són el mirall de l'ànima

[Javier]

[xpatUSA]

It's catalàn: [the eyes] "are the mirror of the soul" . .

[James G]

Javier, I like this image.
I particularly like that the lighting is targeted so directly on the eyes with a catch-light on the earring. It is most definitely not a glamorous treatment, rather more 'secretive' and 'introspective'. (for me at least!)

This is not a style of imaging I am in any way competent to create myself, but I think it might be a little stronger if the white's in the eyes where brightened a little to balance brightness of the earring and the cheek areas.

[Manfred M]

Javier - while I like what you are trying to do here, I do find that this image has a significant flaw - lack of separation of the subject from the background in a number of places, but especially along the right hand side of this shot.

In studio work, this is fixed by using a hair light and / or a rim light to create this separation. In a natural light situation, using a light background will do the trick for you.

[Javier]

Thanks James.

[Javier]

Grumpy Diver. Thanks for your opinion.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Javier,

My thoughts are similar to Manfred and James; the lack of separation of her hair and the background, plus the brightness of the earring, which attracts my attention away from the subject. Given the ratio of eye white to cheek brightness, I'm inclined to agree with James suggestion.

The hair light that there is (top centre), appears to be two distinct colours, which puzzles me - there's a bluer bit in the centre with warmer, pinkish tones both sides of it.

It is a fairly hard light source (the sun, I guess) and apart from the nose shadow (which I have no particular problem with), it has given a fair amount of texture to the skin pores between the eyes and on her cheeks.

On the positive side; the eyes are nice and sharp, the exposure and white balance is good.
Bear in mind I am being very critical because you asked for it.

Hope that helps, Dave

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[Javier]

Thanks Dave, your opinion is very important in order to improve.

[rpcrowe]

Javier,

I really like this image and returned to it several times to play with it. This is my final effort.



Starting from an original would allow a better edit but, this is basically how I see this image. I brightened her eyes a bit using NIK Viveza control points. I reduced the brightness of her ear and earring using the Photoshop burn tool. However, I think that this crop eliminates the problems with no definition between her hair and the background. I like the frame but, I am sure that there will be many folks who don't.

I think that the color of her skin would be better if I had begun editing from the original image rather than editing an image that was posted and which I copied...

BTW... I think that it looks pretty nice in monochrome also!

[bnnrcn]

Very nice image and IMO Richard's edit improved it

[Javier]

[Manfred M]

Nice edit on this shot. It fixes the issues I had mentioned in my previous comments.

Why did you decide to do this as a B&W instead of staying with the original coloured version?

[rpcrowe]

I like the B&W version quite a bit. I experimented by using NIK Viveza and increasing the brightness, structure and contrast of her eyes; while reducing the brightness of her left (image right) cheek.

[Round Tuit]

Javier,

I really like the way you brought attention to the eyes of your model. However, I find the severe posterization on the right side, her left ear and neck in particular, very distracting. The problem is much less apparent on the B & W version.

André