Hunter

[Evertking]

[Shadowman]

Nice capture, has a vintage look to it. The mix of smooth and wrinkled backcloth should be attended to though, either by reshooting and smoothing or through edit by darkening the wrinkled side. I like the touch of edge light on the sleeve though.

[Rufus]

Super lighting, especially on Hunter's face and hair. Like John, I also like the rim lighting on the sleeve.

The limited colour palette works nicely too.

[John 2]

This is a nice study of an attractive young boy. The lighting is good as well. My only thought is that you don't need the lower part of the book. I find the embossed symbol a little distracting and cropping the image just above it gives more prominence to the subject - IMHO of course.

[Manfred M]

Some of the issues with this shot have been mentioned by others. The wrinkled backdrop is definitely a distraction and is not working.

The other issue I have a lot of problems with is the over-processed skin. Children rarely need any skin softening and other than the occasional spotting of minor issues, I would suggest you not touch it at all in post. That smooth plastic look takes away from an otherwise very nicely done shot. As a rule, skin should be handled as a series of local retouches and no area softening at all.

[Evertking]

Yes and looking at it on my monitor it looks awful but I posted it to feel it out. His skin looks "dirty" is the only way I know how to explain it.
https://paulinaduczman.com/gallery/children-2/
This processing is what I been trying to figure out.
I hope I'm allowed to post links.

[Manfred M]

She has a very fine art / painterly look to her work.

A few thoughts for you.

1. She is using an even more diffuse light source than you are. While there are some areas that are a bit hotter than others, these are relatively small. Some of her shots are definitely natural light while others are using flash with a light modifier. She is either shooting an umbrella or octabox with lots of diffusion.

2. Lots and lots of post processing. Most of the texture has been removed from the skin. She is pushing the PP even harder than you are.

I've played around a bit with your shot and I could spend some time burning down some of the hot spots, but it would be better if you eliminated them while shooting.

3. Some of the images look like she is doing something a bit strange with some of the physical proportions of her subjects; large heads and large eyes have me wondering if she is using the liquify tool to upsize those body parts a bit.

[amsco]

Beautiful portrait of a beautiful child!

[Manfred M]

If you go look at her Facebook page, via the link on her website, you can get a view of some larger images that are better for analysis. There are definitely signs that she is re-sculpting parts of the face with the Liquify tool as I have picked up some artifacts of that process in at least one of her images.

In some of the images, the heads are definitely out of proportion to the bodies and I see a lot of work on her part to create larger eyes on her subjects. I tried her technique with the eyes on your image.

The types of manipulations that Paulina Duczman uses does raise ethical questions. I know a lot of people would find the level of distortions she introduces to be "offensive", especially as they are of children. The use of the Liquify tool in Photoshop is controversial in many circles. I personally do not agree with those people, but they tend to make a lot of noise.



If you open the image in Lightbox and use the forwards and backwards arrow you can see the impacts of my two edits on your original posting.

[Cantab]

If you go look at her Facebook page, via the link on her website, you can get a view of some larger images that are better for analysis. There are definitely signs that she is re-sculpting parts of the face with the Liquify tool as I have picked up some artifacts of that process in at least one of her images.

In some of the images, the heads are definitely out of proportion to the bodies and I see a lot of work on her part to create larger eyes on her subjects. I tried her technique with the eyes on your image.

If you open the image in Lightbox and use the forwards and backwards arrow you can see the impacts of my two edits on your original posting.

Manfred, using the Lightbox back and forward between your two edits gives a very dramatic illustration of your enlargement of the child's eyes. I was not previously aware that Photoshop could be used to alter facial proportions, etc.

I found Duczman's style somewhat repetitive. Each of the portraits in her gallery has the same emotional feel. On the other hand, if it's a style which a parent likes, that's a very different kettle of fish from some one like me reviewing a gallery of portraits of many different children all done in the same style.

[Manfred M]

Manfred, using the Lightbox back and forward between your two edits gives a very dramatic illustration of your enlargement of the child's eyes. I was not previously aware that Photoshop could be used to alter facial proportions, etc.

Yes, the Photoshop Liquify filter can do a lot. It has become a lot more sophisticated over the years and the intelligence built into it makes it a lot easier to use than when it was first introduced.

I found Duczman's style somewhat repetitive. Each of the portraits in her gallery has the same emotional feel. On the other hand, if it's a style which a parent likes, that's a very different kettle of fish from some one like me reviewing a gallery of portraits of many different children all done in the same style.

Commerical photographer's styles tend to be "repetitive" as this is effectively what they are selling. I personally don't particularly like her style because the subjects seem utterly sterile and emotionless, which is generally the opposite of what I look for in images.

That being said, it was fun to look at her work and figure out what she was doing. Now that I've done that, I've lost interest in her work.

[Cantab]

Commerical photographer's styles tend to be "repetitive" as this is effectively what they are selling. I personally don't particularly like her style because the subjects seem utterly sterile and emotionless, which is generally the opposite of what I look for in images.

When I think of great portrait photography, I think of an image that captures the essence of a unique individual, or at least one particular aspect of that person -- as in the work of someone like Yousuf Karsh.