a quick portrait

[greg hxc]

taken while out on the town, playing around with my lady's new camera. little did she know it would be turned on her. i'd intended it to just be a snapshot but i liked the colors enough to at least attempt some interesting framing.

[greg hxc]

This appears considerably darker than the original does in Photoshop. Any recomendations on creating good-looking JPEGs are welcome as well!

EDIT: This looks fine on my comp here at work. I'm guessing it has more to do w/ my aging monitor at home (and an out of date beta for mozilla probably doesnt help).

[natatbeach]

Sorry no one responded before....

I think the colors are nicely saturated , lighting looks good and the angles in this are interesting but the half face kinda throws me off especially because she's looking straight on at you...if she had been looking sideways or something it wouldn't be so extreme...it looks more like an accidental shot which doesn't work for me at least...---- post more, I'd love to see what else you have.

Don't get discouraged---I for one have a crazy life and have almost no time to respond to responses but I do read and appreciate what people say... and it's a good place to learn

[greg hxc]

No worries, certainly no discouragement here!

I had this photo laying around on my computer as I made the full resolution image my wallpaper at work. I see what you're saying on the cut off face. The lens is fairly wide angle making it easy to not be incredibly obvious about who or what you are shooting. She is shy and was sitting directly across the table as I took a shot that must've appeared to be only of the wall.

Once I get a chance to really bring the camera out I will post some more.

[greg hxc]

As a side note, she managed to get me back on the other side of the lens a few days later with my friend matt. I'm on the business end of the needle. Ouch.

[ACArmstrong]

Greg - I like both shots, but...I actually like hers better. She captured a moment that tells a story, while your photo leaves us guessing a bit as to what the heck is going on (love the colors though).

As far as the darkness goes, I've had the same problem. PS usually lets you tweak your monitor calibration to get better color. That may be the culprit. You're seeing it one way inside of PS, but differently outside of PS.

[Sebastian]

Greg,

The first shot leaves me a bit unbalanced, I would have liked to see more of her, less of the window. It almost feels like she walked into your architecture shot, not like a portrait.

The second is great, she did a very nice job at capturing the action. You look incomfortable enough and Matt(?) seems engrossed, very interesting.

Brightness, Photoshop has a neutral grey background set up, all images will look darker here because the white background will make it appear that way. Click on the paintbucket, select white, and shift-click on the background in PS to set it to white. That will give you a better respresantation of what it will look like here.

Keep it up.

Btw, you're from Seattle, do you know Nick Bromen? Just kidding...

[greg hxc]

Yes, she is definitely the artist of us two. Although she prefers being behind a canvas than behind the lens.

I enjoy cameras because they have enough of the geeky technical side to make me feel a little more at home. I got her a new camera for her b-day last month and we are both learning. As I get the chance to sneak off with it more and more I'll be sure to post back. I should try and photograph some of her artwork then you can see where she really shines.

I guess I need to give my monitors a good calibration, I have a hard time telling if my monitor here at work (LCD) is over-bright or if my monitor at home (CRT) is under-bright. Both the images below look like they have plenty of light here. And home it looks like they were shot in a cave.

EDIT: Not to offend anyone that prefers to shoot in caves. Please don't send your bats out to get me.

[natatbeach]

although your face is partially cut off I think it works for this particular photo...post more of her piccs too

so what kinda tat did you get?

[greg hxc]

Will do. Give us some time to really get out and play with the camera. We're looking for a good reasonably priced tripod right now. We both had cheap ones but neither of us have any idea where they went. I'll have to ask around in the equipment area of the forum before I drift entirely off topic.

Oh and speaking of off topic, the tattoo. Its my first from Matt although I'm planning on him doing much more on that arm. We ended it for the day after we'd just started getting into the shading. Color in a week! It's my LOVE tattoo... "you dropped a bomb on me...."

[another view]

I see these comments from others here about your shot of her: "leaves me a bit unbalanced" and "leaves us guessing a bit as to what the heck is going on". I agree with these comments on this shot, and it just doesn't work for me. However, I have seen shots that somehow do work for me that the same comments could also be made of. I think the fact that she's looking right at you - as Natalie said - has something to do with it. Breaking the rules is OK when you know why you want to do it.

Cool shot of you though - the expression in your eyes is great. Come on, it really didn't hurt, did it?? Ever seen a tattoo on someone's throat? You'd feel that one!

[natatbeach]

tell your friend Matt--nice work! One of my roomies in college did tattoos --- worked out well one month when he didn't have rent and I got a free one (never did get her totally finished) ) ---ya figure
that was least he could do.... thanks again for posting.