Opinion please...

[mountaindew]

Been BUSY working on projects for someone. I'd been at a photo shoot a couple of days ago.

Now I'm trying to figure out to surprise these people, actually, they're good friends of mine and I wanted to do something cool/special of them with different types of border or whatever.

There are some pictures that I did some photoshop work, halo effect, blur, etc. Some don't. I just wanted to post pictures and see what you people think. Be honest.

Kids laying on the ground...Don't pay attention on the border..it's just for the web.

Kids throwing leaves up in the air....Again, don't mind the border..

A couple posing...What do you think of the background with borders on it? This would be a print size 16x20.

These 2 pictures below are from a festival that we went to last Friday in Albert Lea..Took alot of shots of the people in their outfits. Before I continue playing with it some more. I wanted to see what you people think first. Just black and white with some colors.

[mmeyer]

Marc, those are great, I mean really great. The only thing I saw and it might just be me is on the second 2. It looks like the white balance might be off or something. The whites look good but the skin looks a little too orangish and their teeth look too yellow.

The last 2 are really wonderful. I do like the selective color also.

Great great work.

[Dbl]

Marc, I really like the poses in the first three. The skin tones on all are off, it is slight in #1, but #2 and #3 are way off. I would not print until that is corrected.

My personal opinion on borders that are printed on the photo is that they in many cases distract from the subject. While I really like the border in #3 for me it takes away from the main focus of the photo, the couple. Very nice shot of the couple, nice background and natural pose.

I'm 50/50 on your first selective color. I think it could stand well on its own in either B&W or Color. I can't decide if I like the selective color, first impression is I like it.

The last shot I like the subject in color against the background, makes him really stand out. What I don't care for is the vignetting, it makes for an awkward transition especially at the bottom where his trousers are.

[Steve Foss]

Marc, while I agree with Mike's assessment of colors as I see them, that simply may be a difference in monitor calibration or saving for Web color shift and may not reflect actual print colors.

I like all these compositions quite a lot.

My own opinion as a photo viewer is that elaborate borders detract from the subject in almost all cases. The image of the couple is quite nice, but the border hurts its impact for me.

Now, while these are your good friends, I'm going to call them your clients, because for all intents and purposes they are.

If, just using the image of the couple with the elaborate border, you treat it with two or three different borders and one with no border at all and do not interject which you prefer when you present them to the couple, they will be pleased by your work on their behalf and will make their own choice. Some clients like that type of thing while others want no border at all so they can get them matted and framed to their own preferences, often to go with the decor in a certain room of their home. I would definitely stay away from identifying which border you like best to them, as that could add a little pressure to the decision, particularly since they may feel compelled to please a friend who has helped them out with the photo shoot.

Just my thinking on the deal, and I'm not assuming you were going to push one treatment over the other, simply things to ponder as you move forward.

On the first image, it's clear you weren't exactly above the center of the image, because the two kids on the bottom have faces more easily seen than the one on the top. Of course, it's pretty darn hard to get exactly positioned over top of the center without showing the legs of the ladder or table or whatever you are standing on. If you can't do that, in this case you might have had the top girl tilt her head back a bit so her face is more easily seen, especially since upside-down viewing is harder on our human eyes. Not necessarily a big deal, but kids being how they are (and adults sometimes, too), I could easily see the girl pouting a bit over not being well seen in the photograph.

I like the poses here tremendously, and I think all these images are quite nice. It's excellent work.

[mountaindew]

Thanks guys! I know what you mean by the color in the first 3 pictures are off. And they are bit off on the web browser I'm seeing now. Didn't noticed this till I saw this again on-line. There must be some sort of web color shift as Steve was saying. Weird. However, they ARE off a bit on my monitor. I had the settings on the 40D as in Shadow settings in the AV mode. I quickly checked on the LCD on the camera as I shot these pictures and they looked white on their shirts.

In those shades there at the park, were pretty greeny/yellowish from the leaves on the trees above them. I hadn't played with the settings on the Photoshop after I dragged from Digital Photo Professional software that came with the camera.

I'm going to try an experiment to try different settings on that. Will post result of the kids throwing the leaves. Give me a few minutes and let's see what happens!

Be right back!

[mountaindew]

Okay, I quickly played with the color settings.. Yep again...it's me! I need to really think/check it over before I do any work on it first. Here it is..

Do they look a little purple/bluish on their skin? That's what I'm seeing on the "preview post" section, while it shows normal on my monitor. MMMM...weird. My monitor needs calibration again? What does this show on your monitor?

Dan and Steve, thanks for your opinions! Point taken about the borders. Will hold off on that and see what they want. I figured I'd have a sample to show them. Just an idea.

Wouldn't do this for a real clients. I'll probably would have portfolio for them with all kinds of stuff from photoshop to give them an idea.

[Dbl]

Looks much better MD. The blues in the jeans and facial tones look much more accurate.

[mmeyer]

They look good to me too now Marc. Good work.

[Steve Foss]

I agree with Mike and Dan. Much better on my monitor now.

Marc, you can get rid of the strong cyan/blue cast in the white shirts by lassoing them and desaturating blues and cyans until the shirts look white again.

Blue-looking whites are very common when the whites are outdoors in shadow, and I've noticed that using fill flash to even out exposure outdoors can also sometimes cool down the whites enough to require adjustment in pp.

If in your last example you saturated the colors by saturating all the colors automatically the same amount, you can use the selective saturation to empasize the warm tones just a little more by choosing to saturate reds and yellows slightly and desaturate the cyans and blues a bit. In this case, however, desaturating all the blues and cyans would have turned the jeans dull, so I think lassoing the shirts would have been the better way to go.

[bassNspear]

awesome shots!

[MN Shutterbug]

Wow, you've been busy Marc. There is something I like about all of them. However, I do agree about the border around the couple and the vignetting, on the last shot. All in all, nice work.

[mountaindew]

Thanks guys. Really appreciate it!