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OK.. So it isnt going to work having the Dogs and Humans in one pic, as a DIY Christmas card, so if you could help me out and choose the best one of four below, I would appreciate it. Keep in mind some monitors will darken the images.
Thanks!
Original Pic:
Color Balanced:
Toned Down:
Sepia:
Black and White (no pun intended)
i like "color balanced" the most, its color tone give you the feeling of christmas
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I like the sepia one personally...........exaggerates the contrast between the two oppositely colored dawgs ('scuse me, dogs) course I always have been one to go against conventional wisdom!
With the Tuffy (the Black one) being so dark, it is hard to add any darker tones to the floor or backgorund to bring out Tucker (the Wheaten). I appreciate the input, rather than going to The Picture People in the mall which I have done for years with Tuffy, I thought I would give it a try and stay at home. I usually walk out with $250 worth of pics, so this is a cost saving event.
The hard thing about this though, is there is no way to allow the dogs to focus on the camera without anyone behind the camera, so that is why after nearly 2 hours of trying we gave up trying to include ourselves in the photo and decided to only include the dogs!
Your "toned down" actually has the right color balance..but you removed too much saturation from all the other colors. You also want to add contrast to both dogs' hair, and that is tough. You really need to play around with the curves. Attached is my version. (excuse the jpeg compression noise)
Thats is much better, as you still kept Tuffy's black tones well enough to keep the eyes showing, if you would like to play with the full size version, and keep it maximum quality you can take it from here:
Your "toned down" actually has the right color balance..but you removed too much saturation from all the other colors. You also want to add contrast to both dogs' hair, and that is tough. You really need to play around with the curves. Attached is my version. (excuse the jpeg compression noise)
I took a stab at photoshopping your original image. I brought back the levels of the black dog, which introduced tons of grain. I reduced the saturation of the overall image, while balancing contrast. I then filtered the entire image to remove grain, and soften highlights to give a slight defocused quality.
Retouched
Original
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Great images! The color balance is the best one suggest you try two more times:
1. Try the shot with some or more "fill flash" to try and bring out the facial features in the black dog.
2. Try "stepping down" the exposure 1/2 to 1 full stop and see if you can improve the contrast before you try Photoshop......................................... (MTR ON)..................mgg
I am actually using NO FLASH and compensating with backgorund lighting, as everytime I use a flash the dogs' eyes become green or glowing... I probably need a softer flash...
I will step the exposure down more, but sometimes it is hard, as the dogs tend not to stay still long enough for the shutter as it is.
Thanks for the info, I will give another try tonight
See if your camera has a "red eye" reduction feature. This fires a short beam of light a micro second before the real flash and causes the pupils in the eyes to contract which reduces the red/green eye affect. I really think that with a little bit of flash on their faces you could make an even better image, the composition is great. Of course you can also remove the red/green eye with Photoshop. Check out http://www.photographic.com for a bunch of photography how to's and tips.........
I've got a great hint for softening your flash, just grab a white piece of paper and cover the flash with it. You might need more than one layer of paper to soften it to your liking. I know its a very unconventional way to do it but it works. Always experiment with things that are available to you.
Oh by the way, the dogs are so cute. I wish I had a dog or two.
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Jet black to Chili red ain't so bad if you get a JCW intake in the process.
Thats is much better, as you still kept Tuffy's black tones well enough to keep the eyes showing, if you would like to play with the full size version, and keep it maximum quality you can take it from here:
Gladly!
Levels...Auto Levels...Find Dark and Light colors (for color balance). NO clipping.
Image...Adjustment...Hue/Saturation....Yellow..click the white dog's hair to select that range...reduce its saturation 20% (kills the remaining yellow tone)
Curves...(lots of manual work here) Bring the white on top of the white dog's head to almost maximum, increase contrast in zones of white dog's hair, black dog's hair, as well as tree needles
Noise...reduce noise...reduce color noise 25% (gets rid of a lot of digital camera noise)
A couple other small touches.
Now you know why I may spend hours on each of my photos
The only other thing I would do is crop the left and right sides slightly to make the image taller but I'll leave that up to you.
Note: I changed the extention to .doc so NAM would take the large attachment. Download it and change it back to .jpg. (I'll delete it in a few days to make the admins happy)
What a difference! Looking at it now it is much better. You can take the photo off, I dowloaded it already, that way no one gets mad. Looks great, thanks a ton!
Thanks to everyone for the ideas on the flash, exposure and editing. I am going to invest in a new camera next month as my sony F717 is getting a little outdated.
Well done Josh ... stuff like this always makes me wonder what "real" really is
As far as I see it, you are supposed to be capturing what the eye sees. Sometimes technology gets in the way as far as cameras not recording it properly. So it's OK to use technology to fix it again.
...but I look down once it's used to change the image. Well not look down, but it is no longer the original photo anymore. Like the ones with the fake motion blurred backgrounds etc.
I like the toned down and the black and white...both great! 
