Thoughts

[Master Mason]

Please give me your honest opinon.

 

[Chikabowa]

Cute pic!

In the color version I see a ton of cyan in her hair, especially around her part. It looks like the original SOOC version was a little underexposed and then brought up in post-process. The cyan color cast does run throughout, so maybe pull a little of that out in curves. I'd warm it up a tad too. Her teeth look pretty overdone as well - did you try and whiten them further in process? If so, it's a little too much.

The B&W conversion is pretty well done. Her skin tone is a little muddy in that one, and I think it needs a tad bit more contrast, but overall, the whites are white and it looks pretty good.

Both look over-sharpened though to me. Are you working on a color calibrated monitor?

 

[jann1033]

i like the setting( very original) and the pose is nice. very cute photo.

the only things that really stand out to me are her facial skin tone looks a little artificial,like either she had a lot of make up on or it was retouched. the color and texture between that and her neck and arms are different.

and i'm not sure about the front sunflower being out of focus. i think if the back one was soft as well it would be a nice soft frame but with the back upper right one pretty sharp in makes it look off to me. and the bright yellow pop draws my eye to the back one and past her. you might be able to blur the background a little more so the contrast between the two is less obvious

 

[Todd_H]

Gregg,
I agree with Susan and Jan about the skin tone looking a tad artificial, but I will just add the comment that you nailed the eyes. This is the hardest thing for me when taking portraits... capturing that "twinkle" and color in the eyes.

Great pic

 

[Master Mason]

Cute pic!

In the color version I see a ton of cyan in her hair, especially around her part. It looks like the original SOOC version was a little underexposed and then brought up in post-process. The cyan color cast does run throughout, so maybe pull a little of that out in curves. I'd warm it up a tad too. Her teeth look pretty overdone as well - did you try and whiten them further in process? If so, it's a little too much.

The B&W conversion is pretty well done. Her skin tone is a little muddy in that one, and I think it needs a tad bit more contrast, but overall, the whites are white and it looks pretty good.

Both look over-sharpened though to me. Are you working on a color calibrated monitor?

No my monitor isn't calibrated, it's one of those things that I keep meaning to work on but never seem to do. I should move it up on my list.

Yes I did whiten the teeth, I'll try and go back and soften it a little.

I didn't bump exposure any in PP, might be due to the heavy shadows that were there, it was about 11am, if I had it to do over again, I would go out at dusk for better natural lighting.

i like the setting( very original) and the pose is nice. very cute photo.

the only things that really stand out to me are her facial skin tone looks a little artificial,like either she had a lot of make up on or it was retouched. the color and texture between that and her neck and arms are different.

and i'm not sure about the front sunflower being out of focus. i think if the back one was soft as well it would be a nice soft frame but with the back upper right one pretty sharp in makes it look off to me. and the bright yellow pop draws my eye to the back one and past her. you might be able to blur the background a little more so the contrast between the two is less obvious

The skin is a little of both I think, I told her in advance I was taking pictures, so I think she went a little more heavy than she normally would, and then I'm a total novice at doing the PP, so I'm sure I screwed it up as well.

Gregg,
I agree with Susan and Jan about the skin tone looking a tad artificial, but I will just add the comment that you nailed the eyes. This is the hardest thing for me when taking portraits... capturing that "twinkle" and color in the eyes.

Great pic

Thanks, that was my major focus when I was taking the shoots, get the eyes in perfect focus, I actually managed to do so in a number of shots, unfortunately most of them were the ones she wasn't smiling in.

 

[MICKEY88]

if you want to make processing portraits, easy, check out Portrait Professional..it is awesome software,

if you miss focus on the eyes, you can easily sharpen them, you can change eye color, lip color, open eyes more if they are partially closed....

it is incredible..

 

[Gdad]

Gregg- To add to what has been said is I find the busy background and forground somewhat distracting. I think a little more subject isolation with a wider aperture would help. It also has a very processed feel to it- I would like to see an un-touched-up version.

Mickey88- Do you have any of those out-of-focus, new-eye-color, new-lip-color, eyes-opened before & after shots you could share?

 

[MICKEY88]

Gregg- To add to what has been said is I find the busy background and forground somewhat distracting. I think a little more subject isolation with a wider aperture would help. It also has a very processed feel to it- I would like to see an un-touched-up version.

Mickey88- Do you have any of those out-of-focus, new-eye-color, new-lip-color, eyes-opened before & after shots you could share?

not online, but as soon as I find a few I'll get them online to share..

 

[MICKEY88]

this one was a candid of a friend at work, she asked if I could get rid of wrinkles..so I did

http://www.starrrshots.com/p805640731/h1f8b0eb5#h1f8b0eb5


this one was an impromptu test shoot after a jewelry shoot I did, my friend saw the pics and said next time she'd make sure she was wearing makeup and lipstick, so again I had to play...

http://www.starrrshots.com/p731094844

this was from the jewelry shoot, the jewelry maker told this woman that we needed to use younger models because she looks too old..

so we went to extremes with this one..

http://www.starrrshots.com/p891146743

all processing is done with a series of sliders, and can be done to varying degrees

 

[jann1033]

this one was a candid of a friend at work, she asked if I could get rid of wrinkles..so I did

http://www.starrrshots.com/p805640731/h1f8b0eb5#h1f8b0eb5


this one was an impromptu test shoot after a jewelry shoot I did, my friend saw the pics and said next time she'd make sure she was wearing makeup and lipstick, so again I had to play...

http://www.starrrshots.com/p731094844

this was from the jewelry shoot, the jewelry maker told this woman that we needed to use younger models because she looks too old..

so we went to extremes with this one..

http://www.starrrshots.com/p891146743

all processing is done with a series of sliders, and can be done to varying degrees

so what happened to the jewelry maker after he/she said that? broken limbs, black eyes?
actually they look pretty natural. i had to run the second one through a few times till i noticed the eye color change.

 

[MICKEY88]

so what happened to the jewelry maker after he/she said that? broken limbs, black eyes?
actually they look pretty natural. i had to run the second one through a few times till i noticed the eye color change.

lucky for the jewelry maker, he is in Oklahoma,

I did the shoot for free for my friend,[ the woman he complained about, and who also has sold a few thousand dollars worth of his stuff to friends of hers..} I supplied a second model and spent 2 days shooting...I told her to tell him that if he wants younger models, I'll get them and hire a makeup artist... and he can then pay 100 per hour for me and 50 per hour for the young models,