Simple portrait

[Anbesol]

As simple as it gets, yes it looks like a school picture. Anyway, wanting the perfect flesh tones here and that seems to be evading me, any thoughts? All comments and critiques appreciated. I've included the original, the edit, and a near 100% crop.

[fidgety]

It's a nice enough photo of this young man but what I think is detracting from the image is the monotone feel of it with the combinaiton of his skin tones closely resembling those of his shirt and the backdrop.

[Anbesol]

ah yes, good call. Dont think I can do anything about the shirt, but I've been working on adjusting the bg to a more complimentary tone. Any ideas on changing the bg but still making it look real?

Heres where I've gotten to so far, strangely - its more monotone, but I think still more complementary. Maybe... How about a crop?

[fidgety]

ah yes, good call. Dont think I can do anything about the shirt, but I've been working on adjusting the bg to a more complimentary tone. Any ideas on changing the bg but still making it look real?

Heres where I've gotten to so far, strangely - its more monotone, but I think still more complementary. Maybe... How about a crop?

That I can't help you with as I'm not that much of a Photoshop guy but I'm sure there's someone out there that can help you out.

[n8]

you could try the color changer tool on the shirt, if not the bg too. It does convincingly good work...at least from my experience with it.

[Anbesol]

Thanks for the input guys.

I tried some more minor changes to the shirt and b/g. Does this do enough?

[jetrim]

To get more accurate skin you need to adjust the color balance. If using photoshop, make a color balance adjustment layer and bump the blue to +27 in the mid-tone range. If using Lightroom, do a custom white balance off the whites of the eyes (eyedropper) it'll get you in the right ballpark.

[Asmarlak]

I think the image needed contrast and separation between the subject and the background. This is what I ended up with.

[Anbesol]

Jet - I typically adjust color balance using curves (or levels), which is what I was trying to do here. I dont frequent the color balance tool because I usually rely on curves or levels for color balance, but it did work well in this shot - I adjusted +10 blue in midtone range, +27 was waay too blue.

Do you always make use of the color balance tool, or do you typically use it secondary to curves/levels as well? How about photo filters, do you ever apply cooling or warming filters? Just wondering your own techniques.

Asmarlak, thanks for the feedback. I am wanting something with a soft effect here though, not a dark bg and real sharp face. What all edits did you apply in it?

[Grandpaw]

That face make me think of Macaulay Culkin in the movie" Home Alone", Jeff

[Anbesol]

HA! He has been accused of looking like him on many occasions.

How do you guys feel about the cropped version?