My portraits

[HaSSo]

No worries

The plugin wasn't portrait-professional was it?

The plugin is imagenomic portraiture 15 day's version.

[Colin Southern]

The plugin is imagenomic portraiture 15 day's version.

To be brutally honest, I've never been a big fan of programs like this - I prefer to retouch by hand.

[HaSSo]

After some practice

[Colin Southern]

After some practice

One thing struck me immediately -- lets see if you can see it too. Tell me, is this how her skin colour really looks?

[HaSSo]

One thing struck me immediately -- lets see if you can see it too. Tell me, is this how her skin colour really looks?

1. Her skin is soft and the colors are not changed.
2. Sunset Sun falls directly on her from her left shoulder, maybe white sail could make it better.
3. Because of Sun direction, image is little "too flat".

[HaSSo]

1. Her skin is soft and the colors are not changed.
2. Sunset Sun falls directly on her from her left shoulder, maybe white sail could make it better.
3. Because of Sun direction, image is little "too flat".

and 4. Above is too much "empty" frame.

[HaSSo]

This is little different type, but still with watermark

[HaSSo]

Hello,

For a long time I have kept silent here.

[HaSSo]

Hello

For a long time I have kept silent here.

[rpcrowe]

I wonder if it would not be better to begin a new thread with this image?

[Round Tuit]

Hi HaSSo,

Interesting use of a prop. This couldn't have been comfortable for your model.

A couple of observation:
1. Your model is in the shade and there are several areas in the background that are much brighter than she is. These bright patches attract the eyes and are distracting in spite of the attractiveness of your model.

2. She needs more breathing room on the right. Maybe a better camera angle would have helped that.

3. I agree with Richard that this picture should be on a separate thread assuming that it belong to this forum at all. Although "nudes" have their place in photography, CiC may not be the best forum for these. I trust our moderator's judgement on this point.

Andre

[Mike Buckley]

1. Your model is in the shade and there are several areas in the background that are much brighter than she is. These bright patches attract the eyes and are distracting in spite of the attractiveness of your model.

It's just a coincidence that I saw an image today hanging in America's National Portrait Gallery. When I saw it, I wondered how many people at CiC would have critiqued the image as you have critiqued the image displayed here in the thread. The image is a full-body image of a famous chef. He was entirely in the shade. Immediately to his left and behind him was the side of a farm building lit extremely brightly by a setting sun. The image was made last year and printed this year by Annie Liebovitz.

Considering Annie Liebovitz's success, it's clear that different people have different ideas about bright areas being a distraction from the subject.

Personally, I think the bright areas work well in this image and in the Liebovitz image because they are natural in the sense that they are part of the environment in an environmental portrait.

[rpcrowe]

I wasn't going to post this but, since there has not been any (that I noticed) regarding a nude on CiC I posted this.

I thought at first that the sparse amount of space in front of the subject might be objectionable but, I did not like the tree trunks. My edit was primarily done with NIK Viveza, mostly using structure, brightness and shadow detail controls.

[Round Tuit]

Personally, I think the bright areas work well in this image and in the Liebovitz image because they are natural in the sense that they are part of the environment in an environmental portrait.

Mike,

I can't comment on Annie Liebovitz's image because I have not seen it. However, for the nude above, I find the bright areas, particularly the one right behind the model, distracting. I believe that the photo would be stronger if the background were to be slightly darkened to make the model stand out more. I like the edit that Richard made because they bring out the model better than the original photo.

I respect the fact that your knowledge of photography is vastly superior to mine. The critiques that you post on this site have helped me tremendously and I always look forward to them whenever I peruse this site. I am absolutely OK with you having a different opinion in this case. Different strokes for different folks is what makes this site so useful.

Andre