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Caroline
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Would appreciate some feedback on this one – processing style, composition, contrast, etc. Not sure if I’m finished with it or not. Thanks.
Edit: just changed url of the image.
Hi Stas,
The first thing that stands out is the blue. Maybe you want this effect but it seems too strong to me. (The ‘whites’ of her eyes are blue!) Is there a lot of sharpening applied? If so, less might do.
I’m also wondering about the tuft of hair falling towards her mouth. It has a very blunt edge – as if some cloning/retouching has been done.
Otherwise, the general composition is good and she seems relaxed.
I hope this helps.Regards.
Tom.
Hey stas
This is way off in terms of colour – it looks like you boosted saturation in her eyes – but its way too much – as mentioned even the white of her eyes are off tone. And the curl of hair splittling her face is in a awkward spot ( Sorry) She has amazing looks – skin and hair .. and I’m sure if you find a more subtle background to shoot against – something to compliment her colouring – you could get a great sht of her – she’s gorgeous !!
L
Hi Tom, hi Lorraine (long time!), apologies for delay, was away over the weekend. Your replies are very helpful.
Had a quick look on my screen last night and the whites really are blue aren’t they! Didn’t see it at the time; so that’s a good indicator. And reviewing it again, saturation could come down a bit too.
Sharpening was applied (both capture and output) and to be honest I’m still having difficulties in working out the best settings, it’s mostly a ‘that looks OK.. I think’. I use Lightroom (2.1) and have never used PSCS – most people giving tips on sharpening refer to PSCS which means little to me. But tips on sharpening in LR2 are welcome.
No cloning/retouching at all except for healing a tiny spot on her chin.
I asked for someone’s opinion on it – they thought the model looked frightened! Just goes to show!
I did go for a certain look actually, but getting it right will take more practice and tweaking. I’ll probably go over this one from scratch and come back to the processing style another time. I do prefer to post in this way (rarely though it has been), as in without setting expectations; as it’s a litmus test – people come with whichever way they see it, and either get it or show me that I’m way off. Also shows how a good photo can be destroyed or enhanced on the quality of processing – and something I know I need to spend more time on.
So for a bit of context, I was aiming for a slightly old/retro slide film look. The model’s skin is very pale and I just couldn’t seem to get it right by processing normally – i.e. just firming up tones, contrast, brightness etc etc, so tried something different. It was taken before a show (she’s a singer) in the street outside the theatre and the blue background was the wall of a house. So timing wasn’t ideal, and I shot from the most appealing angle for light without having to use fill (limited choice for background given the location). There wasn’t really the time to orchestrate much such as getting someone to hold a reflector (which I did have with me but left in the car).
“Hair & make-up – model’s own” (no wigs were harmed in the making of this pic) :lol:
I did play around a bit with black & white but found the eyes were much too dark, couldn’t lighten them to my liking.
Hi Stas,
I’m no expert by any means in either portraiture or LR (though I use it) so I’m just exercising a personal judgement, too, on what I think works. I suppose it’s what we all do really. Not easy to find objective standards in photography – or most creative forms.
So with that I mind, I opened your pic in LR.
I made the following (principal) adjustments:
Changed temperature to -28
Set Vibrance (LR’s control for skin tones) to +28
In the Colour tab, I highlighted Blue and set Saturation to -70 and Luminance to -4
Then converted to Greyscale using LR’s auto conversion
Set Fill Light to 50 and Point Curve to Medium ContrastThe result (which started with a low-res file, admittedly) is this:
I think scotty38886’s suggestion of a B&W conversion may work. The blue is around the edges of the eye sockets as well so it’s difficult to adjust in colour.
I agree with your earlier sentiments: good exercise and thanks for sharing the image and being open to helping us all learn together.
Regards.
Tom – much obliged to you – that’s great, settings included.
It shows that different people see different things. I’m usually disappointed with LR’s auto conversion so tend to leave it alone! And run through a ton of presets instead. But running through them doesn’t help when what a picture really needs is a bit of time – and a few ideas.
Enjoying this learning curve – thanks again for the constructive input.
Colour too red, B+W better but skin still need some work done softer, girl skin cant be shown like that.
do you using any software? PS gaussian blur 6 pix with pattern 40% if you have raw of this picture I can show you.
I’m using Lightroom, and I don’t use PS (I mentioned it above, also in my profile), however that’s a useful tip for any PS users out there. I could try taking this one to LightZone for a change maybe, for the softening.
Took some time out tonight to play about with this one again. Decided to ditch my attempted sylised (or stylized) processing in favour of something more conventional.
I tried some black & white and will probably come back to it – Tom, your conversion is much better than mine! Following your (principal) adjustments the results were, err, very scary! Sheesh – especially the eyes! Whhooaa! :lol: Yes your starting point was different to mine – maybe I should just export it in hi res, re-import it & play with that instead!!
I did a bunch of stuff including the ‘soften skin’ under the adjustment brushes that I hadn’t really taken much notice of before. It basically sets Clarity to -100, which made her look very plastic so I reduced it to something more tolerable. There’s also various bits of selective desaturation, brightening, contrast etc.
So here we are – where to next? I seem to lack judgement for half this stuff and really appreciate your input.
I’ve been looking at this for a couple of days and just have not had a chance to comment.
I’ll try to just comment on your first post. I think it’s too sharp and too saturated , the white of her eyes look cyan and the iris un-natural. The background colour does not sit well with her natural colouring.. it just looks a bit gawdy I think.
I agree with LoGill about her looks and shooting her with a more subtle backdrop.
And, I think her pale skin is lovely, I also think it would suit the type of look you were after. I processed some portraits like that a while back, used a lightroom preset and then adjusted with the colour balance sliders in PS, (I’m sure there is a way of doing that in LR too). I think maybe if I were shooting her, I might have thought of making her hair more of a feature, but the tight composition you chose has kinda cut the side of her away… I think portraits don’t always have to be about the eyes.
Sorry if this is blunt… but I really appreciated some advice you gave me a while back and I hope this helps.
Sinead.
Sinead if my name was Frank then I’d be Frank with you but it’s not so I’ll just be plain old fashioned honest :lol: – I prefer the straight talk approach myself so take everything you said with respect and pragmatism. So thank you ;).
I appreciate your interest and all the comments – yes it helps.
The backdrop has fallen out with everyone, which surprised me all told; I thought it would in some way go with the blue of her eyes and the red hair. But hey I’m a bloke – what do I know about complimentary colours! :lol: Seriously though, appears to have been a bad idea altogether (see my post above about shoot scenario) though I was limited in the circumstance. I should negotiate more with people!
The pale skin I’m finding difficult to get right as it’s very pale and slightly pinkish.
The composition is a crop of this – which is slightly cropped itself owing to rotation. My crop – as you correctly deduced – was mainly about the eyes. Thoughts on this take?
Anyway, really got to get going now… Cyndi Lauper just wants to have fun! :lol:
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