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Great fun
What wonderful fun they are all having - and the colours, with the autumn woods behind, are lovely. I like the shot, but I feel unable to critique meaningfully, so I shall leave that to those more expert than I.
Hello, Kathleen, and welcome to EPZ. What a fun image to start your portfolio with, and so colourful, too, with the brightness of the canopy and beautiful warm autumn colours in the background. The light and shadows on the ground is also very nice, and an interesting feature is the shadows of the children on the blue panel.
There are a few things that I have dealt with in my modification. Firstly, the strong sunlight from the left washed out the canopy colours and parts of the childrens' clothes, which I coloured in with the paint brush tool. The last child on the left was a little close to the edge of the frame so I added some canvas to the left and cloned in the grass and tree. I also removed a bit of rubbish on the foreground grass and a walker in the background, just cosmetic really. I used the highlights/shadows option to balance the foreground and background, then lightened overall. A bit of contrast brought out the warm autumnal colours. I lastly selected just the bottom of the picture for sharpening. Hope you feel it is ok.
Adjusting your exposure for the bright sunshine might have avoided the burnt-out areas, but overall I think this is very nice, a lovely reminder of an enjoyable time.
Pamela.
There are a few things that I have dealt with in my modification. Firstly, the strong sunlight from the left washed out the canopy colours and parts of the childrens' clothes, which I coloured in with the paint brush tool. The last child on the left was a little close to the edge of the frame so I added some canvas to the left and cloned in the grass and tree. I also removed a bit of rubbish on the foreground grass and a walker in the background, just cosmetic really. I used the highlights/shadows option to balance the foreground and background, then lightened overall. A bit of contrast brought out the warm autumnal colours. I lastly selected just the bottom of the picture for sharpening. Hope you feel it is ok.
Adjusting your exposure for the bright sunshine might have avoided the burnt-out areas, but overall I think this is very nice, a lovely reminder of an enjoyable time.
Pamela.
Hi, Kathleen.
Canvas at the edge: I use the "add borders" option, uncheck the "symmetrical" box and add the border to the side of my choice. If there is a predominant colour at that edge in the picture, I will use that colour for the border. If I am not happy with the size achieved, I will add or take away some. Then I zoom in to the area added and use the clone tool to bring the existing part of the picture extended into the new border/canvas. Zoom out.
Sharpening: You have options for sharpening, I use Unsharp Mask because it is more manageable. However, that's fine for the original because you want that to look good. When you have resized for the web, and AFTER the resizing, just use "sharpen" because you have reduced the number of pixels and the image will inevitably lose its sharpness.
If you need any further help, just PM me.
Pamela.
Canvas at the edge: I use the "add borders" option, uncheck the "symmetrical" box and add the border to the side of my choice. If there is a predominant colour at that edge in the picture, I will use that colour for the border. If I am not happy with the size achieved, I will add or take away some. Then I zoom in to the area added and use the clone tool to bring the existing part of the picture extended into the new border/canvas. Zoom out.
Sharpening: You have options for sharpening, I use Unsharp Mask because it is more manageable. However, that's fine for the original because you want that to look good. When you have resized for the web, and AFTER the resizing, just use "sharpen" because you have reduced the number of pixels and the image will inevitably lose its sharpness.
If you need any further help, just PM me.
Pamela.
Hello again. Those were instructions for PaintshopProX1, so I looked at Elements and think this might be better for you.
Adding canvas: Go to Image>Resize>Canvas size. You will see the width and height at the top, which you can alter. Where it says Anchor, you can choose where you want it to be placed. Then, at the bottom, you can choose the colour.
Sharpening: You can Auto Sharpen. You can use Unsharp Mask, where you have control. Or you can use Adjust Sharpness, where you also have control. When sharpening, keep an eye on your image as it changes, you don't want to overdo it so that it looks unnatural.
Pamela.
Adding canvas: Go to Image>Resize>Canvas size. You will see the width and height at the top, which you can alter. Where it says Anchor, you can choose where you want it to be placed. Then, at the bottom, you can choose the colour.
Sharpening: You can Auto Sharpen. You can use Unsharp Mask, where you have control. Or you can use Adjust Sharpness, where you also have control. When sharpening, keep an eye on your image as it changes, you don't want to overdo it so that it looks unnatural.
Pamela.
Hello Pamela, I'm so thrilled with advice you have given me, I have learnt so much this week, Resizeing for the web, adding a canvas & Sharpening.
Thank you for taking the time to explane
Kathleen
Quote:Hello again. Those were instructions for PaintshopProX1, so I looked at Elements and think this might be better for you.
Adding canvas: Go to Image>Resize>Canvas size. You will see the width and height at the top, which you can alter. Where it says Anchor, you can choose where you want it to be placed. Then, at the bottom, you can choose the colour.
Sharpening: You can Auto Sharpen. You can use Unsharp Mask, where you have control. Or you can use Adjust Sharpness, where you also have control. When sharpening, keep an eye on your image as it changes, you don't want to overdo it so that it looks unnatural.
Pamela.
Thank you for taking the time to explane
Kathleen
Quote:Hello again. Those were instructions for PaintshopProX1, so I looked at Elements and think this might be better for you.
Adding canvas: Go to Image>Resize>Canvas size. You will see the width and height at the top, which you can alter. Where it says Anchor, you can choose where you want it to be placed. Then, at the bottom, you can choose the colour.
Sharpening: You can Auto Sharpen. You can use Unsharp Mask, where you have control. Or you can use Adjust Sharpness, where you also have control. When sharpening, keep an eye on your image as it changes, you don't want to overdo it so that it looks unnatural.
Pamela.
Hi hKathleen, welcome to EPZ, stick around and you'll learn a lot as well as enjoying yourself 
I can't add much to what pamela's done after the event, so I'll just concentrate on what you might have done before the event - to me the pic looks a bit cut in two, mainly because the line of the top of the canvas is nearly in line with the bottom of the trees.
If you had crouched down a bit, you would have altered the perspective and had the coloured acanvas against the background of the trees. the lesson here is that it's always useful to look around for different perspectives rather just standing and shooting the most obvious pic which you see first. Get used to looking akll arounfd the frame before you shoot, checking what is and isn't included in the scene, then consider moving yourself around till you have the optimal arrangement.
Anyyway, I hope you find something useful in there - keep them comimg, look forwars to seeing more..
Stephen
I can't add much to what pamela's done after the event, so I'll just concentrate on what you might have done before the event - to me the pic looks a bit cut in two, mainly because the line of the top of the canvas is nearly in line with the bottom of the trees.
If you had crouched down a bit, you would have altered the perspective and had the coloured acanvas against the background of the trees. the lesson here is that it's always useful to look around for different perspectives rather just standing and shooting the most obvious pic which you see first. Get used to looking akll arounfd the frame before you shoot, checking what is and isn't included in the scene, then consider moving yourself around till you have the optimal arrangement.
Anyyway, I hope you find something useful in there - keep them comimg, look forwars to seeing more..
Stephen
