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DPChallenge Forums >> Individual Photograph Discussion >> Please critique my B&W candid portrait...
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 08/17/2011 12:02:09 PM · #1


I would like to have a few critiques on the post processing of this image please. I am interested in the portrait processing around the eyes and face and the B&W Conversion.

My questions are:
Are the eyes bright and sharp enough?
Is there enough detail in the face and is it bright enough?
Is there too much contrast in the face?
Are the B&W Tones done well? What can be improved?

I know that contrast question is subject to personal taste but let me know how you feel.

(Now that I look at it on a DPC Page, it looks so much sharper on black.)

If you are interested, please feel free to leave comments in picture or on this thread.
 08/17/2011 12:14:23 PM · #2
left a comment on photo
 08/17/2011 12:16:10 PM · #3
Ed --

IMHO, it's a great shot and well processed. My only suggestion would be a minor tweak of the blacks for a tad more contrast in her face, but that's just me.
 08/17/2011 12:25:57 PM · #4
Originally posted by Germaine:
Ed --

IMHO, it's a great shot and well processed. My only suggestion would be a minor tweak of the blacks for a tad more contrast in her face, but that's just me.


I'd agree with this, when looking at the picture my initial thoughts were it looked good (better than the thumbnail), but I was also immediately drawn to the right side of her face (left side of photo), which looks a little too soft - some subtle sharpening there would be nice I think. In the eye especially - perhaps instead of a black level adjustment as the tone is nice imo.

Any chance of the original so we can see better what processing has actually taken place?
 08/17/2011 12:58:08 PM · #5
Thanks for your comments. I am going to have to find out what it means to tweak the blacks.



Here is the very next image from the same burst... taken less than a second later. I just used Canon DPP on it to convert the raw and apply overall sharpening.
 08/17/2011 01:51:42 PM · #6
It would be better to have the original file, but I took a look at it in Photoshop and your highlights were fine on the histogram, but your blacks were clipping.

I have good calibrated monitor, but that doesn't always mean that others see the same thing on their monitors. The histogram won't like though.

So I adjusted the mid tones using a levels adjustment layer to lighten up some of the darkness and used a layer mask to keep areas that were okay. Mainly her shirt and arm.

I created a curves layer and selected inside her iris and lightened them up, and inverted the mask to only paint in the adjustment in small amounts until it looked good.

Other than that just a little overall sharpening, and some selective sharping on her eyes. Then a little tweaking of the brightness/contrast using a layer and the opacity slider.

Finally I cropped a bit off the top to frame it better. One word about composition...

You did fine keeping her left arm in the frame, but becareful of the your shooting angle when a person's body is turned. Even though she was doing a cute arms behind the back pose you still want to try and show some of her back arm to make it look more natural.

Dave

08/17/2011 03:13:37 PM · #7
Originally posted by DCNUTTER:
It would be better to have the original file, but I took a look at it in Photoshop and your highlights were fine on the histogram, but your blacks were clipping.

I have good calibrated monitor, but that doesn't always mean that others see the same thing on their monitors. The histogram won't like though.

So I adjusted the mid tones using a levels adjustment layer to lighten up some of the darkness and used a layer mask to keep areas that were okay. Mainly her shirt and arm.

I created a curves layer and selected inside her iris and lightened them up, and inverted the mask to only paint in the adjustment in small amounts until it looked good.

Other than that just a little overall sharpening, and some selective sharping on her eyes. Then a little tweaking of the brightness/contrast using a layer and the opacity slider.

Finally I cropped a bit off the top to frame it better. One word about composition...

You did fine keeping her left arm in the frame, but becareful of the your shooting angle when a person's body is turned. Even though she was doing a cute arms behind the back pose you still want to try and show some of her back arm to make it look more natural.

Dave



Thank you David. you did a bang up job again. I think you did the same thing to another photo of mine prior to this.

You really made it look brighter and better. I appreciate your tip on the pose too. I did not know that. Would I be correct in stating that I could ask my model to turn to her right a bit to get a more natural pose? Of course that would work much better if my two year old would learn to follow directions instead of running around investigating everything she sees. lol.

I am going to have to come up with a more definite processing workflow. I think I am also going to have to stop using the Canon DPP software as a part of it and rely solely on PSE9.

Anyone have a resource showing a typical portrait workflow using PSE9?

Message edited by author 2011-08-17 15:14:06.
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