New Portraits - DPChallenge Forums

Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM II

09/11/2004 09:55:44 PM · #1

Hi all, I just took some portraits of a family friend's daughter and they whittled the choices down to the following. I would love your thoughts on them! I'm kind of new to such things, so any critique is appreciated, positive or constructive!

tyt2000

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

09/11/2004 10:01:07 PM · #2

They look great David! I like the crop in the 5th one. Very nice job...

peecee

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

09/11/2004 10:05:48 PM · #3

The first and 5th have a couple of annoyances, the rails and the hair in the eye, but all great lookin shots, and the last one is one of the best I've seen, natural and very appealing, certainly a pin-up for me.
Nice work David,
Paul.

CODE

Canon EOS-5D Mark IV

09/11/2004 10:07:49 PM · #4

I love #6, the reflection on her eyes is really nice.

BTW: is that Phone # for real?????

Nice Job

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

09/11/2004 10:09:04 PM · #5

Originally posted by CODE:

I love #6, the reflection on her eyes is really nice.

BTW: is that Phone # for real?????

Nice Job

Well, to be honest.....

Message edited by author 2004-09-11 22:09:43.

CODE

Canon EOS-5D Mark IV

09/11/2004 10:18:28 PM · #6

Originally posted by dsidwell:

Originally posted by CODE:
I love #6, the reflection on her eyes is really nice.

BTW: is that Phone # for real?????

Nice Job

Well, to be honest.....

(EDIT: Lesson of "Why that was not a good idea" removed...)

Message edited by author 2004-09-11 22:32:36.

CODE

Canon EOS-5D Mark IV

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

09/11/2004 10:20:15 PM · #7

I did not noticed you last edit!!

Good.

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

09/11/2004 11:06:51 PM · #8

Originally posted by CODE:

(EDIT: Lesson of "Why that was not a good idea" removed...)

LOL. You got it! A moment of lapsed wisdom for sure!

dwterry

Canon EOS-1D Mark III

09/11/2004 11:15:12 PM · #9

Your model has great eyes. I think you should take advantage of that aspect and perhaps continue your photo shoot with some poses that enhance her eyes.

I like what you have here. #6 is my favorite - but both it and #3 could benefit from just a small change. On both of those I would recommend:

1) Select the teeth, and feather the selection.
2) Drop the saturation down (to get rid of the yellow)
3) Increase the lightness (but only by a little bit)

You can do the same sort of thing for the whites of her eyes to get rid of the small amount of red that I see in her eyes.

And then, on #3 you could try increasing the contrast as well as the saturation. But don't do that on #6, it's already very good.

You said they will be ordering prints... even as is, all of these are quite good. But I do think that those small adjustments would really help them to stand out.

Cam

Sony DSC-F717

09/11/2004 11:27:48 PM · #10

I like 1 the most, but they are all wonderful photos.

magicshutter

Nikon D70

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D

09/11/2004 11:42:01 PM · #11

I only have two things to add.

1. When you do the chin rest shots, it's best to have your model pretend to lean her chin on her arm. When they really do it the chin and sometimes the cheeks bulge or distort. I have the model barely touch her chin to her arm, only enough to not see space between the two.
2. When you want to whiten and brighten eyes and teeth, use the dodge tool in photoshop (elements 2.0 is what I have)

kyebosh

Canon EOS-20D

Canon EF 80-200mm f/2.8L

09/11/2004 11:46:39 PM · #12

I always like the black and white face with colored eyes too. These look nice tho.
Edit: here's an example (self port)

Message edited by author 2004-09-11 23:51:25.

dwterry

Canon EOS-1D Mark III

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

09/11/2004 11:57:16 PM · #13

Originally posted by magicshutter:

2. When you want to whiten and brighten eyes and teeth, use the dodge tool in photoshop (elements 2.0 is what I have)

I used to do it that way... let me 'splain why I switched.

I now use layers for almost all of the changes that I make (PhotoShop Elements can do this to) because doing so allows me to change my mind, or to go back and "fine tune" the changes that I've made.

Oops... I just realized that my original message doesn't even mention layers. Okay, so here are the complete instructions:

1) Select the teeth, and feather the selection.
2) Create a hue/sat layer (it will automatically pick up your selection and use it as a mask)
3) Drop the saturation down (to get rid of the yellow)
4) Increase the lightness (but only by a little bit)

Now, because you've done this in a layer, you can turn the layer on or off any time (click on the eye icon to the left of the layer) and see the change that you've made.

In fact, you can come back some time later and perhaps decrease (or increase) the whiteness in case you went too far or not far enough.

The advantage of this over the dodge method is that once you've destroyed the pixes by dodging, you can never get them back (well, except by undoing them, but after you have closed the file you can no longer undo changes).

Hope this helps...

dwterry

Canon EOS-1D Mark III

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

09/12/2004 12:00:21 AM · #14

Originally posted by kyebosh:

I always like the black and white face with colored eyes too. These look nice tho.
Edit: here's an example (self port)

I'd love to see photo #2 done this way... She has such beautiful eyes, I bet this technique would really work out well to focus attention on them.

soup

Canon EOS-30D

09/12/2004 12:32:10 AM · #15

good job

the 5th one is very nice.

Natator

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

09/12/2004 01:15:33 AM · #16

Striking photos, she could easily become a pro.

I like 2 and 5 the best.