Pushkar Gal #3. Beauty Shot. 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?

She is the Green Eyes Nomad girl which i mentioned in my previous shot. I got inspired by the suggestions to change it to a beauty shot under natural and give it a look of a model. (For a change, I already have 10 different shots of her which i'm going to share with different expressions and framing)

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)

[Shadowman]

Does every girl in that village have such beautiful eyes? Nicely captured, I like the emergence from the shadows look on this image.

[Manfred M]

Raj - Another magnificent image. I must say that she really does look 12 in your Facebook image where you are sitting beside her. No complaints about the skin tones this time.

I'm starting to wonder about your screen setup as a lot of your images are coming through looking rather underexposed, with the histogram suggesting blocked shadow detail. Have you calibrated and profiled your computer screen? I recalibrated and reprofiled mine just over a week ago and it is set up to the standard 120 cd/m2.

When I pull up a histogram on the image you posted, all the data is crammed into the left hand side of the histogram. I'm pretty sure you are looking at a darker, moodier look, this is not the way to get it. Look at the whites of the girl's eyes. They are gray, not white. This is probably not where you want to be with this shot. Again, expose correctly adjust the white points and black points accordingly and vary the level by using the middle slider. That way you can get the moody look you want without sacrificing the light tones or dark tones. You want the whites of the eyes to look white, but not too white so that they look spooky.



(Note: This is a screen capture so the colours are off a bit)

Other than playing with the levels, the other thing I noticed is the lack of detail in her eyes, lips and eyebrows. I did some localized in-process sharpening here so as to not touch the work you did on her skin. I added a vignette to darken the background a bit, but did it in such a way that her face was not touched.

You've probably noticed, I crop a bit more aggressively than you do, so the first one is the way I would crop the image and the second one is your crop with my edits.








As for the edits themselves; here is what I did:


(Again poor colour due to screen capture process)


Top layer - this is where I built the vignette and ensured that the girl's face was not affected by the vignette.

2nd layer from the top - this is the levels adjustment layer and you can see how I positioned all three sliders.

3rd layer from the top - here I duplicated the bottom layer and used the Unsharp Mask settings that are shown. I applied a layer mask to hid the changes (body of the mask is black) and then painted out the eyes and mouth in white to reveal the sharpened image locally.

Bottom layer = Raj's original image with NO changes.

[pnodrog]

Great shot and totally endorse Manfred's adjustments.

[KimC]

WOW Raj! THOSE EYES! I like what Manfred did to her eyes/brows/lips; however, I prefer the lighting on her face in Raj's first image as I enjoy the drama is creates.

[tanys18]

lovely picture. Wow those captivating eyes! I like Manfred's adjustment.

[rpcrowe]

I love this image!

[davidedric]

Beautiful girl and lovely image, Raj.

Thanks also to Manfred for explaining his adjustments.

I visited the Pushkar fair many years ago. I remember a lot of camels, but not so many pretty girls!

Dave

[Manfred M]

I visited the Pushkar fair many years ago. I remember a lot of camels, but not so many pretty girls!

Dave - I think we must have done the same thing; lots of camels. Pretty girls; I can't say I remember seeing that many?

Next time I think we need to tag along with Raj!

[fotugraphy]

Does every girl in that village have such beautiful eyes? Nicely captured, I like the emergence from the shadows look on this image.

Thanks a lot for your kind review. SHe is the same girl i posted last time

[fotugraphy]

Raj - Another magnificent image. I must say that she really does look 12 in your Facebook image where you are sitting beside her. No complaints about the skin tones this time.

I'm starting to wonder about your screen setup as a lot of your images are coming through looking rather underexposed, with the histogram suggesting blocked shadow detail. Have you calibrated and profiled your computer screen? I recalibrated and reprofiled mine just over a week ago and it is set up to the standard 120 cd/m2.

When I pull up a histogram on the image you posted, all the data is crammed into the left hand side of the histogram. I'm pretty sure you are looking at a darker, moodier look, this is not the way to get it. Look at the whites of the girl's eyes. They are gray, not white. This is probably not where you want to be with this shot. Again, expose correctly adjust the white points and black points accordingly and vary the level by using the middle slider. That way you can get the moody look you want without sacrificing the light tones or dark tones. You want the whites of the eyes to look white, but not too white so that they look spooky.



(Note: This is a screen capture so the colours are off a bit)

Other than playing with the levels, the other thing I noticed is the lack of detail in her eyes, lips and eyebrows. I did some localized in-process sharpening here so as to not touch the work you did on her skin. I added a vignette to darken the background a bit, but did it in such a way that her face was not touched.

You've probably noticed, I crop a bit more aggressively than you do, so the first one is the way I would crop the image and the second one is your crop with my edits.








As for the edits themselves; here is what I did:


(Again poor colour due to screen capture process)


Top layer - this is where I built the vignette and ensured that the girl's face was not affected by the vignette.

2nd layer from the top - this is the levels adjustment layer and you can see how I positioned all three sliders.

3rd layer from the top - here I duplicated the bottom layer and used the Unsharp Mask settings that are shown. I applied a layer mask to hid the changes (body of the mask is black) and then painted out the eyes and mouth in white to reveal the sharpened image locally.

Bottom layer = Raj's original image with NO changes.

thanks a ton for your kind review and suggestion sir.. It really helped a lot and already applied on the image i published

[fotugraphy]

Great shot and totally endorse Manfred's adjustments.

thanks a lot for your kind review and suggestion

[fotugraphy]

WOW Raj! THOSE EYES! I like what Manfred did to her eyes/brows/lips; however, I prefer the lighting on her face in Raj's first image as I enjoy the drama is creates.

thanks a lot for your kind review and appreciation

[fotugraphy]

lovely picture. Wow those captivating eyes! I like Manfred's adjustment.

thanks a lot for your kind review and appreciation

[fotugraphy]

I love this image!

thanks a lot for the appreciation

[fotugraphy]

Dave - I think we must have done the same thing; lots of camels. Pretty girls; I can't say I remember seeing that many?

Next time I think we need to tag along with Raj!

haha sure ... most welcome

[fotugraphy]

Beautiful girl and lovely image, Raj.

Thanks also to Manfred for explaining his adjustments.

I visited the Pushkar fair many years ago. I remember a lot of camels, but not so many pretty girls!

Dave

thanks a lot for your kind review and appreciation