Hi. I’ve had a newborn photosession and the baby did not want to miss a thing! So unfortunately the eyes are open on almost all photos and it’s not the vibe we were going for.
I prepurchased a session pack including retouching and deep photoshopping, and asked the photographer to edit babys eyes closed.
But photographer refuses and says it’s not possible. I am happy with the other edits made, but disappointed with the eyes not being closed.
Do I have to accept the refusal or do you have some ideas on a tool that eases the proces?
I tried googling myself but I haven’t used Photoshop since a random media class in middle school so Idk if it really is that complicated or not. A lot of new tools and AI has been invented since then.
Follow up question:
If I just accept the photos as they are, can you recommend an AI program to help me achieve what I’m going for without losing too much of the resolution?
I wanted to print some of the portraits so the quality needs to be preserved as much as possible.
Thank you.
Newborn photographer here! You need to adjust your expectations and then explain those expectations to the photographer.
If you tell the photographer that you expect the baby to have his or her eyes closed in most of the photos then you are going to have a bad time. As others have said, eyes are extremely difficult to Photoshop. The eyes are the first thing you look at in an image, and if there is something weird going on you can always tell.
However, chances are that the photographer has one or more photos of the baby when he or she was blinking. Maybe the photographer doesn’t want to sell you that photo because the lighting wasn’t right, or the posing wasn’t right, or the baby wasn’t completely in focus, or any number of other reasons that normally make an image un-sellable.
If you explain to the photographer that you know the baby was awake the whole time, and you know it’s unlikely, but you are hoping for just one picture of the baby with his or her eyes closed, and it doesn’t matter to you if it’s not quite as good as the other pictures, and you don’t care if it cropped weird, or the colors don’t match the rest of the gallery, or anything else. If you explain all that, then the photographer will probably move heaven and earth to do what they can.
Thank you for sharing your extensive knowledge on the subject! I appreciate it.
This feels like such an insane request.
This is your newborn. You expect a newborn to do what you want it to?
The vibe is off??
This is baby’s first photo session. What kind of demands are you going to have for school pictures? For team photos if they’re in sports, or senior portraits?
Leave the image alone. If you use AI or photoshop to close the eyes, that’s no longer an image of your child. That’s a fake, a picture of a time and event that never actually happened. A fiction. You would prefer to remember a fiction than your actual child.
As a photographer I would refuse to engage in this line of request, flat out. Here’s the photos of what authentically happened, in real life, eyes open. I’d turn over the photos and wash my hands of it.
I think you’re definitely reading too much into this.
It is not possible, but yes you can lie and get the closed eye look, there is a difference. I personally would not do it a professional photographer, as to get it to look right is not easy at all.
Somebody should xpost this to r/clientsfromhell
If you’re planning on doing it yourself using AI or hiring someone else to do it you need to make sure you have permission. Unless your contract explicitly states that you are allowed to make edits/hire a third party to make edits, you are not allowed to do it and will worst-case scenario be required to pay the photographer for doing unauthorized work on his intellectual property.
I think you need to adjust your expectations and be happy with your baby as they were on that day. That’s what memories are made of. Share the pictures and remember how, “You were so excited to be there and just taking it all in!” Why fake it for an aesthetic? That such a social media thing to do.
Are you looking for a memory of the day or a fairytale?
Jeez
Please don’t moan at the photographer for not delivering a photo of your baby with their eyes closed WHEN YOUR BABY DIDNT CLOSE THEIR EYES
Dude that’s a VFX artist job, not a simple photoshop edit. You’d need to create eyelids in 3d and change the shape of the face as the changes would include crimping of eye corner muscles and other fine touches to make it realistic.
People today seem to use Photoshop as some magic word to change anything and everything. Cant help but think “that poor photographer” as I read this…
Ofc its possible to do, but not in a way that looks good. No self respecting artist(/photographer) wants to put out stuff that they think is ridiculously bad.
If there is a similar photo with the eyes closed, it certainly is possible to cut the the eyes out and paste them over in Photoshop.
https://youtu.be/ZYPhKxisatA?si=iIlWSsXR5czFfxes
If they offered “deep photoshoping” as a feature of your package, I would hope this is within their skill set and time budget.
As the eyes are the focus of the photo, it needs to be done well or it will ruin the photo.
Thank you and finally someone who understands where I’m coming from. That I’m not trying to be vain or whatever, but in my eyes the request was in line with something like “one of my kids blinked with one eye half shut, can you fix it?”
But I’ve certainly learnt the limits of Photoshop and I appreciate all the answers on this thread.
That’s a tough ask. Are there professional retouchers in the world who could do it? Yes? But we’re talking about people who specialize in retouching and are probably earning a few hundred dollars an hour…. Easily costing more than you spent for the shoot, likely significantly more. Most photographers don’t have that level of retouching skill. You’re asking them to basically draw their eyes shut because they don’t have a reference to copy it from. Thats a huge ask. Everybody thinks anything can be done in photoshop these days but it’s really not the case. Creating something from whole cloth is difficult. I don’t think it’s a fair ask.
I see that know! Thank you.
Yes and no. With a bit of stable diffusion knowledge this should not be a hard task to do. @op i can try do it for you
I get where you’re coming from but this is not 100% correct. It’s very easy to do and barely an hours worth of work. Since these guys were charging for the “Deep Photoshopping” (whatever the fuck that is), you can ask for some of that money back. I would
Even more for babies, facial muscles make all the face look different when eyes are open or closed. Maybe he can but he thinks that it wouldn’t look right, reworking a whole face is immediately a lot harder.
Sounds like your photographer isn’t very good at photoshop.
This is one for /r/photoshoprequests, those guys are legends at this kind of thing.
Oh nice! I am new at redditing and don’t know all the good subs yet! Thanks!!
Respectfully, this person is pranking you, that’s mostly a joke sub. Not that people aren’t talented there, they are, but serious requests are rare and it’s mostly for the meme. Worst case scenario would be they think a photo of your baby is funny and then it ends up getting used in memes or other edits or something without your permission. Also, like another commenter said, it’s likely against your contract with your photographer to have someone else edit the photos.