Contrast...

What do you think, I tried to harshen this one up? Does it add

interest or ruin it?

I was running through the critique forum and this shot caught my eye. I like it, but it has lost or maybe gained something a little unattractive on the face. I did the same thing on a photo and can't figure out how to fix it. Still it's a good shot.

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Thanks Janis, I think it is one of those things people will either love or hate, not much middle ground. Here is a link to another version, and also the original.

 

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=4403221

 

Your shot looks nice, some times a digital noise filter will take out grain from a shot, to me this shot looks great.

 

On my shot I intensionally tried to make it a bit more harsh.

I really like the heavy contrast, Jason. The only thing that bothers me are her teeth. I wonder if there is a way to smooth(I can't think of a better word.) them out a little.

 

Dawn

Thanks Dawn, I had left them because I thought it added to the edginess (my own word) of this shot. Are you talking about the contours or color or something else relative to the teeth?

 

Thanks

Jason, I do like the contour. Its surface of her two front teeth they seem rough. I'm wondering if maybe its something related to resizing for the web.

I know she has a few chips in the top teeth. Thanks for stopping by and commenting Dawn.

People either love high-contrast or hate it, it seems. I like high contrast, but it's hard to do it well without blotchiness in the skin tones. You could try doing layering to bring back some of the original areas at a lower percentage of opacity to help solve that. I would definitely consider bringing back the teeth from the original layer as they do look kind of rough. The shot does have edginess, which you were going for. Would you post the original for comparison?

Kim, here is the original. This shot was taken in the bleachers at my son's lacrosse game using a 170-500mm lens at 170mm.