my 5 yr old son

[DeeDee]

I really like taking nature photo's but also wanted to see if I could photo people. This is my #2 child Nicolas. C&C please

[Dbl]

DeeDee, while the concept is cool and you are on the right track with matching the clothes with your background to draw your attention to the face...I would still provide some separation from the background.

The head is floating in space, you need some definition of the the shirt to tie the head to the body. I am not sure I care for the tint of the skin, maybe it works better in a standard black and white with high contrast? Possibly this works better in a portrait orientation on the crop as well?

I really do like the pose with the head down and eyes looking up. It appears to be a natural light shot by the catchlights or was some flash added? Remember you can use a white poster board, or something similar to help control your light and give you light spill where you desire.

I think you really have some positives going, with some refinement you will have a sure winner.

[mmeyer]

Very nice DeeDee! I've been dabbling in portraits lately and it's a whole different shooting match isn't it.

As far as C&C, it seems to have too much of a red cast to my eye, although I'm using my uncalibrated laptop. Maybe a little back light to set him apart from the background. It's real nice as is though so you can be happy with it.

[mountaindew]

That looks great, however, I agree what Dan said. Looks good!

[DeeDee]

Thank you and I agree with all of you. I had another picture where he didnt look like a "floating head" (thats funny) but somehow I managed to lose it. This one I tried to do the same thing and it just wasnt working. I did like the pose, that was all him. I'll post the original.

[DeeDee]

Here is the original with out any editing.

If you want to take it and use it for my next lesson be my guest .

[mountaindew]

Mmmm..I'll try it out...not sure what I can do...let's see here...

B/W with another color layer for his eyes. And added saturation on his eyes. Lighting effect to have a halo effect. I seem to have an obbession for halo effect..

I'm sure others will post better than I can.

[DeeDee]

I like how you did the eyes. I'm trying to figur out the layering but its really ******* ** ***. so I had to take a break

[Dbl]

OK, low res originals and very quick mask work so they are far from perfect. Just a few options you can play with. As you can see the background was softened considerably in all these shots and either brightened or slightly darkened. Most of these are Photoshop actions. But a lot can be done with layers and masks as well. Your original shot was a bit soft which is why I worked on softening with these, just tried to use what the files give you.

#1 Original

#2 Gothic glow

#3 Standard glam look, softening the face.

#4 Black in white with contrast

#5 The "Dragonizer" look

[jonny_redhorse]

here's a version of Dee Dee's image....not necessarily better,just different....just made it smaller(lost some clarity in compression) blurred out some of the folds in the cloth..."warmed" it a bit overall....

[mmeyer]

Jonny, I think I like yours best. It looks good.

[finnbay]

I like the pose as well. I don't know what kind of lighting you're using, but something I've found works well is a backlight. That might have allowed you to keep the black background with some separation.

Grandson Ben.

[DMN]

Nice shot DeeDee and the post procesing of the others really bring it out.

DMN

[Lisa Almquist]

Great pic of your boy DeeDee!

[DeeDee]

Thanks for the ideas you guys. And thank you Lisa. All your pictures look great.

Finn - very handsom grandson