Photoshoot

[Metalstorm77]

Part of me like this shot, but the other part sees imperfection. Like to hear your opinion.

[Shadowman]

There are but only if you view it as a formal portrait, as a casual shot very nicely done. Crop and composition is fine, wardrobe miscue (shoulder strap) is my only complaint. I even like the few stray hairs.

[Metalstorm77]

Thanks John. I agree with you there regarding the bag strap across her shoulder. What wasn't so obvious to me until i was processing the photo is the highlights on her left side. I think this maybe slightly distracting. But I do like this pose.

[Geoff F]

The confusing background is my chief problem. Also the highlight brightness seems somewhat odd to me. Possibly try some slightly different editing?

But the subject and composition are good. As John said, for a casual quick shot this would work fine; but a formal portrait would require a reshoot under different conditions. Portraits are so difficult to get absolutely perfect.

[selig1656]

,Love the subject and composition of this candid portrait .Yes the bag strap distracts , the lighting on the right side is too distracting partially due to it's brightness some extra editing is needed there. Great capture of a beautiful smile and as we know the majority of us are as asymetrical in our facial structure, take this into account . Sometimes a slight tilt in a direction can do marvels in showing the strength in ones beauty.

[Metalstorm77]

Valuable feedback guys. Yes the highlight is an issue. I tried to used the "dodge & burn" function to tone down the highlight but my skill with this function is not yet good enough to make it all blend in nicely. Feel free to download and touch up the image and show me how it could look for those good with post processing. Be interesting to see. Cheers.

[Geoff F]

We really need a straight from camera image if we are going to experiment with alternative editing, Nuttee.

When toning down over bright areas I always use Curves and a mask which I can edit to selectively apply the effects. And set the layer Blend Mode to Luminosity so the saturation isn't lost along with brightness. I've never got on well with the Dodge and Burn Tools.

But this assumes you have suitable software which allows for layers and masks. Alternatively, can you alter your adjustment brushes to just work on Luminosity?

[Metalstorm77]

thank-you Geoff, I'll explore both of those options. Is there a way I can put the original file on this thread so people can download? Or is it emailing through private email?

[Geoff F]

If you create a Jpeg with straight from camera settings and no more than 1500 pixels on the long side it should upload here.

As an alternative, some people place the original Raw file on a sharing site such as Mediafire and post a link here so others can download the full size image which won't appear here as a direct upload.

[Manfred M]

The shot does not work all that well for me, and it has a lot to do with the camera work as well as the heavy-handed post-processing.

I have two major issues with what I see; focus and post-processing.

1. You have shot at a very wide aperture, which gives you a very shallow depth of field (DoF), which is a fairly common technique and one I like using. The out of focus background and bokeh works fine. The critical requirement when shooting this way is that the eyes (or at least the eye closest to the camera) must be tack sharp. This is not the case here, so the overall softness of the image is not working for me; and

2. Your model's skin looks plastic. I would guess that you applied some kind of blur in post-processing. The skin is for the most part textureless and looks fake. There are ways to clean up skin, but the technique you used does not work at all for me.

A third point is that you have back-lit your model; which is fine. I like the way that the light wraps around your model.

A touch of fill lighting, especially from the side to push in some interesting sculpting and shadow detail would be a nice touch as well. There area some small catch lights in here eyes, but something more substantial (I'm thinking a white reflector) would make her eyes really sparkle.

[Metalstorm77]

thanks for the hints