How do I get them to look better? My son inherited my eyes, only his are better ha. But I can never quite capture their magnificence in a picture. I see so many shots of people and their eyes are GORGEOUS. And I dont know what I am doing wrong with mine... I dont have any in my 365 as an example, but this is a shot of my son, and i love his eyes but they just dont pop like I want. Is there anything I can do in post processing to make them stand out more? I have PSE 6-I know, a dinosaur, but 90% of the time, it works :P
Im not familiar with that program, but try googling tutorials.. thats what i always do, when i have a photo problem.
Sorry, that probably didnt help much!
I would recommend working on your settings. Your main focus points of your camera should also fall on their eyes or whatever you are wanting to focus on. This photo looks a little dark therefor pulling the light out of the eyes might be a little more work. I love editing eyes but honestly i have seen people edit them to much where they look fake and sickening. If you want something free you could pull the image in picnik.com and up the levels and mess with the eye brightness tool!
@jinximages has a really good tutorial in his "how to" album all about eyes. I can't recall if it applies to PSE 6 though. You should be able to get some tips at least.
Having better catchlights will help a lot. In this image there are some very dim catchlights, but they aren't bright enough to really generate the sparkle you're looking for. To generate these catchlights you need a bright and hard light to show up as a highlight. If you're outside and it's overcast as it looks to be in this picture, you're missing that bright point of light that's needed to create the reflection. In a situation like this just using the flash on your camera even though you may not need the extra light, would probably do the trick.
Like others have mentioned as well, you'll also want to always try to focus on the subject's eyes when shooting a person. It may not seem like much, but if your autofocus focuses on the nose or somewhere else it could be just enough to make the eyes just slightly out of focus and not as sharp as they should be.
Some of the things you can do in post are selectively sharpen the eyes with the sharpen tool in photoshop, or create a mask and run a sharpen filter, etc. The same thing can be said for selectively increasing color or saturation on just the eyes.
not familiar with the program but most have the same basic features, what I do is zoom in and lasso, freehand around the eyes,then unsharp mask, then the same for the other eye, not much a tut person so hope I helped, here is my final outcome http://www.flickr.com/photos/25457010@N03/5345167982/
youtube has really good tuts!!!
Are you editing in Photoshop? MCP Actions has an Eye Dr. action that I love and use all of the time. It is really easy to use if you are a Photoshop user.
@amorton1437 what @marubozo is really good, what it takes to get those really good shots is usually a *little* more than just pointing a camera at the subject and shooting.
If we are to take the one photo you posted above and say what we see, well, I see a baby sitting in the snow. Granted it's a really cute baby, but there's not much in the image to make me look at the eyes first. Pointing the camera at a subject isn't just point and shoot. *You* have to tell *us* what to look at through the composition. For instance, you want the eyes the subject, get close to the eyes. Do one shot of your son sitting in the snow, but don't put the camera away after that. Photograph just his hands playing or resting on the snow, get super close and just get the side of his face looking past the camera with extra care taken to make sure your focus is on his eyes. If you're really close use the macro feature, that'll allow the eyes to be in focus and throw the background into a blur.
Read up on your rules of composition. Figure out how to meter for a subject using your camera. All the snow is going to wash out that photo, using the flash as a fill light will help brighten up his face (and get that lovely catchlight in his eyes) without washing out the snow too much. Fill more of the frame with the subject than the background.
Keep playing with it, looks like he's too young to get away from the camera too quickly so take advantage of that. Shoot lots and then look closely at what works for you and what doesn't. Since we don't have to wait a week to finish a roll of film and get it processed anymore you can really use the instant gratification that digital offers to help learn tricks.
and yep, since you're not shooting studio shots, photoshop can really help out a lot with post by running filters and cropping.
@neda Thanks for the advice! Unfortunately, he is rarely sitting still long enough to do anything and getting close to him is unnacceptable unless I want him trying to grab my camera from me. Taking a picture of a 15 month old is not an easy task, and it is hard to take the time to mess with setting and angles and lighting and exposure. I was just happy that no body parts are blurry and he is looking at me for once. Normally he runs or crawls away as soon as the camera is pointed at him.
@amorton1437
ooo he's older than my guess was of around 11, oops! guess that shows I havent had kids *lol*
ok, learn how to mess with all the stuff you're learning about when he's asleep, use a stuffed animal about his size, photograph him while he's asleep. You've got some great photos in your 365 the butterfly one posted on the 14th is a good example, my eyes know right where to go, although the focus is on the body and head of the butterfly rather than the two amethysts. Once you're really able to tell the camera what to do you should be able to get it to do your bidding faster for when he is awake and bouncing.
Since he's at the grabby age, maybe a better zoom for the slr so you can get closer but still keep it out of his reach.
As a few people had mentioned, look up Jinx.....in the search bar on top you can type in "eye tutorial". I used it for a picture of my niece that I posted today and it came out great. Then again, you have to have photoshop in order to do it.
The most important thing is to make sure the EYES are in focus. If you have a focus point on your camera that you can adjust, make sure you position it right on the eyes. Also as Jeremy suggested, catchlights make a difference (the little sparkle that an eye gets when there is a light source behind the photographer). Try to position your son(subject) so they will be looking toward a light/window when you take the picture.
Lastly, there are many books written about photographing children/babies. They are worth looking into because I learned A LOT about positioning, posing, and just other little tips that you just wouldn't think of.
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Sorry, that probably didnt help much!
I would recommend working on your settings. Your main focus points of your camera should also fall on their eyes or whatever you are wanting to focus on. This photo looks a little dark therefor pulling the light out of the eyes might be a little more work. I love editing eyes but honestly i have seen people edit them to much where they look fake and sickening. If you want something free you could pull the image in picnik.com and up the levels and mess with the eye brightness tool!
Like others have mentioned as well, you'll also want to always try to focus on the subject's eyes when shooting a person. It may not seem like much, but if your autofocus focuses on the nose or somewhere else it could be just enough to make the eyes just slightly out of focus and not as sharp as they should be.
Some of the things you can do in post are selectively sharpen the eyes with the sharpen tool in photoshop, or create a mask and run a sharpen filter, etc. The same thing can be said for selectively increasing color or saturation on just the eyes.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25457010@N03/5345167982/
youtube has really good tuts!!!
If we are to take the one photo you posted above and say what we see, well, I see a baby sitting in the snow. Granted it's a really cute baby, but there's not much in the image to make me look at the eyes first. Pointing the camera at a subject isn't just point and shoot. *You* have to tell *us* what to look at through the composition. For instance, you want the eyes the subject, get close to the eyes. Do one shot of your son sitting in the snow, but don't put the camera away after that. Photograph just his hands playing or resting on the snow, get super close and just get the side of his face looking past the camera with extra care taken to make sure your focus is on his eyes. If you're really close use the macro feature, that'll allow the eyes to be in focus and throw the background into a blur.
Read up on your rules of composition. Figure out how to meter for a subject using your camera. All the snow is going to wash out that photo, using the flash as a fill light will help brighten up his face (and get that lovely catchlight in his eyes) without washing out the snow too much. Fill more of the frame with the subject than the background.
Keep playing with it, looks like he's too young to get away from the camera too quickly so take advantage of that. Shoot lots and then look closely at what works for you and what doesn't. Since we don't have to wait a week to finish a roll of film and get it processed anymore you can really use the instant gratification that digital offers to help learn tricks.
and yep, since you're not shooting studio shots, photoshop can really help out a lot with post by running filters and cropping.
ooo he's older than my guess was of around 11, oops! guess that shows I havent had kids *lol*
ok, learn how to mess with all the stuff you're learning about when he's asleep, use a stuffed animal about his size, photograph him while he's asleep. You've got some great photos in your 365 the butterfly one posted on the 14th is a good example, my eyes know right where to go, although the focus is on the body and head of the butterfly rather than the two amethysts. Once you're really able to tell the camera what to do you should be able to get it to do your bidding faster for when he is awake and bouncing.
Since he's at the grabby age, maybe a better zoom for the slr so you can get closer but still keep it out of his reach.
I will experiment tomorrow a little bit.
The most important thing is to make sure the EYES are in focus. If you have a focus point on your camera that you can adjust, make sure you position it right on the eyes. Also as Jeremy suggested, catchlights make a difference (the little sparkle that an eye gets when there is a light source behind the photographer). Try to position your son(subject) so they will be looking toward a light/window when you take the picture.
Lastly, there are many books written about photographing children/babies. They are worth looking into because I learned A LOT about positioning, posing, and just other little tips that you just wouldn't think of.
http://365project.org/discuss/tips-n-tricks/2952/photoshop-eye-edit-tutorial