Portrait

[GB1]

From the Dec model shoot (which images I am still digging through).

C&Cs welcome. Are the colors right? It is untouched except for some very minor added saturation and some sharpening. I even managed to not get my reflection in her earrings.

Gb

[Greg McCary]

The colors look fine to me. Is that your reflection in her eyes?

[GiGi]

Great use of the rule of thirds; beautiful colors as well! It's very pleasing to the eye. As for PP... what I would do is some skin softening to smooth out some of her fine lines.

[Frog]

On my monitor, which I admit I haven't calibrated for a while, there is a greenish cast.

[Ron Kruger]

Good, tight portrait. Really shows off her eyes. Any time you get that close, however, reflections in the eyes is a problem, and you have to get creative with the lighting to either put some sparkle in, to overpower the reflection, or take the reflection out. Wrinkles don't bother me; ads some character.
Normally, tight portraits are best shot vertically, but this one works.
All this is just nit-picking. It's a good shot, I think.

[Didache]

Looks good to me! It all depends on what you are after - if it is a portrait, then the lines add character and the eyes are wonderful. If you are after something a little more "commercial", then a little skin softening might be needed. Also, the tone seems to me just a tad cool - but only a smidgen.

Cheers
Mike

[GB1]

Guys - Thanks for your helpful replies. There's several questions that I have about my shot here:

- PP or not PP?
- If one does PP, how much? where do you draw the line? (see the attached quick edit a friend did).
- Is slightly cool tones necessarily a bad thing? I've always heard that warm tones are better on models, but if it's an outdoor shot with ski hat, I wonder if it makes better sense to let it be a cool scene?

Also, a friend thought that she looks unhappy and stressed in the shot, with some anxiety, distress, and being caught unawares. I honestly do not see that at all here, but what do you think? (Maybe I'm clueless.)

Greg - I looked at the eye very close and it doesn't seem to be me, but it could be, just very distorted. See the attached -- what do you think?

GiGi - Thanks for your input! I didn't even think of the rule of thirds till I saw your comment (.. I guess I've been assimilated). Re. PP, see my above questions, and the attached image. It's an open question.

Frog - Hmm. I've looked at this quite a bit and still don't see the green. But it may have some type of cast here, what, I don't know, Actually, it seems like the colors of an old film.. maybe Kodacolor film? That's good I think, sort of Retro.. looks like an older catalog you'd find in a stack of magazines.

Ron - So you think it's a reflection of me? I agree that some finer consideration about the light in the eyes would be a good thing. That would be a good step for me to improve my shots. I actually meant for it to be, roughly, a square format, as this creates a different mood. I am not sure what mood but perhaps more of a classical setting. Anyway, thanks for the great input.

Mike - Perfectly noted. I guess it does depend no what one is after. A friend got me a book on Portraiture for Xmas and it is full of those character type shots. Commercial definitely has it's own look, and is appropriate for its setting and purpose.

I think I will end up using this shot for practice in PP. I could almost see a teacher giving it out to students in an intermediate or advanced PP class and critiquing the students' results.

See the images below - you'll have to look close for the deltas her right side. He said that the eyebrow and lips are admittedly too perfect and would have to be adjusted.

g

[tekdiver500ft]

The color is a little warm/green on my calibrated monitor. It also looks very muted/undersaturated. Composition is good, but the lighting is a bit flat, IMHO.

[A.M.D.A.]

Very nice work! :thumbsup:

However, as others already mentioned, the colors do look a little greenish/yellowish on my monitor too. Also, her earrings are "washed out" and one has blue CA fringing.

Other than this two little "nits", very well done portrait. Absolutely no distracting background details of any kind.

[jetrim]

There is a lot that *could* be done with this to point it in which ever direction you want it to go. As a portrait of a female in her mid to late 30s, this hits the nail on the head and is fine as is (except for the slight tint). In your latest before/after example, I understand it's a quick edit but it needs some serious tweeking to be believable as currently, it LOOKS photoshopped. A lot could be done with dodge & burn layers to bring more depth to the model and really make her "pop".

[GB1]

Tek, Alex, Jetrim - Thanks for informing on the tint. I'm still not really seeing any green on my monitor, but it's not calibrated either. I agree that it could use some better PP to bring out the colors better and to give it more dimensionality. It's one of my new year resolutions to learn better PP (maybe by reading the forums).

Alex, I think the earrings will look like that due to their reflective nature and it being an outdoor shot. I guess this could be PP'd too. What's CA fringing?

Jetrim, thanks for the PP insight. I am pretty sure my friend only spent about 4 or 5 minutes on it and could do a whole lot more to make it more believable. To me, the teeth looks great and the lack of wrinkles is believable. Where it hurts is the eyebrow and the lips, which are both too perfect (some irregularities make things more believable).

G

[Frog]

This is a great critique thread.....

quote// Also, a friend thought that she looks unhappy and stressed in the shot, with some anxiety, distress, and being caught unawares. I honestly do not see that at all here, but what do you think? (Maybe I'm clueless.) //unquote

I guess I'm clueless too unless he/she was putting you on

[jetrim]

Alex, I think the earrings will look like that due to their reflective nature and it being an outdoor shot. I guess this could be PP'd too. What's CA fringing?

The earrings may be a bit tricky because unless I've missed my guess, they appear to be Turkish gold which is a little bit different finishing process and kind of an odd color anyway. CA fringing is that blue line running down the outside of the right earring.

Jetrim, thanks for the PP insight. I am pretty sure my friend only spent about 4 or 5 minutes on it and could do a whole lot more to make it more believable. To me, the teeth looks great and the lack of wrinkles is believable. Where it hurts is the eyebrow and the lips, which are both too perfect (some irregularities make things more believable).

G

He actually did pretty good under the left eye but there is a line there that needs further blending along the upper cheek. Honestly, I see nothing wrong with the eyebrows in the original, so I'm not sure what the plan was there. Usually when retouching photos of the wife (who has similar lines around her eyes, and is hyper sensitive about them) I'll use layers and either mask, or simply "erase" sections to let fine details such as eyebrows show through from the lower layer. I find that setting the eraser as large as possible and cutting the hardness to "0" give a much more believable blend than trying to feather a selection.

[GB1]

Frog, he was definitely not putting me on (if it was April 1st, maybe ). I believe that he was probably expecting a finished, PP'd image, which isn't what I envisioned it as. I guess I'm GBless and you're Frogless

Jet, OK I see what you mean about the fringing. Thanks a bunch for the PP suggestions. This is just the type stuff I need to know. I have several books on PP but who has the time to read them, even during the holidays? (too many distractions, I suppose. I find myself catching up on reading when I travel, probably because the sterilness of hotel rooms lets me focus better).

Thin eyebrows are in, it seems, but we're prob due to come out of that fad anytime. It certainly isn't natural for most gals but you will see that many models do have thin ones now (either trimmed or digitally trimmed). I think with this model that they may need a clip here or there, but that thin ones would look strange because her face isn't thin.

[stringfieldphotography]

Try and bump the contrast and saturation. This picture needs the blacks to be crushed.


www.stringfieldphotography.com

[GB1]

stringfield,

Wecome to the forums, and thanks for taking a shot at this. I agree that the saturation could be increased as it looks too plain as is. Not sure about the contrast though; there's complete loss of definition in her hair in the shot here. Also, your image has terribly pixelated here - you apparently have your JPEG compression set too high. Your edit has a size of 57.18 KB compared to the original's 170.32. I realize it's only for display purposes, but it's hard to even view the work clearly with that much distortion. I set my compression to about 7-10% on most posts.

Btw, someone brought to my attention that you're forgetting to uncheck the 'add the photos to your member's gallery' when you upload an edit. You should really do that.. the members' galleries are just for your own shots. Note that the checkbox is checked by default so you have to unchecked it. :thumbsup:

Again, welcome.

-Gb