Portrait #1 - Sep 19, 2015 - C&C Welcome

[fotugraphy]

Hi, going forward on my photography venture I stopped and clicked another shot. Can you please review it and let me know what exactly is missing for it to make it much better?

Light Source : Beauty Dish , Reflector

Please provide your views and suggestion with composition, frame, crops and processing.

Thank You

PS : Please click on the image for lightbox screen view (Highly recommended)



Crop #1


Update #1 : Sharpened eyes and tighter crop to make the hand less dominating. (Rotated the image too)


Update #1 : Sharpened eyes and tighter crop to make the hand less dominating.

[chauncey]

Well done Raj...the eyes themselves could be a little brighter if you can avoid blowing the highlights,
they could be a little sharper as well. IMHO, you have not crossed that line into the plastic look.

[Shadowman]

Nicely captured, good control of shadows, cropping works for me, good detail.

[fotugraphy]

Well done Raj...the eyes themselves could be a little brighter if you can avoid blowing the highlights,
they could be a little sharper as well. IMHO, you have not crossed that line into the plastic look.

Thanks a lot for your kind review and suggestion. I have brightened the eyes as suggested. Please provide more information on the blownout highlight. I have checked the luminosity values of highlights on the nose. still have all the details intact Please correct me if i'm wrong if you are talking about the highlights on the nose.

yeah i still have a lot of textures in the 100% zoom file as I havnt touched the textures at all in skin smoothening. I have also uploaded the bright eyes version with a more tighter crop. Really Appreciated

[fotugraphy]

Nicely captured, good control of shadows, cropping works for me, good detail.

Thanks a lot for your kind review I have also updated the description with a tighter crop

[chauncey]

Raj, I was referencing only the eyes with my brightness and sharpness comment.
BTW, for future reference...what software do you use?

[bnnrcn]

Hi Raj I like the cropped version more. I don't know what experienced portrait shooters will say about my comment but I find the hand a bit distracting because it covers an important part of the frame. I would crop it and leave only 2,5 fingers in the frame although half hands are not preferred in portrait shots normally.

[rpcrowe]

Lovely shot of a gorgeous lady! I do like #2 the best.

One minor thing that bothers me just a bit is the hair between the hand and her blouse. However, cropping like Binnur suggested would eliminate that slight problem.

[Marie Hass]

What about just a repair layer and heal the hair out? Personally, I do not find it offensive.

She is a lovely model.

Marie

[wilgk]

The lighting is terrific, I prefer the first crop, I'm also of the view that with such a beautiful model, maybe the hand by the face detracts from the overall result.
I think the hand to the chin thinking type pose is more suited to a male corporate portrait look.

[Manfred M]

A very nice portrait Raj, and I definitely prefer #2. The tiny bit of the background in #1 doesn't do anything for me.

While I like what you have done, let me throw out a few niggly points...

I think you've gone a bit overboard with the eyes and have given your model an almost zombie-like look. While I do whiten eyes I tend to prefer something that still looks natural; real people don't have eyes quite that white. I also find that the irises seem a bit soft. As the rest of the face is sharp, I assume that this is a processing issue? Try a bit of in-process sharpening to give the model's eye a bit more "snap".

As for the lighting, here it really depends on what you are trying to do here. There are no shadows to create any interest here, and this is fine if you are doing a headshot for a model's portfolio. I would not have a hand in the face for a headshot, as I wouldn't want to have an art director think that you are trying to hide a facial defect; if this is a portrait, the hand positioning is fine. You seem to be using clamshell lighting and that is a pretty common headshot technique.

I'm wondering if your lights are a touch too hot; perhaps 1/3 stop; some of the skin areas look a touch overexposed. I might be tempted to tone down some of the reflections; the one on her upper lip comes to mind and perhaps a bit on her lips as well.

[fotugraphy]

Raj, I was referencing only the eyes with my brightness and sharpness comment.
BTW, for future reference...what software do you use?

Thanks a lot for your kind suggestion again. I have used Photoshop CC for processing.

[fotugraphy]

Hi Raj I like the cropped version more. I don't know what experienced portrait shooters will say about my comment but I find the hand a bit distracting because it covers an important part of the frame. I would crop it and leave only 2,5 fingers in the frame although half hands are not preferred in portrait shots normally.

thanks a lot for your valuble review and suggestion. I have updated the description with the crops just as suggested. Please provide more info if i have done it right

[fotugraphy]

Lovely shot of a gorgeous lady! I do like #2 the best.

One minor thing that bothers me just a bit is the hair between the hand and her blouse. However, cropping like Binnur suggested would eliminate that slight problem.

thanks a lot for your kind review and suggestion. I have updated the description with the cropped versions.

[fotugraphy]

What about just a repair layer and heal the hair out? Personally, I do not find it offensive.

She is a lovely model.

Marie

thanks a lot for your kind review and suggestion. I really have no problems in removing any distracting elements via photoshop. Please feel free to suggest more about it.

[fotugraphy]

The lighting is terrific, I prefer the first crop, I'm also of the view that with such a beautiful model, maybe the hand by the face detracts from the overall result.
I think the hand to the chin thinking type pose is more suited to a male corporate portrait look.

thanks a lot for your valuable review and suggestion. Will keep your suggestion about the hand in my mind for my next photoshoot.

[John 2]

A very nice portrait Raj, and I definitely prefer #2. The tiny bit of the background in #1 doesn't do anything for me..................................... I'm wondering if your lights are a touch too hot; perhaps 1/3 stop; some of the skin areas look a touch overexposed. I might be tempted to tone down some of the reflections; the one on her upper lip comes to mind ................................

Plus one from me Raj but in overall terms, a very nice portrait.

[fotugraphy]

A very nice portrait Raj, and I definitely prefer #2. The tiny bit of the background in #1 doesn't do anything for me.

While I like what you have done, let me throw out a few niggly points...

I think you've gone a bit overboard with the eyes and have given your model an almost zombie-like look. While I do whiten eyes I tend to prefer something that still looks natural; real people don't have eyes quite that white. I also find that the irises seem a bit soft. As the rest of the face is sharp, I assume that this is a processing issue? Try a bit of in-process sharpening to give the model's eye a bit more "snap".

As for the lighting, here it really depends on what you are trying to do here. There are no shadows to create any interest here, and this is fine if you are doing a headshot for a model's portfolio. I would not have a hand in the face for a headshot, as I wouldn't want to have an art director think that you are trying to hide a facial defect; if this is a portrait, the hand positioning is fine. You seem to be using clamshell lighting and that is a pretty common headshot technique.

I'm wondering if your lights are a touch too hot; perhaps 1/3 stop; some of the skin areas look a touch overexposed. I might be tempted to tone down some of the reflections; the one on her upper lip comes to mind and perhaps a bit on her lips as well.

thanks a lot for your valuable review and very informative suggestion. I will keep your suggestions in my mind about the processing. I got your point about Iris being soft. I have sharpened it and cropped it to make the hands less distracting and updated. The Iris was tack sharp but it is giving an illusion that it is soft because i have used the reflector and the catch light of the reflector giving an illusion of it being soft. It seems model was wearing contact lenses which i was not aware of. Please check 100% cropped version of the eye. After watching this 100% crop i realized that it may be due to contact lenses but still i will confirm it from my model if she was wearing one or not. I havnt sharpened anything in this 100% cropped version. Please share your valuable experience on this

[fotugraphy]

Plus one from me Raj but in overall terms, a very nice portrait.

thanks a lot for your kind review and suggestion. Will surely keep this in my mind.

[bnnrcn]

Hi Raj . IMO the versions with cropped hands don't work very well as you left most of the hands in the image and in this case I prefer #2 with the full hand too

thanks a lot for your valuble review and suggestion. I have updated the description with the crops just as suggested. Please provide more info if i have done it right