Attuned

Leave a comment if you like, thanks.

/Martin.

Unusual and strange beauty. Perfect exposure.

Thank you sir!:) glad you liked it.

Regards Martin.

This is a very striking shot for a number of reasons, not the least of which the beauty of the model. Your wife, yes?

The paint on her face. Is that symbolizing anything. or is it random and just very cool. I have looked over you work some and plan on spending much more time looking, but I think your work in general is very good.

You have a ability to capture very real images of very beautiful faces.

Regards, Todd 

Hey Todd and thank you. Yes it is my wife, thank you. I am very happy to have her help me out in my work even if i annoy the s..... out of her at times hehe. She is happy when she sees the result most of the times though;)

Thank you also for making this your favorite !

/regards Martin.

Martin,

Strong image. I like all the lines in various layers throughout the picture. Great tonality, exposure spot on. Thanks for this one.

Rick

Thank you Rick for you fine comment! 

/Martin.

Martin,

Your wife is indeed a beautiful girl. She has very good eye contact with the camera (viewer) and her expression is very good. I like her skin tone. The Hollywood (butterfly) lighting works very well. She has good catchlights and excellent specular highlights on her lower lip. The compositional balance is very good. The dark clothing on her sides helps to cover the fact that you posed her straight on to the camera. It doesn't appear to hurt the image at all.

You have focused very well on her eyes, but the large light area in the left (her right) foreground draws the viewer's attention away from your subject. It also draws attention because it is out of focus. An out of focus background works because it usually makes your subject stand out. The same is not usually true for a foreground.

She has done a very nice job of applying her make-up, but the white on the inner half of her lower eyelids looks a tad out of place. It just doesn't seem to go with the rest of her make-up. Maybe I am getting a strange reflection from that area?

Her chest is quite light. It is as light, or even lighter, than her forehead. This draws the viewer's attention to the lower part of your image. Because her dark clothing doesn't come together at the bottom, the viewer's eyes will go down and out the of frame -- there is nothing there to stop it.

You have lost some detail in her dark hair and in her top -- especially the shoulders of her top. A backlight would have helped to separate her better from the background.

Nice shot,

Mark

Thank you Mark. This is the very reason why being a member of a group like this is so giving. First of all i am glad and very happy you liked it and took an interest in my photograph. I know i have come a long way in my photography since i started and especially technically with PS and composition etc. My niche if anything would be B/W photography and documentary or people.

I think lately i worked a lot with portraits of all kinds mostly because i dont have as much time any longer and my wife and kids become the main models of my shooting hehe.

That has lead me to explore new things( for me) like using alot more flashes, and PS techniques than i used to work with in past. For me number one was ALWAYS the feeling and atmosphere and the meaning, and i very rarely used anything more than natural lighting and a reflector at the most. Also in PS i used as little as i could to retain the natural documentary feeling of my photograph. Then if focus was not perfect or the color or tone was not perfect i could not care less.

However i have swayed a little bit from that path as i have started taking photographs of models and more portraits for others both professionally and for my own work. But that also meant criticizing myself more and more and trying to get better when it comes to the technical side of photography. Therefor critique such as yours now Mark is very important to me. I get sloppy at times and even though i know some parts might be a tiny bit burnt out or too dark i still say leave it at times even though i could easily take care of it. In this photograph though i worked with a lot  of different filters etc to try and get the best "look" of her skin. I wanted her to kind of glow both in her face and on her chest. So that WAS my intention. However it was also a little burned out from beginning in the necklace and some other areas in the tree(foreground)

Also in contrast i wanted her black top to be very dark in contrast to almost let her "come" out from the shadows in that tree and really isolate her features. I tried not to get it totally sooted out in the black areas and kept a close look on the histogram and to me they were not in danger but just on the border. Its pretty dark though i know:)

The makeup she put on herself and yes, i agree with that the reflection there, the silver lining she used actually take the attention away from the rest:)

About the foreground( tree) being not in focus that is something i experimented with and i did not think it would take too much away from the shot but merely would help frame it. She is standing Inside of a huge oaktree also, so it was a little hard getting the right light. This is also just natural light and we were just passing that tree when i got my idea for this shot. Still i am very happy for your comments and your critique. I will take it all in and use it the next time to try and perfect my work.

Thanks a lot Mark.

/regards Martin.