Lottie at 13

[mammarazzi]

[rpcrowe]

Lovely young lady and a very nice shot.

However when I played with it, I opened up the shadows a touch, increased the contrast a bit and applied a wee bit of sharpening and I like the image a litle better.

[mammarazzi]

Don't tease me by telling what you have done to improve the shot.....show me please

[smcrews]

Very nice shot, however I would have to agree with Richard on this. I personally prefer a little bit sharper images. This was what I was thinking

The real question is what do you think about your shot?
Again...Nice Job

[rpcrowe]

Joanne,

I played with this just doing some shadow and contrast work and a bit of sharpening..


I then played with the image using Portrait Proessional V-9. Lots of folks object to Portrait Professional because you can overdo the correcions. However, I don't think this is overdone. The question would be; do you like it?


IMO, you are exceptionally fortunate to have two such lovely daughters. It must be loads of fun to shoot them! Lucky that we are in the digital age, I could go broke shooting these beautiful gals using film!

[Loose Canon]

Hi Joanne!

I can see Miss Lottie makes for an excellent model! She certainly is a beautiful young lady.

Traditional portrait framing (at least as I know it) dictates that one doesn’t cut the subject at the chin and that was the first thing I noticed. I then remembered that I am not much in the way of traditional myself and I still think the shot is nice. I am a big fan of B&W portraiture and a big fan of ultra close-ups. And for this tight shot I really like the depth of field you have nailed.

I have found that shooting a subject who is wearing a hat seems to add an additional challenge. And for me that is trying to make sure you get enough light to the eyes so that they are not too deep in shadow. If portraiture is all about the eyes, then this would seem logical to me. Especially so in a tight shot.

There have been a number of times when someone reprocessed one of my shots or gave me advice and I never had a clue as to what they did or were talking about. I am not really given to taking other people’s work, reprocessing it, and reposting it unless I think it might be okay with the shooter or unless they ask for folks to do so. But if I think I could maybe contribute a thought about a shot I will most always reprocess it to test whatever theory I may have to see if what I am thinking holds water!

I think Richard’s theory holds water for your shot.

Soooo, here is what I came up with doing just a quickie trip through Photoshop. I tried not to go overboard, but I wonder if it could have safely gone a little further. Also I would like for you to know up front I will be happy to take it down if you would prefer. No worries!

I dodged the shadows around and including the eyes, Joanne, to lift the shadows a bit and brighten her eyes. I used a medium sized brush at around 8-11% opacity and did it gradually.

I burned her lips in a bit using a bit smaller brush at about the same opacity. I also burned her camera left cheek a bit using a larger sized brush at around 7%.

I boosted the contrast a bit with a Curves layer

I took the sharpening tool at about 50% and made a pass over her iris’, eyelashes, and lips.

I also removed a little spot or two using the healing brush and also stamped the little tiny hot spot on the left tip of her nose. I toned down the bright background strip on the camera left side of her face by burning it. In the interest of honesty I'll admit to enlarging each eye by approximately 4-5%.

[Arlen]

Joanne, nice shot of a beautiful young lady.

The folks above have each made some good points and given useful advice. Terry's approach is closest to the one that I would have taken. As everyone noted, the original could benefit from some sharpening. But the sharpening needed to be selective, like Terry did, and not global. The one thing I have learned from hard experience is that girls and ladies generally do not like for the texture of their skin to be emphasized, so rather than sharpening, I will sometimes smooth over skin texture that appears too rough. The other potential issue here was the dark areas around the eyes, tending toward the "black eye" look when made more contrasty. Terry did a good job, for my taste, in selectively taking care of that. As always, this is just my opinion, and everyone's tastes will differ.

My final word: I wish had such a winsome subject as you do, readily at hand to photograph at will!

[Manfred M]

The one thing that struck me right away is how dark the eyes are; a shadow cast by the brim of the hat. My first instinct would be to use a reflector or a fill-flash to get rid of the shadow before thinking about any PP.

I personally don't like the global sharpening and what it does to the skin. I tend to selectively sharpen the eyes and lips only and possibly soften the skin a bit. The reflections in the eyes are too prominent and look a bit strange.

[WJT]

Hi Joanne, I like it a lot. I am also keen on a tight crop or composition for a portrait and in this photo I am drawn straight to her eyes. Personally I wouldn't use a flash on her as she has soft skin and a softer light works well. Simply reduce he shadow a bit in your PP and a little more definition and that is a great shot. Well done.