My Son at the Art Gallery

[CatherineA]

Today was the first time that I really tried to work with Lightroom and Photoshop. The couple of edits that I did took me an inordinate amount of time and I felt clumsy when I used the adjustment brushes and circles. I really admire the effort other people have put into learning these skills. I will try to learn more and improve my pp abilities, but, as I do that, I would appreciate hearing any suggestions or comments. Thank you

[FootLoose]

The more you work with Photoshop the easier it gets, Catherine.

I like the way you have composed this photo with the woman looking at your son. I can't say much about the processing without knowing what you have done, but I can't see any obvious traces of them so must doing it right. Perhaps the shirt could use a bit of colour correction, if it is white but only you know the exact shade so that is your choice.

[pnodrog]

Good on you for taking a portrait in a different environment.

With portraiture the eyes are very, very important. These are in shadow and need to be lightened up. The overall eye area can be lifted with photoshop by carefully dodging with mid-tone set. You can then use dodging with highlights set to concentrate on the whites of the to give them more sparkle. If you need added contrast in them you can burn in the pupils with the mode set to shadow. Very much the same approach in LR using the adjustment brush first used on the overall area with an exposure adjustment and then a new adjustment done for the actual eye with the contrast setting increased.

Working the eye area, lashes and actual eyes to emphasis the tone, contrast, sharpness and sometimes saturation is an important skill to learn when editing portraits.

[Shadowman]

He looks too solemn even for a museum, I think there is too much detail showing in the painting behind him unless your intentions is too make the subject matter part of his demeanor, otherwise the portrait is nicely exposed.

[Manfred M]

Good effort here Catherine. I would echo the suggestions that Greg and Paul have made.

Overhead lighting will often result in the eye sockets casting a deep shadow over the eyes (and often on the neck below the jaw).

Dodging the eyes is definitely something that you should consider doing here. The white shirt acted as a reflector and reduced the impact there.

A quick dodge does work, but requires some practice and there are many ways to accomplish this.

[CatherineA]

Thank you Greg, Paul, John and Manfred.

Greg: I know that I can improve the photo with better edits to my son's face. Missed completely the off-colour of his shirt. Thanks!

Paul: Thank you for the pointers and I am in the process of looking up how to do them. I am sure that if I improve Christopher's eyes the image will be near to what I was hoping to create here.

John: I am still hoping that this photo will work with a good edit and a tighter crop. But if it doesn't, then maybe it will be for the reasons that you have suggested. Thanks for commenting!

Manfred: Thank you Manfred, that's very helpful.

[DanK]

Catherine,

Re the color cast: I find that a white balance card like this one is an essential piece of gear. I certainly don't use it all the time, but when color balance is an issue--particularly when lighting may cause a problem--it can be a lifesaver. In this case, since your son is posing and you had time, I would have taken one shot with him holding the card so that the light on the card is the same as the light on him. then take the real shot. The first shot will give you an easy neutral correction--the card should show as a neutral gray, so you can set the white balance from it. then you can adjust further, if you want.

Dan

[CatherineA]

Thank you Dan. That will be an easy thing to do in the future and I am sure will be more accurate than adjusting for white balance after the shot in LR or PS.

[Manfred M]

Catherine - Can be a "must do" in some situations, but in others the photographer might want an image that is not 100% neutral for "artistic" reasons. When it comes to portraiture, I tend to stay a tiny bit on the warm side of neutral, rather than going for an accurate white balance as I find the images look better that way.

[DanK]

Catherine - Can be a "must do" in some situations, but in others the photographer might want an image that is not 100% neutral for "artistic" reasons. When it comes to portraiture, I tend to stay a tiny bit on the warm side of neutral, rather than going for an accurate white balance as I find the images look better that way.

I agree with Manfred about a slightly warmer tone, but I find I get more consistent results if I start from a neutral balance and modify to taste from there. I don't have the visual equivalent of perfect pitch, and when I don't have a reference point, I often find after the fact that I have imposed quite different white balances on different photos in the same series without intending to.

[Manfred M]

So Catherine, did Michael Tardioli's talk give you some new insights into portraiture?

[CatherineA]

So Catherine, did Michael Tardioli's talk give you some new insights into portraiture?

I love talks that make the horizons open up. Imagine...no catch lights because it was all about the mouth...and wide angle lens as the norm... Keeps portraiture exciting. I'm glad he showed some of his photos that didn't work as well as his best. What I would really like to learn is how he makes his backgrounds and his lighting.