And you still have to love them...

... even when they look like this

[finished version on my [url=http://www.blipfoto.com/entry/1344185]Kinda Horrigans[/url] journal]

Yes, I know this is a hideous portrait! But - it really was a desperation day and my daughter wasn't playing ball!

So, in-camera details. This was shot at ISO 400 because the indoor light wasn't great and when taking pics of children, having a slower shutter speed and a lower ISO isn't always an option due to their propensity for moving about! It's also got a wide aperture of f/1.8 because that way you can get a nice sharp eye and soften the rest of the features which tends to work nicely with portraits - plus, it allows in more light, so again, the shutter speed can be faster.

Anyway, once that bit was done, I took the RAW file, bumped up the exposure by +1.25 and dropped the blacks to +2. Then, opening it in Photoshop, I used the technique I mentioned on this blip to bring out the detail in her eyes. After that, it was converted to black and white using Silver Efex Pro - increasing the structure and contrast to bring out the detail. Then, a final bit of dodging and burning (dodging = making bits lighter, burning = making bits darker) just to make sure that the iris etc could still be seem okay.

I flattened the layers, duplicated the background, applied some shapening using then high pass filter and layer mask with a black brush to remove the sharpening from the skin - sharpening things which are meant to be soft for example, skin and clouds always looks a bit odd, so it's best to watch what you sharpen. And that was it.

Tip of the Day:
Having taken this shot, I saw an article which gives 50 super surreal photographs and decided, in a very loose way, that they were connected some how! If nothing else to give me some ideas for other days when my head is empty!