Another Couple's Portrait

[Andrew76]

I actually took this a while back, but have re-visited the photos, as the couple have asked me to do another shoot for them.

I kind of like it - what do you think? I seem to be getting more portraiture practice with multiple subjects, but I'll take whatever I can get!!

C+C please!

[Sahil]

Wow. That is a lovely couple. and a nice pic.
I somehow find the bright reflecting areas of water very distracting.

[rpcrowe]

A great looking couple... and a very nice shot..

However, if this were my shot, I would try the following in PP:

1. Rotate the images about 9 degrees to the right. The tiltled head on the male subject seems a bit feminine to me. Rotating the image would reduce the tilting of the head and lowering of the shoulder closer to the camera.

2. Reduce the overall brightness a bit which will give her a better tan and will give him better skin tones.

3. Burn in her hand a bit - it is a lot brighter than her arm or face...

4. Crop the image to eliminate much of the water on the left side of the image and some of the water all around the image. The amound of cropping would depend on if you have content aware fill or not (I don't like the PSE-10 Content Aware Fill Brush any near as much as the Photoshop Content Aware Fill Tool of the Photosop CS5 or 6) because you will have removed some necessary image area when you rotated the image. You might replace some of that image area, to allow a more aggressive crop if you coud reproduce the needed area with a clone stamp tool.

5. I like that these two young people have posed very close because this portrays a sense of love and intimacy. However, it seems like his cheek has distorted her cheek a pit. If desired this distortion could be remedied with the clone stamp tool at around 40% or so, cloning in from close portions of her cheek to where is is pressing against his cheek.

Please remember, that I don't consider my PP suggestion anything more than a suggestion. Every photographer has his or her own preferences regarding post processing and there is nothing absolutely right or wrong.

[Andrew76]

Thank you Sahil, and Richard. All very valid points. Being fairly new I find myself concentrating on the more basic elements of the image, and still missing these finer details. I'm sure it will come with time.

I am going to play around in PP a little more to see what I can come up with.

Thanks again!!

[rpcrowe]

Here's a quickie try...



What do you think?

[Andrew76]

Hi Richard - thanks very, very much! I really like everything you've done to it, with one small exception!! The couple originally asked for it to be an 8x10 - so I'm stuck having some water in the background somewhere.

Besides that, I think you've made my 'average' image into a real keeper - thank you very much for the tips, and pointers, it looks much, much better.

[TheArcane]

I'm impressed with how much you improved the photo, Richard. The original was nice but it seemed a bit overexposed in several places. Cropping it also really helped.