FirOutst Night

[Benjy]

My stepdaughter on the left ready for her first night on the town after finishing chemotherapy treatment ....comments would be most helpful....

[Donald]

Bernard - Hopefully some of the people who know something about portrait photography (as opposed to me) will see this and comment. My reaction was that though nice as she is, I wonder what the effect would be of cropping it to exclude the young lady on the right and having it as an image of your stepdaughter alone. Her smile on its own just makes for a great image.

The other thing I wondered about was trying to done down that highlight on her cheek to more like that which is on the cheeks of the other person; i.e. a bit duller and not so shiny?

And, of course, it is great to read of her going on a night out after her treatment.

[Benjy]

Donald,Thanks for viewing and comments,I don,t do much processing but will give it a try......

[Daisy Mae]

Having spent the last 3 years battling this evil disease I am delighted to see this beautiful young lady with her bright eyes and vibrant smile. She has my respect and admiration.

She deserves a portrait all to herself and I am sure you can do her ptoud as you obviously have the skills.

I am assuming that her hair may not be natural after chemo and I think that some softer lighting may be beneficial in this respect. Like Donald I don't pretend to know what I am talking about in terms of portraiture but the lighting of the other girl seems much gentler and more enhancing.

[Benjy]

Hi Sharon,Thanks for your kind comment,photo was a spur of the moment thing as their taxi was at the door and it was a case of "hurry up Benjy" as she was so excited about going out,she gets result of scan tomorrow so fingers crossed,I had an idea about yourself when looking at your posts which are excellent by the way,hope everything is OK with you and keep the smashing photos coming......

[Daisy Mae]

Hi Benjy and thank you so much, am chuffed you like my posts......I am doing well thanks.

Everything crossed for her scan results, you have a great model there and most of all a fantastic and strong step daughter.
You must be incredibly proud.

If you have time in the next few days drop me a PM and let me know how she got on.

Cheers. xx

[mknittle]

I don't know about chemo but radiation really made a mess out of my hair.
Your stepdaughter really looks good I wish her well!.............. from a brain cancer survivor.

Same to you Sharon best wishes and keep up the beautifully insightful images.

mark

[Shadowman]

Very nice images, great color and exposure. Best wishes to your daughter.

The female's shoulder on the right is very noticeably out of focus (DOF) and i see that you used f/2 for aperture. To me the depth of field is too distracting, background is as it should be but the shoulder not so much for such a tight crop.

Just my view on the use of DOF in portraits and not shared by professional photographers.

[Benjy]

Mark,John,Thanks for your kind comments.....

[Smudger]

Hi Bernard,

I am agreeing that a crop could do the job here. Again, as others have already stated, I am also no expert of portraits, however, I am getting stuck in there at the moment, reading a lot and practicing on my Post Developing as well as other projects.

Firstly, it’s a great story how your Stepdaughter has battled and beat her illness and she does look radiant, but I am not sure if too larger aperture has been used for this particular image. Because it is an image of 2 people, you have lost too much DOF in that, the lovely looking girl on the right is left OOF, if you know what I mean.

To put it more simple, you will notice that your Stepdaughter's right eye is in focus but her left eye is just starting to appear out of focus (DOF) and not as clear as one would like. With a crop, some portraiture photographers would accept the 'blur' effect on the ears bit I am not sure about the eyes.

I think both needs to be sharp and in focus.

Because of the large aperture, the DOF then becomes more problematic concerning the lovely looking lady on the right of the image. To me, she appears completely OOF / blurred into the background, therefore, my opinion if that she must go. Crop her out and make this image into a portrait size, as opposed to a landscape of just your Stepdaughter.

Hope this helps. This is only my opinion and I am also in the 'early leraning' stages of Portraiture.


Regards.

[Benjy]

Nigel,Thanks for viewing and kind comments.....