.Wendorf]

Kathleen,

I prefer the cropped version as well.
I'm still not sure about her right hand though. Although it looks that yellow in the original, I'm not sure if that could be some kind of damage?
If you could reduce saturation and contrast there a little, maybe that'd help not make it look so comped in.

[Tori803]

Kathleen, the hand looks like it needs a little texture. Here's a link to a thread about creating skin texture: http://www.operationphotorescue.org/forum/index.php/topic,3476.msg31340.html#msg31340

[Bambi]

I saw a demo of this technique on Photoshop TV, only they used the Plastic Wrap filter instead of emboss. I prefer emboss. We should all bookmark this. It really comes in handy.

Bambi

[Katreester]

Hi Jonas
Here is my final picture.  I've done what I can do so I'm going to upload it.  I hope it is alright....if not , maybe someone else could work on the hand and make it better.   
Thanks
Kathleen

[Hannie]

Beautiful job Kathleen!
The hand looks great, you can add some shading like in the original, also the highlights can be made a little stronger.

Hannie

[Mhayes]

Hi Kathleen,

Could you go back and reestablish the links to your photos that are now missing from PhotoBucket and show the message that they have been moved or deleted? You have a great post with some great tips, but in the future anyone reading it will have lost something of the progression of the photo with you removal. What I do is establish a folder on my hard drive named Photobucket and I keep only those photos that will be posted to the OPR Forum. That way I don't run the risk of loosing the link if. Plus, the photos in that folder are copies of the originals and at a reduced resolution. PhotoBucket gives you a plenty of storage space free, so don't worry about running out of room. I have been using it since 2007 and still have plainly of space.

I hope you have the photos posted earlier and can upload them again to PhotoBucket and reestablish your links?

Thanks,

Margie

[Katreester]

Margie

I'm sorry but unfortunately I don't have the photos to reestablish the links.  I will take your advise though and create a folder to keep photobucket photos.

Kathleen

[Mhayes]

Hi Kathleen,

That's OK as you were new and didn't know what happens in PhotoShelter when you move or remove a photo from your hard drive. At some point we will start cleaning up the Forum of missing links.

Thanks,

Margie