critique please

[sili]

your opinion please

[JK_Photo]

Hi Sili,
You've done a nice job on the main part of this portrait, namely the woman. Sharp exposure and nice even lighting.
The main problem here is with the background. I don't know if you set this up or if it was just a grab shot, but the background detracts from the overall desired outcome. It's far too busy and cluttered. If you don't have a backdrop, hang up a sheet or find a nice clean wall. Also place her farther from the background and use a largeish aperture(2.8 -5.6) to blur it out more.
Give it another go if possible.

[Dzerzhinski46]

Your model certainly has the "look". I would agree with Jon that you need a backdrop for this though. A light colored sheet would work well, table cloth, blanket, etc. Keep up the good work.

Dzerzhinski

[CarbonTerry]

The B/G is certainly distracting, however, I find that the small portion of her arm distracts from her beauty. Some type of a hairlight will help separate her from the B/G also.
Nicely posed and lit. Butterfly lighting works well for females.

[mjs1973]

A very nice shot you have here. I agree with eveyone else about the background tho. I like that you caught a little gleam in the eyes as well. Welcome to the fourm and we look forward to seeing more of your work.

[readingr]

I agree with evryone else about the background. Saying that the first impression are the lady's eyes, they are Gorgeous and as Michael said the gleam is the icing on the cake.

How did you light your subject and Terry what is butterfly lighting - I must go and buy a book!

[sili]

thanks for the commentaries,and now what you think?

[JK_Photo]

That certainly takes care of the BG clutter!
It's a little obvious as a PS fix but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I might lighten the BG a bit. It looks like you did a straight gaussian blur on the BG. It produces the effect of blur but in a not-so-natural sort of way.
There are better ways of attaining the desired effect in PS, I'm just not sure what they are. Maybe if you add a bit of uniform grain to the blur - not too heavy - it might naturalise it somewhat.
Anybody else?

[Dzerzhinski46]

I agree with Jon that the background is a little obvious, in that is was PSed. Another thing i would say is, make your background lighter. Your model is fairly dark in color (dark skin, dark hair, dark clothing). I get this sense that she is not well separated from the background. It might be a little dramatic if you had a lighter background, or you could try a medium dark background. Good work so far!

Dzerzhinski

[CarbonTerry]

Good try but its an obvious PS effect. Duplicate the layer before you blur it and then you can lower the opacity if the blur is too much.
If you are using CS go to Image>Adjustments>Photo Filter
This gives more of the "out of focus" feel than the G-Blur does.
You might dupe the layer and then do a contrast increase to separate her more from the b/g and then use the Filter>Extract mode to select her.
After the selection is made, discard the levels adjustment layer.
You can then use other selection tools to add/subtract any areas.

Butterfly lighting is where the light is placed so that the shadow under the nose has the shape of a "butterfly" and is usually fairly short in length. Essentially it helps hide any skin flaws, etc.

[LeeIs]

The B/G is certainly distracting, however, I find that the small portion of her arm distracts from her beauty. Some type of a hairlight will help separate her from the B/G also.
Nicely posed and lit. Butterfly lighting works well for females.

Good call. Other than the BG, her left arm is quite distracting from the overall picture. The way I think about it is her face (a flesh tone) is the focus then you have this other focus area (another flesh tone) that is quite strong.

When I first looked at this image, I seen her face then her arm then the flowers in the background upper right.


Nice portrait shot though, it captures her very well.