For starters, i'm in full agreement that both your photo and your model are better than the original. For your assignment, I would submit both the edited version that you have already presented here as your - interpretative work - and a second version for your - literal work.
A couple of primary things that I noticed that were different.
The original has added two spots of lens flare.
the original appears to have entered blowout both in the highlights in the hair and in the window, but both are still controlled in the output image. This indicates either some curves work to pull a genuinely blown highlight into a more pleasing and gentle tone OR that they were not originally blown, but pushed there via processing (as in your example). Either is possible as they might have shot that with a low dynamic range film.
The Dior original features a much lower amount of contrast (could be a result of the scan?) and a much smoother set of tones. Your strong red shirt is almost overpowering (in comparison)... perhaps play with the colors to bring it down to a soft pastel. Perhaps by using the 'lightness' in the hue/saturation you might attain some good results. Of course by this point I'm sure it's not necessary to repeat that you'd be working with adjustment layers exclusively.
The Dior version also has a very slighty lower crop which places much more emphasis on the presence of the model. I would attempt to rotate clockwise by about 3-5 degrees (to keep her hand), then clone in the top left corner and crop off the rest of the edges.
Additionally, there appears to be a very blocky grain in the Dior version. Possibly due to an intentional processing step or specifically choosing a 'High ISO' look. (note the histogram for the image as well which might indicate some strong grain)
I have not yet fully explored how to get a stronger and larger grain, but it might be worthwhile to do this.
THEN, run a gaussian blur or Neat image over the image to SOFTEN the large grain, but with a technique to soften small grain. This will retain the blockiness, but increase the softness of the overall pic to closer match the softness of the Dior original.
Again, I would reiterate that your version kicks no small amount of ass. |
