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DPChallenge Forums >> Side Challenges and Tournaments >> January Portrait Side Challenge
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Showing posts 26 - 50 of 71, (reverse)
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 01/06/2015 05:54:06 PM · #26
My first try.
Goofing around with my cousin Josh.

01/06/2015 08:31:09 PM · #27
Originally posted by vawendy:

So, Jenn -- how did you even out the shadow on her face? I can't ever seem to do that so seamlessly.


The best way I have found is to just use the clone tool at 25-50% opacity. Just work really slowly, using different sizes of brushes depending on the size. Also taking a little from the light and a little from the dark right on the edge. If you do a spot and it doesn't look right just back up and try again. I feels kind of like painting to me (like actual paining on canvas)but just using the clone tool as your brush.

I sometimes have luck with the healing brush tool. Use it like the clone tool where you select an area. It sort of does the blending for you and I don't always like the results. Healing brush is great for somethings, like pimples and uneven skin tone, but it has its limits with blending.
 01/06/2015 10:12:14 PM · #28
Add a layer set to soft light blend mode. Check the box to color the layer 50% gray. Set a brush to 3% flow paint white to lighten shadows and black to darken.
 01/06/2015 10:28:01 PM · #29
Originally posted by Mike:
Add a layer set to soft light blend mode. Check the box to color the layer 50% gray. Set a brush to 3% flow paint white to lighten shadows and black to darken.


Went to try this and I can't figure out what box to check.
 01/06/2015 11:05:03 PM · #30
Originally posted by Mike:
Add a layer set to soft light blend mode. Check the box to color the layer 50% gray. Set a brush to 3% flow paint white to lighten shadows and black to darken.


I've done that before, but I still have a shadow line.

I've tried Jenn's cloning before, as well, but usually make a muck of it. I'll have to keep playing, I guess. I suck at that type of editing.

(the 50% grey is when you create a new Layer. I think you hold down the alt or ctrl key when you click the new layer icon and it gives you a dialog box where you can fill with 50% grey)
 01/06/2015 11:32:01 PM · #31
Originally posted by vawendy:
Originally posted by Mike:
Add a layer set to soft light blend mode. Check the box to color the layer 50% gray. Set a brush to 3% flow paint white to lighten shadows and black to darken.


I've done that before, but I still have a shadow line.

I've tried Jenn's cloning before, as well, but usually make a muck of it. I'll have to keep playing, I guess. I suck at that type of editing.

(the 50% grey is when you create a new Layer. I think you hold down the alt or ctrl key when you click the new layer icon and it gives you a dialog box where you can fill with 50% grey)


Thanks that helped and I figured it out, I was just duplicating the layer instead of making a new one. I like that technique I think it will come in handy if I can remember it when I need it. But you are right it doesn't work on hard lines.

I tried cloning the hard line on her nose and paid closer attention to what I was doing. First it is better to use it at around 20% opacity especially when you are first starting. Use a brush that overlaps both the dark and light side a bit. Soft edge on your brush. Select a light area from the skin and go over the line of your shadow....this will take about 20 times to get it to blend. Now you will have a little bit too hard of a light line (it will be more blended than before but still too harsh). So you must select a dark area of skin and go over the edge of where the light and dark meet. This won't take many strokes to blend as dark covers faster than light. It is tedious work at first. But once you get the hang of it it goes pretty fast. The whole face only took about 5 min.
 01/07/2015 07:03:47 AM · #32
to get rid of the line you could duplicate the layer and then Gaussian blur it heavily and the drop the opacity of the layer to allow the texture to come through. use a mask to coverup the what you dont need to blend.
 01/07/2015 10:53:27 PM · #33
My first two. I totally missed the focus on my first one, darn it. Plus I seem to have an issue cutting my head off. But I was pretty happy with the second image. I wonder what it says that my less happy image was taken at home while my happier image was taken at work. Huh.



I love high key images, and so my challenge to myself this weekend is to see if I can get a low key portrait that I like. (I'm not sure I'll have the lighting skills for it, but I'll give it a good couple of hours attempt. And now I said it out loud so have to try.)

Message edited by author 2015-01-07 22:54:48.
 01/07/2015 11:52:10 PM · #34
My humans are also uncooperative for the time being, but I am working on them.

01/08/2015 09:39:59 AM · #35
Just got done commenting on a few. I hope that you won't be offended by my critiques or suggestions. I personally like to get them because it helps me learn what I am doing right and what I need to work on. But if you are not into getting them let me know now and I will skip commenting on your images.
 01/08/2015 10:44:06 AM · #36
I am having trouble getting any models, since they were all sick last weekend and are too busy during the week. Hopefully I will have better luck this weekend. In the meantime I thought I would share my editing process of my last free study entry.

Here is the original RAW image:


And my contest entry:


Portraits usually don't do well in free studies so I decided I would just go for it and try some different editing styles that I usually never do. So besides the usual spot editing and such I decided to try a new filter. For the overall tone of this image I used NIK color effex pro/color stylizer/soft sepia. That was my very last step. Here is the rest:

1. For the lighting I used a large softbox on my stobe coming from the right side only. No lights or reflectors were used on the left. You can see from the catch lights in here eyes that the light was high and diagonal. Not totally coming from the side, I wanted a little light to spill over to the dark side of her face. I also used a strobe in the background with an umbrella, going across from the right. That didn't work out exactly how I wanted it to so I edited it a bit in photoshop with dodge and burn to get the look I was going for.
2. Next I used the cloning technique I described before in this thread, to spot edit her face. I reduced the dark circles under her eyes, cloned out the bruise on her eyelid, now that I know mikes method I think it would have been better for the dark circles under her eyes. I plan on using that next time.
3. Next were the eyes, I think there is a tutorial on this site about pimping the eyes. I basically use that...just a bit of dodge and burn and maybe a bit of sponge tool to add a little more color. Just remember a little goes a long way. I tend to get carried away sometimes. Try not to over soften the skin and make your eyes too sharp. This is something that I am trying to get a handle on myself. Something I try to keep in mind when I edit now: is that I still want to see the texture in the skin. It is okay to remove imperfections and soften it a little, but try not to make the skin look like it is made of plastic.
4. Finishing touches were a bit of filters applied both with NIK software:color efex and silver efex on luminocity blending mode. I am trying not to overuse these. Although sometimes I still get a bit carried away. I think it is always best to go a bit more natural looking, otherwise you go back in a couple years and look at them and think..."what was I thinking with that filter?"....I say that and here I am showing you a portrait I used a heavy filter on :) ...like I said I was experimenting. Doesn't hurt to try things out...but for the most part I say keep things simple.

01/08/2015 11:26:38 AM · #37
Totally missed this thread. Hey Jeff... is it ok if I juup in now? Been doing a lot of architectural, ate, y and need to repeople.

As for evening out shadows, there is a 3rd technique I sometimes use. Create a duplicate layer, and under image> adjustments there's shadows/highlights. It takes a bit of fiddling around to get it right, but then you can mask out whatever you don't need and can play with different blending modes
 01/08/2015 12:45:01 PM · #38
Originally posted by sjhuls:
... In the meantime I thought I would share my editing process of my last free study entry.

Thanks for sharing this, and congrats on the high finish.
 01/08/2015 12:59:11 PM · #39
Thanks for the comment Jennifer. I am never offended by any critiques or suggestions. My people shooting skills are so minimal (and frankly none of my skills are super strong) that I appreciate any and all comments. I tried shooting a bunch of family portraits around the holidays and I found myself so intimidated about aiming a camera at faces that I captured a whole lot of excellent side and butt shots. Not my finest hour. But I won't learn or improve if I don't keep trying :)

And I did get a couple of keepers, so it really wasn't a total disaster. (Blizzard central here right now, only made it home last night and processed a few. More coming and more shooting happening this weekend too.)
 01/08/2015 01:23:19 PM · #40
Thank you Jennifer for the detailed background info on your portrait photo. I will definitely try out these techniques. All my portraits tend to be 100% natural light tho I did attempt a lighting setup for my Xmas card entry which failed miserably and I reverted to natural light. Lighting is tricky stuff. Looks like you have it well and truly cracked.
 01/08/2015 01:27:58 PM · #41
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01/08/2015 08:21:32 PM · #42
Sorry it took me a while to get going, had to get around to renewing my membership. Gonna start with some 500px stuff I already shot.

Here's a selfie. Sorry about that :)

01/08/2015 10:23:47 PM · #43
Originally posted by tanguera:
Totally missed this thread. Hey Jeff... is it ok if I juup in now? Been doing a lot of architectural, ate, y and need to repeople.

As for evening out shadows, there is a 3rd technique I sometimes use. Create a duplicate layer, and under image> adjustments there's shadows/highlights. It takes a bit of fiddling around to get it right, but then you can mask out whatever you don't need and can play with different blending modes


Of course! Everyone is welcome. Still early in the month and I have learned so much already.
 01/08/2015 10:35:17 PM · #44
This is one I did in November of my son Dan celebrating "Movember". I'll be shooting some fresh stuff this weekend.

01/08/2015 10:57:54 PM · #45
I took some shots tonight. Unfortunately, I think I am entering one tonight.
 01/08/2015 11:59:13 PM · #46
Originally posted by markwiley:
I took some shots tonight. Unfortunately, I think I am entering one tonight.


After the way scoring is going for my last entry I think I may only be entering in side challenges. Told myself I wouldn't let the scoring get to me if I started entering again. Hard to remember when you entry drops a whole half a point in just 8 votes. This thread has been good for me reminds me why I like this place. I'm just going to camp out in here for awhile if you guys don't mind :)
 01/09/2015 12:01:49 AM · #47
Would love to join in......visiting some interstate friends for NYE,

01/09/2015 12:20:09 AM · #48
I will be doing some portrait tries this weekend, I would love to try something new!
 01/09/2015 01:15:39 AM · #49
Sorry I will get to entering some new stuff soon. I know, I know...you are sick of this girl and this hat. This is an outtake for the candid challenge. Had a hard time deciding which to enter. I think I made the right choice but still really like this one. I had to bump my ISO way up and still couldn't get my shutterspeed where I wanted it. Overall very noisy and soft image. I salvaged it the best I could. Here is the original for comparison:

01/09/2015 09:24:11 AM · #50
Originally posted by sjhuls:
Sorry I will get to entering some new stuff soon. I know, I know...you are sick of this girl and this hat. This is an outtake for the candid challenge. Had a hard time deciding which to enter. I think I made the right choice but still really like this one. I had to bump my ISO way up and still couldn't get my shutterspeed where I wanted it. Overall very noisy and soft image. I salvaged it the best I could. Here is the original for comparison:



Who am I to dare comment on these images? I do look with much interest though.
Just throwing my two cents of a question to all of you :
- in the above images don't you prefer the mysterious softness of the blueish hues? And since it's a lovely girl, don't you opt for less of added make up for her eye lashes?
Of course, I do not look at these portraits as a master photographer and I do prefer the original with, let's say, a touch of work on the face color wise. It probably depends on the use of these portraits. I imagine that for a magazine one would opt for the light portrait but for an "artistic" shot ("artistic" for lack of a better word) the original is truly beautiful.

All the tips and comments are really interesting.
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