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DPChallenge Forums >> Individual Photograph Discussion >> Help on this portrait photo please
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Showing posts 1 - 16 of 16, (reverse)
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 05/24/2004 08:27:21 PM · #1
Hi all, I think this photo is so nice of my niece (if I do say so myself) but it had a very unfortunate background that I have been working with and the more I work with it, the worse it gets. I would LOVE any and all suggestions. Thank you!

05/24/2004 08:44:31 PM · #2
I honestly didn't notice anything but her eyes and skin, very pretty girl . What don't you like about it ?
 05/24/2004 08:59:01 PM · #3
Originally posted by Pioneer:
I honestly didn't notice anything but her eyes and skin, very pretty girl . What don't you like about it ?

Thanks, Mike. I don't like the background work. The original background was dark and noisy with drapes and bookcases in the pic. I removed the bg the best I could and I'm not real sure if it works or not. I have tried lightening the gray area but that didn't seem to work. Maybe I'll try changing it to a sepia or something.

BTW, the reason I took this photo of here was to prove to her that she has beautiful blue eyes. She is one of those people whose pupils are normally so large, you can't see the color of the iris -- most people think here eyes are black.

Message edited by author 2004-05-24 21:00:21.
 05/24/2004 08:59:16 PM · #4
Lighting is a little harsh (e.g. sharp shadowing on the neck, necklace overexposed). It has somewhat of a cool (as in opposite of warm) mood to it that is nice, but I wonder if it would have gone over better without the photoshopped border. I think if you are going to deliberately block out the background, you should make it a true oval (don't follow the hairline) and crop it a little tighter. That's perhaps just my personal preference talking, though. All in all, a nice composition though.
 05/24/2004 09:03:37 PM · #5
Originally posted by bledford:
Lighting is a little harsh (e.g. sharp shadowing on the neck, necklace overexposed). It has somewhat of a cool (as in opposite of warm) mood to it that is nice, but I wonder if it would have gone over better without the photoshopped border. I think if you are going to deliberately block out the background, you should make it a true oval (don't follow the hairline) and crop it a little tighter. That's perhaps just my personal preference talking, though. All in all, a nice composition though.


Thanks for pointing out the shadow in the chin area. I don't think there is much I can do about it at this point though. Her necklace is clear crystal beads and in the original, they aren't over exposed, though I can understand why you would say that. They are faceted and really reflect the light.

Also, I will try an oval. That might work great! Thanks!

Message edited by author 2004-05-24 21:04:17.
 05/24/2004 09:11:58 PM · #6
Here's a quick attempt with my recommended changes...click here
 05/24/2004 09:28:09 PM · #7
Although not what you are after, but the first thing I thought of was a high-key sketch look that can be quite stunning on portraits like yours. This how-to is quite good to get that effect.

Another suggestion would be to remove her from the background either by masking, using the pen tool, or if you are using photoshop you could use Extract. Although with hair it can be quite difficult.


05/24/2004 09:29:59 PM · #8
Originally posted by bledford:
Here's a quick attempt with my recommended changes...click here


That looks pretty good and I like the toning, although a shame to lose such stunning blue eyes!
 05/24/2004 11:14:20 PM · #9
Originally posted by bledford:
Here's a quick attempt with my recommended changes...click here


Wow, what a gorgeous frame! Thanks. I do want to keep the color though but I love what you did. I'll have to try that myself.
 05/24/2004 11:16:23 PM · #10
Originally posted by moodville:
Although not what you are after, but the first thing I thought of was a high-key sketch look that can be quite stunning on portraits like yours. This how-to is quite good to get that effect.

Another suggestion would be to remove her from the background either by masking, using the pen tool, or if you are using photoshop you could use Extract. Although with hair it can be quite difficult.


Thanks Moodville. That's a great tutorial. I tried the extract tool and I'm just not good at it :)
 05/24/2004 11:39:38 PM · #11
I wasn't sure how to show a photo I played with , without putting it into my own folder, so I uploaded it onto a page where you can see it. It seems to have softened all around her, don't know if that is what you want or not ? I just Lassoed around her as close to the white as I could get then inversed it under select, then under filter, brushstrokes, then sprayed strokes, and played with settings it a bit.
View it Here
 05/25/2004 12:19:02 AM · #12
hey joanns, just playing around a little here, but for some reason it seems like your shot was a bit on the wide end? her face seems a little distorted, anyway in addition to changing the background to a darker color pattern and then cranking up the brightness, I also tried to compensate for the wide distortion using filter>distort>pinch (10 degrees with oval of just the face selected). Then I thought her jaw was still a little long and selected a rectangle from just about the nostrils to the bottom and the frame, copied and pasted then did a free transform and pulled the bottom up about 10-15 pixels to reduce the long jaw look. Just a tip if the wide angle was used...imho portraits seem to look better to flatten the face with about a 85-135 telephoto lens...anyway, just a bit of fun. Could tweak the background all night. :) check my edit:


Message edited by author 2004-05-25 00:31:26.
 05/25/2004 02:06:15 AM · #13
Originally posted by Pioneer:
I wasn't sure how to show a photo I played with , without putting it into my own folder, so I uploaded it onto a page where you can see it. It seems to have softened all around her, don't know if that is what you want or not ? I just Lassoed around her as close to the white as I could get then inversed it under select, then under filter, brushstrokes, then sprayed strokes, and played with settings it a bit.
View it Here


I like this much better than mine. Thanks for letting me know how it was done. I really appreciate it!
 05/25/2004 02:12:42 AM · #14
Originally posted by ericsuth:
hey joanns, just playing around a little here, but for some reason it seems like your shot was a bit on the wide end? her face seems a little distorted, anyway in addition to changing the background to a darker color pattern and then cranking up the brightness, I also tried to compensate for the wide distortion using filter>distort>pinch (10 degrees with oval of just the face selected). Then I thought her jaw was still a little long and selected a rectangle from just about the nostrils to the bottom and the frame, copied and pasted then did a free transform and pulled the bottom up about 10-15 pixels to reduce the long jaw look. Just a tip if the wide angle was used...imho portraits seem to look better to flatten the face with about a 85-135 telephoto lens...anyway, just a bit of fun. Could tweak the background all night. :) check my edit:


Thanks for doing all that work! I don't know how to break it to my niece that her face is distorted though :). Just kidding. On my computer at work the monitor made her face look too long so I thought when I got home and looked at it on the flat panel that I would see a better rendition but it is worse on this flat screen. Anyway, I will have to check but I believe I used a long lens to get the close up. It could be the lighting and the pose that makes her look odd, I asked her to lower her chin a bit and look up so that I could get her eyes to really dominate the shot. Anyway, I'll have to print it to really see where the problem lies.

Thanks again.
 05/25/2004 02:13:37 AM · #15
Thank you everyone for helping!


05/25/2004 12:05:46 PM · #16
Originally posted by joanns:
Thank you everyone for helping!

Be sure to post your final image for us to see. I'd be curious to see how you handle the problem. Good luck.
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