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DPChallenge Forums >> Individual Photograph Discussion >> Can I pick your brain?
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Showing posts 1 - 15 of 15, (reverse)
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 05/11/2006 01:33:57 AM · #1
Just uploaded a few pics from a senior portrait session. Looking for any comments/criticism of these 6. I'll be glad to reciprocate comments. In fact, if you had challenge entry where you requested a critique club comment and didn't receive one, let me know which one and i'll leave CC comment for you. Deal?? or NO deal? :)

Thanks in advance. BTW, this is a reshoot as the first time we tried 10:00 am and the sun/lighting was harsh. I have one posted in my portfolio from the first session which she liked but the others were not very good. Dont be afraid of my feelings, they might be hurt but i'll definitly recover ;)

mark




They have all had basic PP, including some dodge on eyes, levels adj, and USM.

P.S. Its late here so return comments will come, just not tonight. zzzzzzzzzz
 05/11/2006 01:39:13 AM · #2
I'll comment tommorrow... in a naughty mood tonight. Great pics though.
 05/11/2006 01:40:47 AM · #3
Keep it clean Leroy :) Thanks in advance.
 05/11/2006 01:49:16 AM · #4
Okay - I left comments on each. Nice work!
 05/11/2006 01:52:41 AM · #5
Great work. All the shots are extremely nice.
 05/11/2006 02:15:25 AM · #6
A good thing to have when battling harsh lighting is a portable diffuser and/or a reflector. I've never used one, but have seen many portrait/wedding photographers using them. You should look into it.
 05/11/2006 02:30:02 AM · #7
#1 is my favorite. Left comments.

#4 has a quirky look to it. The rest are all "good portraits" (with some really good lighting), but #1 is over the top, easily the best of the bunch.
05/11/2006 06:30:40 AM · #8
Well to be honest I'm not a fan of the ones you posted today. I posted a comment the one which you had from the previous session and most of the positives in that I feel are negatives here. The thing that I don't like the most are the backgrounds. They really don't compliment the girl or the photo in any way, they're just sort of 'there'. I'm trying really hard to figure out what I mean by this too, so bear with me ;)

In the two where she's leaning on the railing, I think the railing is too making too much noise in the photo with all those lines and also the diagonal positioning. Then further back with the bright bright highlights with the dark branches overhead, I think they really pull the eye away from the girl.

The one where she's against the stone wall, I just don't find the background appealing and again, noisy like the railing. I also feel like the pose doesn't compliment her very well. It makes her look heavier than I think she is.

In #1 and #2 I really like the pose and the light, but the background again really takes away. If you get a chance, post the lens info for these (mm shot at and aperture) since I'm a little curious. A little more length with a little smaller aperture would really help to seperate her out from the background. Although I think the lines running into her head in #1 might still be a little weird.

#3 I'm still not crazy about the background, though I think with a little more seperation it could be ok. The foreground though, I don't find appealing at all. It's just a little too flat and grey. The angle is also a little bit weird.

Still though, in 1 and 2 especially I'm really a fan of the poses and light. I think with some more PP, especially on the backgrounds, you can make them really great. Maybe some gaussian blur with some selective cloning to clean them up a bit!

Hope these are helpful more than they are hurtful, let me know if you have any questions! Also, I would really appreciate it if you'd rip into some of my photos as well...just wait maybe 5 days since I'll be posting a bunch that I'll really need good critiques on :)

Cheers!
Ben
 05/11/2006 11:05:58 AM · #9
Originally posted by loseme:
Great work. All the shots are extremely nice.


Thanks for your comments. Very constructive. I'll be returning over the next couple of days.
 05/11/2006 11:11:34 AM · #10
The model shows her best smile in the first picture.

The most lively colours in the background are in the second picture.

You show the best of her clothing in the last picture.


I am not good in post processing but hope this helps.
 05/11/2006 11:20:14 AM · #11
Thanks Shutter, Gbautista, dwterry, and Gunnsi. I'll get some sent your way as well. Thanks Jutilda.

bfox~ Thanks for your comments and criticism. I too, really liked the one from the first shoot, better than these 6. I'm going to try a little guassian blur on the BG on a couple to separate her somewhat. Also with #1, maybe do some cloning on the lines in the cement as i agree they are somewhat distracting. I'll catch in you 5 days or so:) Lets me spread things out.

All were shot with a Tamron 28-75/2.8 with focal lengths between 50-75. Aperature value set at 4.0 although that may have changed a little as the session progressed.

mark
 05/11/2006 12:02:25 PM · #12
Along the lines of bfox said and the background; IMO I believe a tighter crop on all but the last shot might remove some of the distractions from the otherwise busy (dof is great just the variations of light add emphasis) backgrounds.

Also watch the shadow that the bangs cast, the models (right as we look at the shot) left eye is always quite a bit darker then her right.

Just my 2¢

Andy
 05/11/2006 12:03:17 PM · #13
left you some! well done!
 05/11/2006 12:59:01 PM · #14
Sent you a mail Mark.
 05/16/2006 11:31:33 AM · #15
Thanks to all of you for your comments. I think i have replied to all with the exception of bfox(Ben, i'll catch you in a few days).

I wanted to post a portion of an email from Gary(kiwiness). It has some good stuff that i thought some of you would find interesting. I have also posted his version of pic #1. He provides some valuable insight to his workflow and technique.

Mark

**********************************

"The first thing you should do in the PP phase is to get the crop right, that is always my first step. Crop and rotate and transform where necessary. On your photo I cropped down a lot because there is too much unnecessary room above the model's head. If you see how I cropped it, I have taken it down a lot so that the main focal point being the eyes are bang in the top left hand side (rule of thirds). I could probably still have shaved a little bit off the left side looking back at it now. Taking off a part of the head in the top is usual and in most portraits you'll see this being done.

The second PP phase I do is to remove any stray hairs or blemishes. I didn't do too much to yours just removed a few stray hairs on her forehead. Like I said I didn't have too much time and with the original I would probably work a lot longer on that, it usually takes most of my PP time.

The main issues with your original were:

1) The main focus was on her jacket not her eyes. I made a elipse selection of her face, and transformed it to fit her face, oval like. I feathered the selection at about 35 pixels so you can't see and edges. I inverted the selection and threw in a small gaussian blur so that the jacket was not the sharpest area. I inversed the selection again and sharpened the face a little using a plugin calle Nik Sharpener (you can sharpen exact color ranges).

2) The face was too dark. A reflector or fill flash would have helped when you shot the image. If not then it can be easily achieved in the PP phase. I lightened the face simulating a reflector or fill flash but not too much so that the lighting looks flat or killing too many shadows. If I had time to work on it more I would have also added some light shadow around the eyes, maybe even using some extra PS mascara and eye liner. I did darken the irises a little so she didn't have kind of cat looking eyes.

3) The facial features were too hard. I used a couple of PS filters to soften up the facial features, the whole time keeping in mind that the main focal point of any portrait is the eyes. The first thing the viewer must look at is the eyes.

I also brought in a more of a golden effect to her hair but not too eggaxerated. The backgound is a little blurred from the gaussian blur I mentioned above so that it doesn't distract at all.

The skin tones are one of the last things to attack. Your photo had too much red and magenta in the skin tones so I had to equal that out by introducing a little cyan into it. If I had more time I would have taken out more of the red on the lower neck area selectively. Also if I had more time I would have worked on the teeth, they are far too bright still, the lips (I would darken them up a touch more, and I would have spent a lot more time on the eyes. I usually spend a huge amount of time on the eyes.

The last thing I did was to bring in a little more contrast to increase the tonal range and that was about it.

A professional would spend a good 1 to 2 hours on one portrait. I also spent about 2 hours working on my blue ribbon portrait in the color studio portrait challenge."

*************************************
Here is Gary's version of picture #1.


Thanks again to all. DPC is like a classroom without walls.
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