Jacqui

A shot of the wife.

She had just returned from performing with her belly dance group at a local 'OctoberFest'. I had the lights all fired up when she got home so I sat her down and this is the result.

Shot with my RB67, Mamiya 180mm lens, Portra NC.

Another lovely shot of Jacqui :) Love the lighting, colors, and DOF but, the crop seems a tad unbalanced. I'm not sure about the way that the edge of the frame cuts off the corners of her right eye and her mouth. However, I don't think a full face portrait or split down the middle would be as effective :o Her left eye definitely is definitely captivating though. Looking forward to seeing some more of your new stuff Jason :)

Happy Shooting,
Aaron

I don't know, I think the split down the middle would work perfect here. I might also sharpen it a bit, just to where the eyes are very sharp.

GB

Nice shot, It seems a bit soft but it adds to the beauty of the image. Her nose seems to have a bright spot, maybe you should adjust that a little.

Beautiful shot but the hint of the second eye does bothers me. The beautiful color and softness of the skin by far outweighs my little nit.

I agree that the hint of her right eye perhaps is a distraction but if you didn't have it the jewels on her forehead would be too close to the edge. For me I wish you had used a slightly smaller F-Stop so in addition to the perfectly focused eye that forehead jewel was sharp.

Still, this is one of my favorite portrait crops. I use it quite often.

Thank you all for the comments/critiques!!

Arron - You very astutely picked out why I did NOT crop center face...the bindhi set the crop...which in all truthfullness ISN'T a crop at all. Thats how I framed it in camera. Only cropping done was to remove scanner edge trash from the negative scan.

GB1 - Nice suggestion...I think however I pushed the sharpening as far as was prudent. I wanted a natural organic feel. If her eyes were sharpened more, and I did try it, it started to look overly processed. But then again I still have stuff to learn about photoshop and perhaps with a different technique I could achieve more of what your referencing.


Gary - Great mention of the hotspot. Thats the one thing I really dont like about this image. At the time, about 2 weeks ago, I did burn this quite a bit...its not all there but I was starting to affect the color of her skin with further burning...as it is there is even a lil greyish tint to it now. Now that you mention this though...I have learned a burning technique and I am going to go try to see if I can get a better result out of this right now.

Old Timer - Agreed...the bindhi kinda set the framing and while I dont like the eye distraction...I found that it didn't really bother me...but then I looked at it for an hour while I work on it...sometimes that kinda alters your view on a shot.

MB1 - I too would have preferred a higher F.

Jason, I like the crop here very much. The soft tones and subtle colors are pleasing. Nice job at editing this. Greg had mentioned the bright spot on the nose, and while there is some highlight there I think highlights are a good thing as long as they are not burned out or overly distracting, none of which I find here. I can see that you have toned down some highlights such as the nose and possibly some on the forehead area? I think you did well with this.

Hello Jason,

Congratulations on the sticky! It is certainly well deserved here. I love the framing and lighting you've used. Personally, I would have kept the focus on the eye even if you let the bindhi set the crop. To me, the details on the bindhi are not so important or compelling as your wife's eye. It's just a personal preference, obviously you have shown what you wanted to here. Well done.

Congrats on the Sticky and Feature Photo Jason :D :thumbsup: :D

It's a bold shot no doubt. Her headgear sits very comfortably with everything else but I would love to see just a little sparkle in the ear ring. The focus is perfect here for me.
Very successful imo.
Sticky so well deserved. Well choosen moderators.

The more I look at this one the better it gets.

Congrats on a well earned sticky.

Thank you all for your kind words! And to the moderators...thanks so much for the sticky. Quite the honor. =)

Honestly, I am a little shocked this garnered a sticky. This crop is one I have tried several times, and while each version has improved, I still havent 'nailed' what I am after. This is an evasive lil bugger.

This one I like...Much better that the other one...

The crop is good - makes me want to see the rest of here face and creates a tension that wouldn't otherwise be there. Normally the slip face doesn't work, but the jewel makes it happen. It's like a Mattisse portrait I remember that the line down the center of the face creates magic.