This image of our friends was taken, in one of the Greek restaurants in Tarpon Springs, on their visit this Christmas when they were returning home from their Amazon cruise. The backlighting was very harsh, so I cropped tight in the pp to eliminate as much as possible of the BG.
Modification in CS4 and DAP included; DAP Aquarell, Select Colors, Hue & Saturation adjustment and other normal PS image processingadjustments.
Very nicely composed and processed. The diagonals and curves are very effective. I can't be sure without a comparison, but I think the tight cropping my be a plus in terms of the emotional appeal of the image.
Looking at the original, I can surely say that this is a time when OOTB is the wa to go----I liked the OOTB version, but especially when I see what it did to the original. The white framing added so much!
Thanks for posting the original. I do not understand what you did (but will investigate DAP), the OOTB version is great and so hard to believe where you started from.
Marl, You did a great job with the processing. It was a difficult image to start with but DAP was a good choice for the transformation. I might lighten the shadow just a tiny bit on his one eye and forehead.
You did a great job getting a good and interesting image out of the original. I like the tight crop and the processing. I also like the position of the heads. Good work.
Thanks all for viewing and comments. Appreciate it.
Paul, that's the way they always look!
Laurie, DAP is interesting and offers a lot of options for "painting like" images. It does take some getting use to, to find your vision. But can provide some interesting interpetations of photos. Enjoy!