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

[Katy Noelle]

...here she is again - more practicing



I am thinking one of you very clever gentleman might know how to 'fix' that 'too bright' area of hair in post processing....?

Kay, may I just say.... she is so beautiful!

[revi]

...here she is again - more practicing

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I am thinking one of you very clever gentleman might know how to 'fix' that 'too bright' area of hair in post processing....?

Sorry, I don't have a solution.
I do have a question: did you use mixed lighting here (flash/daylight + incandescenct lamps)? I'm asking as the spot in the hair and her left shoulder (camera right) look a bit warmer than the rest (especially visible in Sahil's edit).

Also (but this is more a question for Colin and other portrait experts): would it help to ask the model to pull her shoulders (shoulderblades) back and down (and then relax again, of course) to improve posture. I know it is what they ask of ballet dancers to get the right posture.

Otherwise another very nice portrait of a pretty young lady

Regards,

Remco

[Antonio Correia]

A special birthday moment Nasseem

Thank you Naseem for posting here.
She is very cute, the little girl... Three years old. Nice age with lots of time in the future
But Naseem she doesn't seem very interested or involved in the scene. It looks like she was told to look at the candles because you were going to take a picture of her.
And you could have done a better work. Not that this one is bad, no not at all this is quite interesting and you will keep it in your memory for a long time.
And how could you have done a better shot ? For example lighting the candles, telling her to blow them gently while you were making 6 shots in sequence.
Well, this is just a suggestion and please don't be mad at me.
Oh, and something else: move her to the shadow as you can get better light, more subtle, more gentle, more appropriated to the moment.

[Antonio Correia]

Hi tihsgod, This is a very nice shot. The posture of the subject, concentrating on the board and the lighting is overall excellent. He is very deep into the game. I can't believe this was posed, it is so natural. Very nice! A few things though: the focus is right on the the subject but the shallow depth of field and the position of the camera has put the focus on the wrong place over the board unfortunately. Also, beside the guy in the background, there is a white band going down which is too distracting. I am not sure if you can take it out without damaging the image. I would also get rid of the thing (I guess a finger) on the table on the right side. I guess, while trying to avoid that object, whatever it is, you cut the subject too much. We like to see a little bit more of his right side. Also, although the lighting is nice overall, the skin on top of his head is over exposed, in a raw capture that would be easy to fix. Nice job!

I absolutely agree with what Ali said

Thank you Ali for the help in my busy days.

This is portrait with a story. It tells us something about the subject and what he is up to. Almost very good
A little more and we have a great shot Neil Care to re-shoot ?

[Antonio Correia]

Hi Ali, thanks for your comments, very useful...

1. It was not posed this was some candid work...
2. framing was very difficult it was very busy around there so I am pretty happy with getting a pretty clean image all considered.
3. There was a large beaker on the table which I already shopped out so I think that after cleaning that I did not worry about the arm that is on the table but I do understand your point.
4. yes the top of his head is overexposed and i could have (should have) done a better job on that.
5. the white band I can also follow to an extent and maybe I could have blended that in a little to flatten it.

tx neil

I think Neil that to avoid all these problems you have to shoot many pictures to get one very good. Sometimes none. Then you got repeat the process.
I should day: concenter on a subject and shoot over and over until the right shot appears.
No, I don't mean to shoot at ramdom. No. I mean with commitment, concern and concentration.
Nice and good photos just - usually - don't pop out of the camera that easily.

[Antonio Correia]

Hi Katy, I think this is actually pretty sharp, of course at the size you posted here. I am sure it could use a bit of sharpening in PS, but it is not bad at all. I can't see the EXIF data so can't tell if it was the setting or the shaking floor that made most of your pictures blurry but if you were a newbie this is pretty good. The image is a nice picture overall, and I am sure brings back good memories. Of course, the left side is over exposed, and the right side has shadows in the face around the eye. One of the way you can prevent this is by using a reflector since the light from the left (guessing a window) is pretty bright. Also bouncing the flash off something on the right side would be another option although as far as I can tell the walls are far away on that side. The other option is a detached flash, wireless or a cable long enough to position it a bit to the right of the camera. But it is too late for any of these. If this is a raw capture you may be able to use the gradient tool to balance the exposure on both sides. Also, the crop is too tight, cutting through the right hand and the book she is holding. The alternative cropping would have put her off center which would have been nicer in my opinion. The color is also a bit off, looks to warm to me although you may have wanted it that way I think Ashwin is flattening his version as we speak and will soon post it here

Thank you Ali again
And also thank you to Katy for posting here
You can do better now - these days - Katy. For that time, it was just fine. Now, you are more demanding and that is good.

[Antonio Correia]

Kay, may I just say.... she is so beautiful!

Man's opinion: yes Madam, she is indeed very beautiful and young

[Antonio Correia]

...here she is again - more practicing

I am thinking one of you very clever gentleman might know how to 'fix' that 'too bright' area of hair in post processing....?

Thank you Kay for posting here
I don't see in my monitor any "too bright" area. For me everything is OK except ... oh my God she is going to be mad at me and I begin to be traumatized ... perhaps ... I say perhaps to soften things ... perhaps ... shell I say it ? ... perhaps ... yes I am going to say it ... a little bit too much blur on her face. Uff I said it. What is it going to happen ? Is she going away because of me ? Oh no. I don't want that... What shall I do ? Will she ever forgive me ?

[wilgk]

Thankyou all for commenting...
Remco - yes absolutely all sorts of mixed lighting, but that is all that I have to try and learn the effects of positioning of lights and reflectors as Colin showed us with the 'real thing' in his portrait school lesson #6...so you are 'spot on' and yes I think 1 of the lights was too close and with no soft boxes etc - this is the result.
But for my learning I was happy to achieve no shadows on her face by moving everything around.

Sahil - Thankyou for trying to fix the bright area..I think we see maybe my own earlier bad attempts at fixing it show through - but the lesson here for me is very helpful again as it 'highlights' what Colin was trying to teach us, that is what the lights can do and where/how to place them.

Katy - Thankyou I will tell her

and Dear Antonio of course she will not go away (maybe to University soon but that is here in our town ) your honest comments are what we post here for and you may be surprised but she agreed with you.
So again lesson learnt for me, I think I was so pleased to learn this new technique from my photoshop book, that I perhaps 'overdid' it's effect....the friend who posed for me last week was 30 years old and though everyone else liked her pictures, she could see 'too much detail' if that makes sesne which sent me on this skin softening tangent.....but again good lesson as I am sure Colin would tell me.
Ladies of 30 years and 18 years do not need the same treatment
So next lesson for me is to reprocess one of my 'older' friend and see how that looks.

Thankyou all again - so very much.

[Alis]

...here she is again - more practicing



I am thinking one of you very clever gentleman might know how to 'fix' that 'too bright' area of hair in post processing....?

I can confirm what Antonio saw on his monitor, I do not see any too bright areas on her hair. Overall, I think you did very well Kay. She seems to be a very patient model. If I were you, I would try some of those unusual poses Colin usually likes. Of course you can come up with your own. A little bit more energy, different backgrounds.

One comment though (those were suggestions!): Before you shoot, I guess you have to pay more attention to the stray hair. Specially, on her shoulder, there is "just the wrong amount of hair"! I mean if there was a lot of her hair over there, that would be nice, no hair at all would be nice also, but just a few like this means you did not paid attention to that. Also with the close tool set to lighten, you should be able to easily clean rest of the stray hair around the head, if you are bored and want to practice

And finally, I agree with Antonio that the effect you were going for on the other version was overdone as you said yourself. The general rule is to always go down 10-15 percent less that what you think is enough! I don't think she needed any of that anyway

[Ashwin]

Thankyou Ashwin for working on the image and Ali for your comments.
The levels are much more balanced to me now - and she does apply a 'skin bronzing' type product, so yes as the Mum I agree with you...'too tanned', (the joys of teenagers) but as an appreciation of pp being used to better show what was there....it is perfect
Thankyou both again for your time.

Thank you for your appreciation of PP work, I have only done what I thought was required to look picture better

[Ashwin]

Hi Katy,

I think this is actually pretty sharp, of course at the size you posted here. I am sure it could use a bit of sharpening in PS, but it is not bad at all.

I can't see the EXIF data so can't tell if it was the setting or the shaking floor that made most of your pictures blurry but if you were a newbie this is pretty good.

The image is a nice picture overall, and I am sure brings back good memories. Of course, the left side is over exposed, and the right side has shadows in the face around the eye. One of the way you can prevent this is by using a reflector since the light from the left (guessing a window) is pretty bright. Also bouncing the flash off something on the right side would be another option although as far as I can tell the walls are far away on that side. The other option is a detached flash, wireless or a cable long enough to position it a bit to the right of the camera. But it is too late for any of these. If this is a raw capture you may be able to use the gradient tool to balance the exposure on both sides.

Also, the crop is too tight, cutting through the right hand and the book she is holding. The alternative cropping would have put her off center which would have been nicer in my opinion.

The color is also a bit off, looks to warm to me although you may have wanted it that way

I think Ashwin is flattening his version as we speak and will soon post it here

Hi Ali,Antonio,Katy,

Your comments please

[Ashwin]

...here she is again - more practicing



I am thinking one of you very clever gentleman might know how to 'fix' that 'too bright' area of hair in post processing....?

How would you like this...

[Alis]

Hi Ali,Antonio,Katy,

Your comments please

Hi Ashwin,

Looks good. I would not apply sharpening or at least that much of it to the skin of the face. I think it is exaggerated in a not so flattering way. I think sharpening the eyes and the hair would be just enough.

As for the background, I would actually apply some blur to it to make it a bit less noticeable. Not too much so that one can tell she is sitting in a place like church with others around her.

I think the sharpening on the dress and the book (Bible?) is just fine.

[Ashwin]

Hi Ashwin,

Looks good. I would not apply sharpening or at least that much of it to the skin of the face. I think it is exaggerated in a not so flattering way. I think sharpening the eyes and the hair would be just enough.

As for the background, I would actually apply some blur to it to make it a bit less noticeable. Not too much so that one can tell she is sitting in a place like church with others around her.

I think the sharpening on the dress and the book (Bible?) is just fine.

Thank you Ali for your comments, actually I had blurred the background, but I did not found much difference, here it is with blurred background.

Just to show the wrinkles on her old age face I sharpned complete face....To me sharpening does not look bad..

[Antonio Correia]

I use this picture - among others - in my classes to demonstrate the DoF

[wilgk]

How would you like this...

Thankyou Ashwin
I would consider that perfect processing! - I am sad now as I will never get to know how to do this good .....and I cannot even bake scones to send you in return.

[Alis]

I use this picture - among others - in my classes to demonstrate the DoF

Nice one, Antonio! Hopefully you give them the EXIF data when you talk about it...it is not included in the file.

What gear?

[Henrik]

Thank you Ali for your comments, actually I had blurred the background, but I did not found much difference, here it is with blurred background.

Hi Ashwin,
I like this version very much. Could you explain to me, how exactly you did the blurring? Works extremely well without affecting the lady or the bench behind her.
Regards, Henrik

[Antonio Correia]

Nice one, Antonio! Hopefully you give them the EXIF data when you talk about it...it is not included in the file. What gear?

Canon 20D + 70-200 f/2.8 LUSM @ 200 m - f / 3.5 - 1 / 100 - 400 ISO Aperture priority
Outside, cloudy day