Anyone good with color correcting photos? I need a favor please...

[SilverZ06]

I took a picture for my wife and now she wants to print it and frame it. I think the picture is a little too warm and I'd like to see the white bulbs be whiter without blowing out my son's face if possible. If you think you can retouch this I will send the original full size jpg via email to preserve the quality. Any help is much appreciated. Thanks

[saggs]

Don't think you need any color correction.

On my calibrated monitor the color and WB look good, I'd say it's just a touch underexposed.  If you have any editing software, try just bumping up the EV like .3 -.7  You could probably have at least +1 EV before you're in danger of blowing out the skin tones.

[texasmom]

Wow - cute kid. Great pic

[Bizman]

What Saggs says. Use a calibrated monitor to determine whether the picture needed any correction before printing it. My HP LP3065 shows the bulbs being quite warm coloured, but seeing that they are good old glowing wire light bulb technology instead of bright white LEDs they look exactly equal to those I'm familiar with.

If you absolutely want to, adding some light to the face and maybe decreasing the Depth of Field would raise the child more as a subject. Or rather, some vignette maybe...

[MrRiplEy[H]]

As others said that picture looks pretty great all by itself, perhaps just a tad dark.

If it's corrected to show the bulbs whiter it unfortunately affects anything that is lit by the same bulbs:

[MrGeezer]

Cute kid with a million dollar smile.

[PFactorDave]

Here's a quick and dirty version. just to demonstrate the idea.

I cropped it in a bit, made a duplicate layer, color corrected for the lights on one layer, did a little dodging on his face on the other layer, then overlapped the two layers and erased what I didn't want from the color corrected lights layer...



It needs a bit more attention before printing.  If you like it this way, I'll finish it for you.

[SmokinLoon]

I took a picture for my wife and now she wants to print it and frame it. I think the picture is a little too warm and I'd like to see the white bulbs be whiter without blowing out my son's face if possible. If you think you can retouch this I will send the original full size jpg via email to preserve the quality. Any help is much appreciated. Thanks
(Image removed from quote.)

Cute kiddo.   

I have nothing to offer in terms of photo editing, but I did want to encourage you to enjoy each and every day you have with that joyous ball of wonder in that photo.  Life is so precious and it goes by so quickly.  From those of us who have older children, or from those of us who have lost children, we cherish those times of pure innocence and we reminisce with smiles on our faces.  Enjoy each and every moment.    

[rpm]

Very cute kid. I did what I could with the photo.

Did I mention I'm horrible at this kind of stuff? You should probably use somebody else's.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Here's a quick and dirty version. just to demonstrate the idea.

I cropped it in a bit, made a duplicate layer, color corrected for the lights on one layer, did a little dodging on his face on the other layer, then overlapped the two layers and erased what I didn't want from the color corrected lights layer...

(Image removed from quote.)

It needs a bit more attention before printing.  If you like it this way, I'll finish it for you.

I was also thinking about layering and cropping the adjusted zone but was afraid it would make the separation between the areas look too artificial. Plus I only have iPhoto to work with on this computer

[Shuffler]

I can see why your wife would like to frame that pic. Great shot. Have to be careful of electricity and small children though.
 

[Jack16]

[SilverZ06]

Thanks for the comments guys. I took your advise and just brightened the picture just a touch and printed it. It turned out pretty good. Thank you all for your help and advise, my wife loves it.