Moody

[Alison]

I really like this picture, I feel really drawn to it and I don't know why?
Could it be because of my daughter's show of emotion? She had really had enough of having her picture taken but she still let me get this one lol. Bless her.
What are your thoughts?

[OldSchool]

First thing that strikes me (on my LCD monitor) is that the eyes and lips are over sharp and this doesn't go with the soft focus of the image. For lighting adjustments, the hands and forarms look a tad over exposed.

How long ago did you shoot this?

[Alison]

Thank you. Once again that's possibly due to my over-use of the DG. I'll see if I can improve this.

[Alison]

Is this one any better sharpness wise? It's just black and white and there is no bg blur.
I was also wondering if a closer crop would work. What do you think?

[Photo-John]

I think this is very nice. I agree that the eyes and lips stand out a little too much. But I still like this one better than the second one you posted. I like the background blur. I think I'd prefer if it was done in-camera, though. Using shallow depth-of-field with a large aperture always looks better to me than Photoshop blur.

And I have to say, the sharpness of the eyes and mouth is a two-edged sword (har har - get it?). On the one hand, they are a bit shocking. But on the positive side, they draw the viewer's attention to what's important in the photo - the girl's expression. The non-blurred photo doesn't have the same strength. The solution might be in more selective use of the filters. Sometimes I select and apply changes to just the eyes in a photo. That can be very powerful.

A tighter crop might be good, too. It's good to play with crops to see what works. Ask yourself if the outside parts of the image add anything the meaning and content. If you don't think they do, start cropping them out and see if the photo gains strength. I think this one could use benefit from a pretty good crop. Try it out and see.

[splats]

I like the first one better with the Blurring of the background, it brings her out as the center of attention and no distraction. and really brings out her eyes.

[dbutler]

I prefer the blurred background but like her face better in the second. The first looks like it's been put through the model filter to get rid of facial imperfections. Her skin just looks too smooth for me. But she is a beauty!

[Alison]

I was going to blur the bg in the second but uploaded it in here as it was so you could see both and I could get CC on both. I love the DOF a blurred bg gives a picture.
I am also going to crop the picture and post both, maybe tomorrow, if I get the chance.
But...until then I'm off to bed. It's 02:21am here.
Sweet dreams everyone!

[Alison]

My bg blur is a little more subtle this time, as is (I think) the sharpening of the features.
I have tried to stay away from the diffused glow filter ;)

#1 colour (I like the rich colours here)
#2 colour with a dreamy filter added (I like the softness of this one)
#3 b&w (Quite harsh and conrasty I feel. But then I do prefer a softer look portrait as a rule)
#4 b&w closer crop (I am not keen on this to be honest. In my opinion the clarity has gone)

[mpreslar]

Alison,

I'll toss in my 2 cents... Of all of these, I think I still like the first post best. Her right eye gets lost in most of the others. What you might want to try as an alternative is to use the same basic settings as on the first one, but when erasing back (or history brushing or whatever you want to call it) the eyes, use a 85% or 90% eraser so the eyes don't stand out quite so much from the blurred background, yet retain most of the sharpness.

It is a wonderful photo and really captures the mood of the subject well!

[Alison]

Yeah I see what you mean Marty.
Adjusting my levels slightly might also help.
This was one of my first experiments using daylight on one side of the face and shadow on the other. I'll have to get a reflector to see if that makes any difference. It will probably help to lighten the shadow without completely illiminating it. It'd save me alot of ps work too!