Suggestions for McColeJ_21_11_3_5x5?

[dle]

I've been working on this cute snapshot



Obviously, the biggest thing it needs is a pretty radical adjustment to the tone curve. The original And then it needs lots of touching up to ger rid of the creases and dirt. Here's the work-in-progress after those steps:



It's much better, clearly, but I don't like the blotchy business on the wall behind the baby and in some places on the blanket. I can smooth it out while retaining the underlying texture, but the techniques I know for this require a good deal of work. Does anyone know a secret for tacking this kind of problem that looks good and doesn't take a really long time?

Any other suggestions for improvements?

As a side note, anytime you have to stretch the tone curve as much as I had to here, it makes the dreaded jpeg artifacts stick out all over the place. Going after them with Photoshop's noise reduction filter or a plugin filter like Topaz DeJpeg 4 sort of works, but not in a completely satisfactory way. When applied gently, they seem to leave artifacts behind or, when applied aggressively, they turn everything to plastic. Do people have a favorite approach to this common problem (other than not using jpegs in the first place)?

David

[G3User]

It is coming along well David.

To my taste the baby's skin tone is a little dark but it is a matter of taste.

Re the wall, the quickest way I know is to add a curve layer and adjust the white and black points to increase the contrast of the wall. The between it and the image add a layer, fill 50% grey, set it to Soft Light with fill around 20%. Painting on that layer with white (20%) will brighten the image and because you are viewing it with extreme contrast you can quickly bring the brightness to match the adjacent areas as closely as you wish. You can intensify the result by increasing the fill setting if necessary and toggle the curve layer off and on to see how you are going.

Look forward to see how you get on

Athol

[dle]

Thanks for the tip, Athol. It works really well and is pretty easy to control. By adjusting the fill level of the soft light layer together with the opacity and flow rate of the brush, it's relatively easy to get just what's wanted. After not too long I got to the point of diminishing returns, and, while it's always possible to do more, decided to stop here:



As you can see, I also lightened the skin tones a little as you suggested and agree it's an improvement.

Comments?

David

[Candice]

This little one could have been the poster child for the Kupie dolls.  Adorable!
http://www.myjewishhome.com/ns/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/kewpie1.jpg

[Lexy]

Really nice work...wow! And I learned something as well!

[Candice]

Thanks for the tip, Athol. It works really well and is pretty easy to control. By adjusting the fill level of the soft light layer together with the opacity and flow rate of the brush, it's relatively easy to get just what's wanted. After not too long I got to the point of diminishing returns, and, while it's always possible to do more, decided to stop here:



As you can see, I also lightened the skin tones a little as you suggested and agree it's an improvement.

Comments?

David

I loved this picture.  I don't do kids or weddings by choice but thought what a little cutie!!   :up2: