NON Square Cropped Portraits - (nSCP's) - Archive

[Antonio Correia]

You're welcome. You live in an interesting country for photography (always seems to be a lot of colour). You should post more shots.

NON Squared Cropped Portraits (nSCP's) and Squared Cropped ones (SCP's).

[Ashwin]

I made two versions of the Indian bride.
I think that she should be looking at us or we should be able to see her beautiful brown - I suppose - dark eyes anyway.
The picture looks too flat for me. Sorry Ashwin.
It has not a central point, a point where we are attracted to, magnetized so to say.
That's was I tried. In one picture the crop is not very tight. It is the one I made to begin with. Then I made the other one better cropped yet for my taste.

Objection: We can't see the dress as a main piece of the portrait.
I say: yes, but neither in the original we can see it. In spite of seeing more than in my version. Agree.

Maybe you have - of course you - more images of this bride. She looks here like smiling somehow forced.
You said: smile. And she did.
No, she should be smiling because she was feeling it not at your command.
Ashwin, I have been particularly harsh today. I am sorry. But if I don't say what I think would you ever be in this thread ?




I used CS4 and LR and I like best the second image.

Hi Antonio,

To understand photograph, you have to consider what is the Culture - Tradition ,where the photograph has been taken ( In this case in India ) and the occassion.

This photograph is of INDIAN BRIDE, as such her clothing and ornaments which she wears is of much importance, (all other things are irrelevant ) as such same should be at center stage. ( Must be included as far as required )

Some elderly persons were around, so she may not be feeling comfortable, as such her eyes
are down, she is smiling not because of any instructions from photographer but she was listening to what elder persons were saying about her, which she liked and gave a pleasant smile.

Generally, all my photographs have little bit of more contrast/brightness but in this case I had prepared two version of this image, and posted 1st version instead of 2nd... Anyhow please note that my 2nd version which I was supposed to post today is almost the same as Rob's 2nd version, as such I am not posing it now.

You may or may not like the Photograph posted here in your most successful thread so far, but why ..? why ? my dear friend you should be harsh....As I said earlier all the viewer not necessarily have same opinion for the same photographs..Hope you will AGREE WITH ME for this.

[Ashwin]

You're welcome. You live in an interesting country for photography (always seems to be a lot of colour). You should post more shots.

Thank you Rob for the suggestion, I am glad I am here with you all in this forum.

In last two days I think I have posted not less than 4 Photographs, certainly more are in in finising line, you will have them in short time.

[Ashwin]

HOLI COLOURFUL FESTIVAL OF INDIA

[Antonio Correia]

[carregwen]

HOLI COLOURFUL FESTIVAL OF INDIA

Ha! I see you took my words literally (about the colour) in post #881! Very creative and very, very colourful. Nice one.

[Ashwin]

Ha! I see you took my words literally (about the colour) in post #881! Very creative and very, very colourful. Nice one.

Thank you Rob for your appreciation of my WORK,

Incidently very recently We in India and some of the other Asian countries celebrated This Festival., and the Phoptograph which I have posted is of my Daughter-in-Law enjoying Holi with Colour with her little child Prachi

[Antonio Correia]

Thank you Rob for your appreciation of my WORK, Incidently very recently We in India and some of the other Asian countries celebrated This Festival., and the Phoptograph which I have posted is of my Daughter-in-Law enjoying Holi with Colour with her little child Prachi

Excelent Ashwin ! Then double congrats for the image and the familly !
Great WORK !

[Alis]

The blurring of the left half of the picture, specially the left hand bothers me too. I guess this is where a lens baby would be helpful. right?

The reason I used such a narrow depth of field was that it was around 7 pm, and quite dark already and I did not want to go higher on ISO and he was moving a lot, so I just used ISO 800 and f2.8 for the whole afternoon

[carregwen]

The blurring of the left half of the picture, specially the left hand bothers me too. I guess this is where a lens baby would be helpful. right?

The reason I used such a narrow depth of field was that it was around 7 pm, and quite dark already and I did not want to go higher on ISO and he was moving a lot, so I just used ISO 800 and f2.8 for the whole afternoon

Good shot Ali, but I'm not sure if a little flash fill-light would have lifted it a bit?

[Alis]

Good shot Ali, but I'm not sure if a little flash fill-light would have lifted it a bit?

Thanks, Rob. I did try it but could use more than this. Here is the RAW file again for you or anyone else who wants to give it a shot:

http://www.mediafire.com/?wnownmtgzfi

Cheers!

[Alis]

And here is another one with a somewhat better facial expression:

[carregwen]

Thanks, Rob. I did try it but could use more than this. Here is the RAW file again for you or anyone else who wants to give it a shot:

http://www.mediafire.com/?wnownmtgzfi

Cheers!

Thanks, Ali. I edited in PS/CS4.

RAW STEPS
It was clipped on black so reduced blacks to 0.
Used a little fill light.
Raised exposure a tad
Lifted contrast
Reduced clarity on face only using Adjustment Brush. This is a neat trick to make skin look smoother.

PHOTOSHOP
Cropped to A4 mode
Used Neat Image to reduce half of noise
Selected face and sharpened.
Dodged eye whites a little



I think his face stands out much more now. Nice shot you took.

[carregwen]

Ali

When I downloaded your file it was 23.5MB. I converted to DNG with Adobe converter and it reduced to 19MB - a saving of 20%. Those 5D files are big, do you convert them to save disk space?

[Colin Southern]

Hi Ali,

You've got these down pat now - any career change in the pipeline by any chance?

[Ashwin]

The blurring of the left half of the picture, specially the left hand bothers me too. I guess this is where a lens baby would be helpful. right?

Hi Ali,

I can't fully understand what you requires,
anyhow here is my quick try

[Alis]

Thanks, Ali. I edited in PS/CS4.

RAW STEPS
It was clipped on black so reduced blacks to 0.
Used a little fill light.
Raised exposure a tad
Lifted contrast
Reduced clarity on face only using Adjustment Brush. This is a neat trick to make skin look smoother.

PHOTOSHOP
Cropped to A4 mode
Used Neat Image to reduce half of noise
Selected face and sharpened.
Dodged eye whites a little



I think his face stands out much more now. Nice shot you took.

Thanks, Rob. I love the way you bring out all the natural colors and don't overdo/exaggerate anything. They look nice. I will try your recipe later today to see if I can get the same result.

[Alis]

Ali

When I downloaded your file it was 23.5MB. I converted to DNG with Adobe converter and it reduced to 19MB - a saving of 20%. Those 5D files are big, do you convert them to save disk space?

Once I did this and the DNG file came out at 40MB or so. I think I may have included the RAW file (used that option) but anyway that was my impression always that it increases the size.

I think I can just convert to DNG only and reduce size.

But here is my question: if this is raw data from the sensor, where does that 20% go and what does it carry that is so useless?

[Alis]

Hi Ali,

You've got these down pat now - any career change in the pipeline by any chance?

Thanks, but I think it is still hit and miss for me. And the day job pays well, I may actually get promoted soon, so let's see

[Alis]

Hi Ali,

I can't fully understand what you requires,
anyhow here is my quick try

Thanks, Ashwin. The one on the left looks a llittle bit washed out but between the other two I don't see that much difference at this size but they both look nice!