Minor Blues

[draymorton]

[arne saknussen]

This is a very seriously beautiful shot! The eyes, the beard, wonderful stuff.

[EOSThree]

Love your portraiture. Gritty, well lit. The only thing that catches my eye is I am trying to figure out what's going on in the background on the left (his right) side. I like it, but I am wondering what that is, and if it was intentional.

[draymorton]

Thanks, both.

That's a texture overlay on his right. I wanted to push the grit factor for the sake of being different (he's usually shot really clean, sitting behind a piano or something) and was actually thinking about even more texture in that area, but more would have been less in this case, I think.

[hminx]

The gritty look makes me think Miner Blues, man does this ever have a serious wow factor.

[LeeIs]

love the starkness of this. good pp work. nicely done. can't find any nit picks.

[PhilF]

PP really helps the image... good work.

[Greg McCary]

I see nothing wrong and you are out of my league withe the processing. Great work.

[draymorton]

Thanks for the feedback. Wasn't sure it worked with him so centered, among other things.

Pete - lol. I decided to do some old school draymorton processing on this one. Just seemed appropriate.

Hope to shoot him again someday. Had literally fewer than five minutes this time - very rushed.

[draymorton]

..........

[EOSThree]

Dray, PP is one of the areas I am nearly completely lacking in. How did you get to the level you are at now? Did you take classes? Dabble? Read alot? I am just curious, this is an area where I need the most help, and an area I am really anxious to improve in. Any suggestions/ reading material/seminars, etc are appreciated.

[daq7]

I really like it. I love skin texture like that and strive for it in my shots as well. I also like the feeling that the skin is almost a metal texture.

[draymorton]

Thanks. I'm considering a) putting in some fake dof for depth (very hard to do convincingly) and b) adding catchlights (ditto).

EOS - all of the above. Only one class - very helpful, but not for stuff like I've done here. It was mostly for compositing, which I still don't really know how to do well. The rest was 99.9% trial and error, trying to approximate looks I liked, consulting forums, and searching Youtube for specific techniques. I've tried asking people how they did what they did, but that doesn't always work.

Are you looking to apply PP techniques to landscapes? Portraits? If I knew that much, I could probably point you in a direction.

Daq - thanks. Metal texture - lighting and sharpening!

[EOSThree]

Are you looking to apply PP techniques to landscapes? Portraits? If I knew that much, I could probably point you in a direction.

Landscapes. I like what I see from Marc Adamus, I would like to emulate that. I've never thought of checking on You Tube. I'll give that a shot. Thanks

[Anbesol]

Very nice work. Though, the image is definitely not flattering to the subjects complexion or hygeine, obviously thats not the point.

I'd like to see the rim of his hat just nip the border on top, as is its cut off a smidgen.

[draymorton]

Thanks. I could back out the crop a little on top. Will give that a go.

Another version:



EOS - you know about Patrick Smith, right? He basically just uses ND grads and Capture One raw.

[gahspidy]

Excellent work here, Dray. Love the crop open as it is on the sides, and the slight loosening up at top is better. I like these catchlights in the eyes better than the original.

Great PP, and dof. Spot on

Stuck!

[BenWA]

Love this shot! Clean, technical, and most importantly -- CAPTIVATING. When my eyes latch on to a compelling presentation of an interesting subject like this I just can't look away -- I have this urge to study the photo for an eternity. Awesome.

[hminx]

Congrats on sticky dray

[PhilF]

congrats dude

[draymorton]

Thanks guys. Appreciate the feature, Gary!

So does the fake dof work?

[Coastal Flyer]

Dray,

Terrific shot. Congratulations on the Sticky.

David

[armando_m]

I never knew what to say about this image, now I can

Great job & congrats on the sticky!

[GB1]

Very powerful image, Dray. The detail is good but what I think really stands out is the contrast between him and the surroundings / wall (did you enhance it in PP? If so great work).

G

[vmlopes]

Great shot Dray............really very nice and one that I can keep looking at.

Care to share what lighting was used on camera or off?