Blue Eyes

[klpurkett]

I had chocolate on hand yesterday, so I managed to bribe my four year old into standing relatively still for a couple minutes. He was standing about three feet in front of our couch (with a dark blanket draped over it), with a large window maybe five feet to his left. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the way this natural light was used to define his face. I'm also specifically interested in suggestions concerning PP... this was my first attempt at sharpening eyes that I felt turned out okay... thoughts? I will post both the edit and SOOC image. All C&C much appreciated! Thanks! Kristy





And just in case anyone would find the details helpful:
Nikon D3100
Nikkor 55-200 1:4-5.6G ED lens
A priority
ISO 3200
1/250 sec
F/4.5
78mm

[DEAN01]

Kristy,
A beautiful portrait. The window light sculpts the face nicely, good detail in the highlights and shadows. Did you use any type of reflector on the right side? As for the pp, I'll defer to those who are more into that.

[JamesScott86]

Excellent captures - well taken.

[AlwaysOnAuto]

I find the lighting a little bit harsh. Maybe pulling the shade a little, or putting a white sheet over the window would tone it down a little bit. I'd also like to see one where he's looking at the camera.
I'm a rank amateur when it comes to people pics so take this into account too.
Did he like the chocolate?

[klpurkett]

Kristy,
A beautiful portrait. The window light sculpts the face nicely, good detail in the highlights and shadows. Did you use any type of reflector on the right side? As for the pp, I'll defer to those who are more into that.

Thanks Dean. I did not use a reflector, but there are also a couple windows behind me, probably ten feet in front of Timothy. That would be where the rest of the light was coming from.

[klpurkett]

Excellent captures - well taken.

Thanks.

[klpurkett]

I find the lighting a little bit harsh. Maybe pulling the shade a little, or putting a white sheet over the window would tone it down a little bit. I'd also like to see one where he's looking at the camera.
I'm a rank amateur when it comes to people pics so take this into account too.
Did he like the chocolate?

Thanks for your comments, Allen. Yes, I suppose the window light is a bit bright, but I guess I needed as much light as possible (without loosing detail in the highlights) in order to keep my shutter speed fast enough to get a decently sharp image. He was holding *relatively* still, considering his age, but certainly not still enough for a slowish shutter speed.

I, too, would have preferred eye contact, but the ones where he looked at me didn't have very authentic expressions. Something about "look at mommy!" seems to ruin everything.

Yes, he did enjoy the chocolate...

[IzzieK]

As I had said before, I am partial to posed portraits on children. I like them moving and keeping my camera on continuous focus so even if they move, you still get the shot. Most of the time for me, impromptu shots are the best taken...you have that moment, that fleeting capture of a happy incident recorded. Anyway, the first one is a nice shot but I noticed that in both of them, the eye on the right side is a little bit too light? They are not evenly distributed. A bit of the burn tool at around 5% increment will be helpful until you get the right amount in the colouring...just my opinion.

[chauncey]

I had chocolate on hand yesterday, so I managed to bribe my four year old into standing relatively still for a couple minutes.

From the looks of his artificial smile, your Pavlovian conditioning left something to be desired.

As has been said the lighting is harsh but might be caused by your camera settings...I'm seeing
noise in his face and perhaps a slightly missed focus or slight subject movement.

You might try copying and resizing his left eye onto the right one...fade the dark line under the eyes,
then get rid of the dark area under the lower lip.

The really bright left side could be toned down using curves with a gradient tool.

[Shadowman]

Nice effort, focus is a bit soft and I know it's considered normal to use this method, but it is interesting that you felt the need to sharpen the eyes and add contrast. The natural light would already give you the soft focus and you could have either used a faster shutterspeed and/or small aperture to give the contrast you applied afterward and sharpness to the eyes.

[Texas Dave]

I do most of my post work in photoshop after I've done a few things like white balance and overall tonal correction in capture one.

I think you should be careful with your 3/4 tones such as that of the shadows of his cheek and nose which to me seems to be getting a bit to orange. I would have chosen to be selective in my saturation and just added a bit to the eyes if anything. He already has good "rosiness" in his cheeks that I think you wouldn't need much more color.

I have more experience in post work than capturing photos but I do like your lighting.

[klpurkett]

As I had said before, I am partial to posed portraits on children. I like them moving and keeping my camera on continuous focus so even if they move, you still get the shot. Most of the time for me, impromptu shots are the best taken...you have that moment, that fleeting capture of a happy incident recorded. Anyway, the first one is a nice shot but I noticed that in both of them, the eye on the right side is a little bit too light? They are not evenly distributed. A bit of the burn tool at around 5% increment will be helpful until you get the right amount in the colouring...just my opinion.

Thanks for commenting, Izzie! One of my long term goals (which I realize is a lofty one) is to learn how to make even posed shots look as natural as possible, as though it's a candid image. However, this particular photo op was more just an exercise in working with available light, and my for year old happened to be the one willing to cooperate. In other words, I wasn't after a fabulous portrait that day, but was wanting to work on using narrow lighting, and this was the best out of the bunch.

I noticed the difference between his eyes, too, but I am wondering if it would then look unnatural if the eyes appear the same shade, while one side of his face is bright and the other is dark? I'll play some more with it.

[klpurkett]

From the looks of his artificial smile, your Pavlovian conditioning left something to be desired.

As has been said the lighting is harsh but might be caused by your camera settings...I'm seeing
noise in his face and perhaps a slightly missed focus or slight subject movement.

You might try copying and resizing his left eye onto the right one...fade the dark line under the eyes,
then get rid of the dark area under the lower lip.

The really bright left side could be toned down using curves with a gradient tool.

Thanks for your input! I will play with this one some more and post the results. I agree that the eyes are a bit distracting. I didn't notice the difference when I took the shot. I posted it this way to see what ideas you all have for fixing it. Thanks.

[rpcrowe]

A very handsome lad! IMO, some type of fill light (reflector or fill-flash) might have evened out the exposure between the bright and the shadow sides of his face.

[klpurkett]

Nice effort, focus is a bit soft and I know it's considered normal to use this method, but it is interesting that you felt the need to sharpen the eyes and add contrast. The natural light would already give you the soft focus and you could have either used a faster shutterspeed and/or small aperture to give the contrast you applied afterward and sharpness to the eyes.

Thanks for commenting, John. I think on just about every single image I have posted someone has mentioned it being a bit soft. I am beginning to wonder why my images are soft, when I'm positive I am focusing on the closest eye. Could this be related to the inexpensive lens I'm using? Or would you suspect it's user error? This brings me to the rationale behind sharpening the eyes: I have received numerous comments on previous portraits saying the eyes could use sharpening, so I figured I'd try it here. Thanks for the critique... I'm leaning so much from all of you here on CiC!

[klpurkett]

I do most of my post work in photoshop after I've done a few things like white balance and overall tonal correction in capture one.

I think you should be careful with your 3/4 tones such as that of the shadows of his cheek and nose which to me seems to be getting a bit to orange. I would have chosen to be selective in my saturation and just added a bit to the eyes if anything. He already has good "rosiness" in his cheeks that I think you wouldn't need much more color.

I have more experience in post work than capturing photos but I do like your lighting.

Thanks David. I'll try working on this one again and will post the results to see if it's better. Now that you mention the orange, I see what you mean.

[IzzieK]

My bad...just a tad more burning now that you have already done the dodging. You are right...I am sorry I am not thinking straight at the moment. When you select the burning or dodging tool, try to lower the percentage at the bar and the mode you like to either darken or lighten or whatever is in the drop down selector. I usually lower the percentage to about 5 or 10% to start with until I get the effect that I like to my taste. I hope you'd pardon me today.

Thanks for commenting, Izzie! One of my long term goals (which I realize is a lofty one) is to learn how to make even posed shots look as natural as possible, as though it's a candid image. However, this particular photo op was more just an exercise in working with available light, and my for year old happened to be the one willing to cooperate. In other words, I wasn't after a fabulous portrait that day, but was wanting to work on using narrow lighting, and this was the best out of the bunch.

I noticed the difference between his eyes, too, but I am wondering if it would then look unnatural if the eyes appear the same shade, while one side of his face is bright and the other is dark? I'll play some more with it.

[klpurkett]

My bad...just a tad more burning now that you have already done the dodging. You are right...I am sorry I am not thinking straight at the moment. When you select the burning or dodging tool, try to lower the percentage at the bar and the mode you like to either darken or lighten or whatever is in the drop down selector. I usually lower the percentage to about 5 or 10% to start with until I get the effect that I like to my taste. I hope you'd pardon me today.

No problem, Izzie! Thanks for clarifying!

[Texas Dave]

What are you doing your post work in?

[klpurkett]

What are you doing your post work in?

I'm starting with my RAW files in Adobe Raw, and then Photoshop Elements 9. But, I'm just beginning to scratch the surface beyond the "auto enhance" menus.