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3 portraits for review
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Here are 3 portraits for critique review – (boardsies may have already seen them)
Any pointers to what is wrong with them – or – even better how to fix them would be appreciated.
These were the first ones I did in a studio so the lighting is a bit heavy. Plus I made the mistake of not shooting in raw. Linking to the images doesnt seem to be working today so here are links instead.
Portrait II Colour
http://www.deviantart.com/view/33811285/
Portrait III –
http://www.deviantart.com/view/33875026/
Portrait IV BW
http://www.deviantart.com/view/34000370/Three red X’s Gerard. The URLs work but you’ll probably have to link from another site or just give the three links.
You can probably see them yourself as they are cached.Dammitt ! ok – cheers will check now in a min – I think sometimes devart doesnt like being hotlinked to.
I like the last one… but in general, I’m not fond of the “blow out your portrait with tons and tons of light” technique.
My favourite is the third image, much prefer the post processing over the last two and of course it’s
emotive and what i do best ;).The first two seem a bit over cooked for my liking, would love to see the originals
as the lighting is interesting and i don’t know how much post processing you’ve done on them.I’ll comment on the third. This is not even a critique – more suggestions.
– The depth of field seems a bit too shallow. She has gorgeous eyes and you probably
wanted the viewer to focus on them – you definitely achieved this but i would have liked
to see her entire face sharp.
– I would have probably cropped from the start of her hair on the left and added
more negative space to the right.
-Love the catch lights in the eyes.
– Lighting is nice
– Very nice expression – which of course is the making of every portrait ;) I wonder what she was thinking, hmmmmmm….Well done.
Thanks for that. I just tried that crop and it seems to look better your way. The dof is photoshop blur on an inverted selection around her eye – the original wasnt as extreme dof.
PS she was probably thinking “ah, this time no lens cap weeee !”
I like the last one the best.
The first one had way too much light for me but i did like the pose
I have to go and find her to tell he she is all over the web ( I work with her)
kenmurphy wrote:
I like the last one the best.
The first one had way too much light for me but i did like the pose
I have to go and find her to tell he she is all over the web ( I work with her)
Think you will find that she knows that already !
I douth that you would put anybody up on the web with outh their permission or knowledge.
I did have a look at your web site and there are some very good shots of her realy brings out the persionality
Third one’s the best. As has been said the first two are just blown out far too much, and the soft focus effect is overkill…personally I dislike soft focus portraits, but that’s just me.
On the third one the shadow area above her left eye is far too dark for such a high key photo, pop a fill light in there at about one third power or use a reflector to lighten the area. By it being so dark in relation to the overall tone of the image you’re creating an area for the eye to focus on. Also, by being so close and looking down you’ve exagerrated her forehead. The forehead is roughly around the same length as the length of your nose from tip to between the eyebrows, and tip of the nose to chin area…in your photo her forehead is out of proportion and takes up too much prominence IMHO.
For headshots it’s better to get in close with by using a longer lens, flattens perspective and lessens distortions. Best results are usually taken from a teeny tiny bit above eye-level and ever so slightly looking down (a general rule, and designed to be broken). Typical portrait lens, for head shots, would be around the 150-200 on medium format film cameras which is about 70-100 on digital; I prefer the longer end of the range, but again that’s personal. For full lengths 80mm is cool on medium format (around 35 on digital, I think), if there’s a ‘scene’ to go with the full length portrait then go as wide as you dare.
Check out Karsh, Ritts, Penn, Avedon and Horst stylee portrait work:
http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=Yousuf+Karsh&ndsp=18&svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&start=0&sa=N
http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=herb+ritts&ndsp=18&svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&start=0&sa=N
yadda yadda.
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