Need Help with Photo

[kb522]

A friend of mine had some pictures taken on their vacation in Mexico. She feels like something is "off" with the result. She has the jpeg file from the photographer. I tried adjusting the color, and levels in photoshop and also tried adding a blur as the background felt a little to sharp. Any ideas on what I can do to help her?

Any suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks!!

[hguenthe]

What seems a bit off to me is the horizon is slightly curved. Maybe try cropping it a bit to cut down on the sky and horizon to eliminate as much of that curve as possible without cutting them out. You should be able to keep enough of the sky and water to still know that it is a beach photo but move the focus onto them and any remaining slight curve shouldn't be as so pronounced and pop out as being "off". That is what I see as being off with it but it is a beautiful family portrait.

[KerryMac]

I think it might have something to do with the lighting. It appears, because of the long shadow behind the boy, that the sun was low in the sky indicating a time near sunset. However, the sky is too blue for that time of day. So I'm guessing the photographer used a light, either off camera or on a bracket.
I've always thought that particular lighting arrangement gives the image a bit of a fake feel somehow.
It's not too bad, though. And it is a pretty family photo. I would have cropped it in a bit so that they are not smack dab in the middle vertically.
Maybe Katrina will chime in on this, too.

[THAT-GIRL]

I would try "Lens correction" before cropping 'cause people right in the middle that wouldn't affect or distort them... and Kerry right about colors and long shadow... shadow I would ether patch out or clone out at all...

[ShaylaSharp]

Another thought is that the girls feet are straight at the camera which gives a distorted feel to the image, possibly a simple crop job might help.

[kb522]

Thank you for allthe help! I will try these suggestions and see how it looks!

[BestSides]

I edit a lot of photos and this is what I would try and the order:
1) I would reduce the red saturation and move the slider a small amount to the yellows (Ctl U, Red, slider maybe to 2 or 3) to correct the redness of skin tones. you might have to select just the people so that the red stays in the sand but try on the entire photo first. Next I would reduce the blue and cyan saturation a little to take away the "fantasy" look to the photo. The yellow seems a bit too red as well. My guess is the the photographer might have modified the colors from the camera and used a monitor that either wasn't very good or wasn't calibrated. Or maybe he/she has custom settings on the camera which are set too strong for some of the colors when shooting a portrait.
2) Slightly reduce the contrast
3) Use a healing brush on the glare spots on the dads forehead and the moms cheek.
3) Try applying a small gaussian blur to the background - to take away a bit of its sharpness
4) To fix the slight bow of the ocean line use the Filter>Distort>Spherize and dial it back
a few percent -6-8%
5) Last crop the photo to your liking.
6) I did a test run by saving your little picture and "fixing" it. I'll post here if I can figure out how to upload to a thread.
Feel free to send me the full size jpeg via email at sidesfamily@yahoo.com and I'll take a quick stab at it and email it back to you to show your friend.

[mum2gnt]

I think everyone is right! But here's my bit......I think it's the background. It looks like it's taken in a studio and the background looks so fake! I would imagine the photographer used a high flash which has lightened the people but left the background too dark. Try lightening the background very softly with a large brush and maybe 30% opacity????? Also i would blur the background slightly as it does look a little "flat" and has no depth. And maybe that bend in the sea.
It's a beautiful photo. I love how all the feet are sticking out in different directions. It really flows......just that background for me!
Good luck with it!
Suzie