Critique on Photoshopping

Hmm it looks good.

How did you get the skin so white?

To blur the background, use the blur tool in photoshop. Some people use the liquify tool as well.

 

Best way to do that would be to create a layer mask. So,

- Create a duplicate layer
- Darken and dull it (Image -> Adjustments -> Brightness/contrast. Reduce both to get the amount of darkening you want)
- Blur it (Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian blur. Adjust radius to taste)
- Turn this layer into a layer mask (click on the layer mask icon at the bottom of the layers palette (a filled rectangle with a round hole in the middle of it)).
- Take a paintbrush with black paint at 100% opacity and colour in the areas that you don't want to be darkened or blurred. This will make that part of the layer transparent. The advantage of doing it this way as opposed to using the eraser is, if you accidentally erase a bit that you need, you can reinstate opacity by painting over it with a white brush.

It is fiddly work and it is better to do as much of this as you can in camera, by reducing your depth of field (increase the aperture) and blocking light hitting the background with some sort of obstacle (a large sheet of card or dark fabric).

 

Are you wanting critique on the photos or the editing? It would help guide us.

As a general rule, if you are not entirely confident in the photo-taking bit, I would concentrate on that bit first. A decent photo can impress with little or no post processing, but no amount of Photoshop jiggery-pokery will save a bad shot. Not saying yours are bad by any means. They are not, but you might want to focus on how to bake a really good cake before you worry about covering it in icing.

 

I agree with MadamMauMau - the composition of the image weighs tons more than anything one can do in photoshop. That's how photographers for National Geographics can take such wonderful pictures, since they're not allowed any funny stuff in digital editing. There's a general rule of how to compose a photo, to make it pleasing to the eye. I don't know if it has an exact term in English, but directly translated from Swedish it's the Golden Ratio. It's a way to lead the viewer's eye through the picture, making it feel, see, and experience what you want to convey.
You cut your photo into four, equally placed lines, splitting the image in nine squares. Where those lines intersect, that's where you put your motif.
For instance, here's an example from google: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_7upXh9I40ek/TKnu29rTLhI/AAAAAAAAA_g/GtydXiea9sk/s400/gyllenesnittet.jpg There you can see that the married couple are where two lines intersect, the railing of the bridge(?) are at another intersection point and the background are keeping close to one of the straight lines.

Also, try avoiding putting the motif in the middle of the photo, unless you're after something very dramatic or intense. Shifting the motif just slightly to either direction makes the image much more pleasing to the eye.
Again, an example taken from google: http://cdn1.cdnme.se/cdn/8-2/125649/images/2011/img_0847_163466434.jpg Worth mentioning is that people are used to "read" pictures from left to write (unless you come from a society where you read from right to left, of course) so putting the motif to the far side of the left makes the viewer see that first, and putting it far to the right side gives an entierly different feeling to the exact same motif.

Try different perspectives as well; taking photos down on your doll makes it seem smaller and everything around more intimidating. Taking the photo from beneath the doll makes the doll seem more intense. You've already tried experimenting with foregrounds and backgrounds, or interaction with things - and that's great. Very often one wants to take a photo of the motif, that one forgets everything around it, when really you can use all things surrounding your motif to your advantage.

he editing part is usually just something one uses to finish up the details before the final outcome, so while you're working on your photoshop skills (which are coming along great, by the way! You're really good!), don't stare yourself blind on all the little things you can do in Photoshop, but also try having fun with the camera and composing That's really half the work done. Sorry for the massive wall of text, I just hope you get something useful out of it. I'm a keen photographer myself and (obviously, lol, didn't know) have a lot to say on the subject xD

 

This is just a drive-by repy, short on time, but in my opinion your photos are very good. In focus, and I like the close ups and relationships with other items like the flower. I use a variety of different edit programs, though to accomplish same results. I will enjoy reading about your experiments, and how the results are accomplished in your photoshop steps. Learn along with you from the suggestions you receive. My main interest in the hobby for now, is for the fun of exploring the art/images that can be created and enjoyed.

 

I really like the black and white shot. One thing I might change in editing would be to increase the contrast between his hair and the wall behind him. If you have a more recent copy of Photoshop, you can use a black and white adjustment layer to just darken up the pinks, or if not you could darken the pink before converting to black and white.

Alternately you could lighten the wall, but I really like the current balance between his skin and the wall and the floor and the dark boxers. Just his hair gets a little lost. In color the pink pops vs the white of the wall, but not in black and white.

 

I don't want to even pretend I have expertise from which to give directions, but I can share my taste with you. I try to back off just a bit from making an overly strong contrast edit. I am constantly trying out features from different freebies on line, editing systems. Plus premium on picmonkey. In your shots on the 12th, the top one, the brightness on the bridge of the nose went just a shade too white bringing focus of the eyes to that. The line between where the shadow begins down the side of the nose against that white draws attention to the editing. Sometimes I want to draw attention to editing. But if that is not your goal, you may find better steps from getting things brighter without the heavy contrast edges.

I have subscribed to this thread and hope you get more feedback. It helps me too. For one thing, I don't know the proper vocabulary. And if I keep reading the directions left for you, maybe I will begin to grasp the basics of the photoshop editing programs. I love to tinker with photographs. Do you follow the other threads where people post about this topic? If you like to go artistic, to the obvious imaginative and surreal, there is one for that too. Probably a bunch I haven't found yet, in the other forums. I look at and post to the ones in the games forum...

 

I wish you had Lightroom so I could give better advice. The top picture is underexposed, so the bottom is correctly adjusted, but it needs what Lightroom calls recovery. Maybe try lowering the contrast? Also, Lightroom has vibrancy adjustment; if your version of photoshop has it too, I'd lower the vibrancy.

Wish I could help out more.

 

One of my PS instructors recommended using the Shadows/Highlights option in Photoshop (Image>Adjustments>Shadows/Highlights) then you can easially adjust as needed

 

I torrented Lightroom, so I don't know how much exactly, but I know it's pricey.

 

I like when the eyes look bright, so great.