High Fashion w/ Aalia

I like this shot but need her to 'pop' more from the background (if you desaturate the image, you'll see what I mean). I've tried upping the contrast and other little tricks: they seem to take away from things more than help. Ideas?

Also, which do you prefer - flat, or framed & shadowed? The framed image also includes a slight vignette.

Gb

The frame is too much for me and the red & green make me think Christmas.

The framed image looks brighter. That's more than just illusion from the frame, isn't it?

Terry

Nice portrait !

Seems a bit underexposed
light from camera rght pretty even but there are some shades that I think can be easily filled and make it more interesting , at least to me

so

I played a bit with it, added a gradient on the left side to about her nose, increased brightness about 20% saturation 9% wamer 9%, excluded the bow, this looks like fill light from camera left.
finally added the round vignette make a dark circle as you did , bit less intense

I can post it , let me know.

The frame is up to you, but the green one with such a large shadow, I wouldn't use it :D

Also noticed the color profile of your file says adobe rgb, when I open it in capture nx2 the colors look nicer, while on firefox look a bit flatter, one thing I do with my images before uploading them to the web is convert them to sRGB so the color is more consistent with what I saw during PP and how the browsers display it.

Thanks fellows.

I didn't even realize that the green frame made it look Christmastime (!) I was just looking for a complimentary color. I'll expt with the framing some more.

Terry, you're right, the framed one was slightly adjusted for brightness and contrast. Here it is w/o the frame.

Armando, please post away! And regarding the color space, I believe that's how it's set up in my Nikon, and that I just went w/ it. I suppose I can adjust it in PP and will look into that.

G

this version without the frame is brighter, and quite similar to what I got after my edit

Very well done. I like the most recent edit a lot. Don't like the frame - not needed.

Her skin in the image seems to err on the magenta side. Is that her real skintone?

By pop, do you mean that you just want her to stand out from the bg? Pretty easy fix. Lots of ways to do it.

Very nicely done all around.

I like your last edit best! Good work.

mbb

Armando - do you like the vignette I added, or is it too much? That is, I think there's also something nice about the original w/o the vignette: to me, it looks flatter and maybe more contemporary, simple, and what not.

Dray - Yes, pop against the background. If you desaturate this one you will see how close the density is between her and the umbrella. What makes her stand out is mostly the color differences, plus lines and shapes too, of course, which works to make her stand out, but just barely. I don't know why but I keep thinking this one needs something else, like a frame or matte or ? Maybe not. I think her normal skin tone isn't this warm. I don't recall warming up the image besides a tweak or two, maybe the light bounce from the umbrella made her look a little red? here's her OMP profile for you to see http://member.onemodelplace.com/member.cfm?ID=464149

Thanks too mbb

G

I like the vignette, I'll do it less intense, in my edit program it would mean reduce the brightness of the vignette area around 15% , as you have it I think it is at least 30%

The vignette draws the eye to the subject. Works very well.

Tried bringing out the model in the attached. Sorry about messing with the original skin tone. It was a really quick edit.

Took a look at her OMP page. Beautiful girl. Seems like the pictures would take themselves (even though I know better than that).

Cool shot, agree with what was said so far. Would like some fill in with the hair, and to see a little more of the shoulder particularly camera left. I like the vignette in the recent edit but it looks a little overdone.

Regarding colorspace, sRGB is the default for windows users, AdobeRGB is the default for mac users. On firefox or internet explorer for windows, adobeRGB looks flat. They look proper in windows picture browser, but not in a web browser. Sometimes its an almost irrelevant difference, other times its severe, but its always different.

I used to think AdobeRGB was superior, but from countless hours of testing, printing, viewing, and alternatively working on a windows and mac workflow. What I have discovered about them, is that it makes little difference if any. In theory, reds and greens are better on adobe, and blues are better on sRGB. However, in practice, converting them from Raw, I can't notice any difference, except windows doesn't like printing AdobeRGB, and Mac doesn't like printing sRGB. At least, not well. You'll notice on Windows, in Photoshop, it will call "SRGB" the "Working colorspace", but on a mac, AdobeRGB is called the "working colorspace."

GB1 - If you are shooting raw, it wasn't set up like that in your camera, but its set up in post processing. It goes to the default of the OS (by default), so, Adobe for mac, sRGB for windows, but you can adjust it on the bottom of the raw conversion window to photoshop, where it says the DPI and colorspace.

Thanks fellows. This image's editing should, I think, depend on its intended usage. I can see Dray's edit working great in a certain setting, say a 30s one ( ha... the theme of the photoshoot was 30s and 40s !!!). I think the lighter skin works in that respect too; gives it a 'I'm inside and protected' look. Dray, your first assumption was correct - the photos do take themselves w/ this model.

Charlie, I also think that more shoulder may be good and I'll have to play around with it ... This one's about a 50% crop so I have a little leeway. Your color space explanation helps - thanks - but now I'm wondering if it really makes any difference!?! :D I did shoot both RAW and JPEG (the Nikon D700 lets you do that). I really want to make this one right so I can use it in a port.

Nobody mentioned the hair across her right eyebrow - not a problem? I was going to remove it.

Armando, thanks too! I think the strong vignette may be a bit much here, but it's all in the eye of the beholder. This shot looks a lot different based w/ minor tweaks. Having a hard time making up my mind :)

G