I've See The Light

This is a promotional shot for my sister who has overcome incredible

obstacles in her life through and had finally "Seen The Light" through

the practice of Kundalini yoga and is now an instructor. I was hoping

to catch and portray her new state of being. Thanks for your time and

any constructive comments.

Peter,

I am happy that your sister is doing better. I hope she continues to improve. Her make-up looks very nice -- quite natural -- a little eyeliner under her eyes would help to frame them and make her eyes stand out even more. All the better for seeing the "light"?

I am assuming you are going for an ethereal feeling by using very light tones. I think it would be more effective with more detail in her robe and with added contrast. The picture looks a little washed out to me.

I would like her head tilted up more so that she is looking more toward the upper left corner (the light). She looks like she is looking a little below the "light".

One catchlight per eye is preferred. Remember, she is seeing the light -- not the lights.

It appears you have focused on the eye nearest the camera (although, I am not sure it is in critical focus) which is what you are supposed to do. Your depth of field is so narrow that her far eye is clearly out of focus. It is not suppose to matter if the far eye is somewhat out of focus, if the near eye is in focus. The reasoning is that psychologically the viewer will consider the picture to be in focus if the eye nearest him or her is in focus. I'm not so sure this is true.  I don't see a good reason to have any of her out of focus. An out of focus background is very nice and focuses attention on your subject. Parts of your subject out of focus will draw attention away from what is in focus. It is difficult to go wrong with having the entire subject in focus. There is no doubt that you should focus on the eye nearest the camera, but I think your depth of field should be deep enough to cover all of your subject whenever possible.

I have increased the contrast and exposure a bit. I like the effect better.

Nice shot,

Mark

Mark,

Thank you very much for the great input. It definitely looks better with more prominent shadows in the robe. As you stated, I was going for an ethereal look and haven't worked with portraits all that much and I probably went too far. I will also work on having the entire face in focus - I agree that only partial focus on the face is distracting.

Thanks again for the great tips,

Pete

I like the image, Did you post one of the unedited versions???

Bravo"

Shenandoah,

Thanks for the encouragement. Here is the original.

Pete../photodb/photo?photo_id=12073499

Here is another attempt at adding the photo.

Very elegant portrait!

Maurizio, Thank you so much for the compliment which I regard espcially highly after viewing your wonderful work!