Black & White

[Javier]

[mugge]

I like the look of the girl but I think that the face is a tad 'hot.' That is only my opinion.

[MrB]

Not usually a fan of tattoos but this one looks intriguing, and I like the portrait but for two little light patches which I think should go - one between the chin and shoulder and the other on the right of the arm.

Philip

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Javier,

Nice photo.

If mine, I would crop 8% image height from top edge and mitigate a couple of other aspects that distract my eye, these are too small and complex to attempt to describe, I could probably edit and post quicker, if you wish - let me know.

What I really mean is that I would tinker until I achieved the desired result, but don't have the Photoshop experience to know ahead of time how to describe what I mean

Cheers,
Dave

[Javier]

Thanks Dave...I ´ll love see your edit¡¡

[Manfred M]

Javier - I do a lot of portraiture, so a number of little things jump right out at me.

My overall comment is that I like your vision for this image. The pose with your model turned into her shoulder is effective and the tattoo on her back is well placed in the image. I personally would like to see it brought out a bit more, but that is a very minor detail. Most of the rest of the points are quite minor, but make all the difference between a good image and a great image.

What I like less is the lighting; it is too low and too hot on the camera right side of her face. It looks like you have burned down the whole right side of the background (Marked as "0") and you have missed a couple of artifacts in retouching (Marked as "1") on her arm and beside the camera right eye. That burned down area looks a bit strange; it's on the side of the image where most of the light is falling, yet it shows the largest amount of light drop-off, which does not make a lot of sense from a visual standpoint.

Pretty well everything else I have marked are things I find a bit distracting, which take away from the final image. Distractions tend to be areas of bright or high contrast that draw too much of the viewer's attention.

2. The bright spot on the neck between shoulder and the chin are drawing attention away from your model's face.

3. With the eyes looking at the camera, they are so far over to the camera left side that the whites of the eyes are very large and draw a lot of the viewer's attention. Having them more centred in the eye socket, which means that she is not looking directly at the camera is often the way that this is handled.

4 Mouth and teeth - the teeth are very bright and draw the viewer's attention. Showing that amount of teeth can be risky as they draw the viewer's attention. Often we shoot with a loosely closed mouth to avoid showing the teeth. We also try to control the reflections off the lips and will darken them down in post.

5. Hair merging with the background - this tends to be an issue with dark hair against a dark background. This is usually handled by either not using a dark background and using natural separation or shooting an additional flash at it to create the separation (i.e. use a hair light).

6. This is always an issue and you have hidden it relatively well against the dark background. As much as possible I will try to minimize this before I take the shot or clean it up in post.

7. Bright earring - it is so bright that it stands out in the area of her head that is in shade. Easy enough to burn down in post so that it is not a distraction.

[Javier]

Thanks Manfred
I really apreciate your opinion, I think your comments was a master class of portrait photograpy.
Thanks

[pschlute]

Thanks Manfred
I really apreciate your opinion, I think your comments was a master class of portrait photograpy.
Thanks

This is what makes this forum such value for me.

[Manfred M]

Thanks Manfred
I really apreciate your opinion, I think your comments was a master class of portrait photograpy.
Thanks

Thanks Javier - I have formal training in portraiture, so I am keyed to what tends to work well and what works less well. I have been doing serious portraiture for a number of years and I just had a quick look at the number of portrait images on my computer; well over 20 000 images.

I'm also a national level photographic judge, so I see a lot images that I evaluate in juried competitions, so I can generally pick up what does and does not work in an image quite quickly.