High ISO Goodness

Ok - it's my kid - we were out at dinner and we were sitting by the front window.  Cranked it up to ISO 3200 and shot a couple before she got the teenage woo - woos about her looks (doesn't like the way she looks).

Did a little basic skin fixing up - cleaned up the eyes - and kapow!

I found  a really neat way to boost eyes:

I use Nik Color FX set to tonal contrast and paint on the irises.
Using a soft white brush set at 5% paint on the whites (not too much, just enough to help).  Sometimes I do the same with a black brush on the dark areas of the eyes.

Most information on portrait retouching are long and complex.  Before I start to work on a portrait, a decision has to be made about how idealized the image will be.  Too much and you have a plastic doll.  Photoshop works best, for me, when I don't have to do too much.   

Haven't seen one of these in a while....

  These were all over the place in 1976 - the Bicentennial - giving rise to all sorts of dogs/patriotism jokes.  

It's early in the day, been up since 4:30 am, and have a long one ahead of me, but, I'll be able to get a bunch of stuff shot, some more stuff scanned, and then comes the tedious task of cleaning up scanned images.  I've got one of those high quality scanners that picks up every bit of detail (and that means dust, grit, and faint scratches).  I'm almost too lazy to do this, but some of my older images should be put into the world, even if it takes a long time to do the work needed to get them out there.  

It is boring, though, it's like xeroxing in extreme slow motion.  Ever notice, that while doing tedious tasks like scanning, someone usually has something to say about how hard you're not working?  

It does seem like a lot of time is spent staring at the computer monitor waiting for it to finish, or start, or stop hanging, or load...  The miraculous become irritating.