First portrait shoot - 3

Working my way through the labyrinth of Portrait photography..... learn,

learn, learn. All help appreciated.

Regards

The light is right, the model is so cute and the possibilities for a good picture is right. But the sharpness of the eyes is missing. But that's my opinion.

Best Regards

It's certainly a good idea to have a beautiful subject. I pretty much agree with Thorleif. The focus does seem to be on the middle of her head. The hair in front of her face and eyes is distracting.

Gorgeous subject with a genuine smile. Good crop and exposure (maybe 1/3 stop under?). Needs a basic retouch--loose hair is driving me nuts! Face is just a bit dark as well.

EDIT: BTW, the eyes are sharp--it's the lack of fill that makes them look otherwise.

Hi Guys...... thank you so much for your input..... wow you have keen eyes.

Les, thanks for your edited version..... a good improvement.

All your comments have been taken on board for my next shoot.... that's if I pluck up the courage.

Appreciate your time.

Regards 

Grayham,

Indeed, she is a beautiful girl! You can't go very wrong with using her as your subject. I looked at your blown-up version and my eyes must be getting even worse then I thought they were. Her eyes looks sharp to me. Perhaps the left eye is an angstrom unit sharper. She does have a lovely smile.

Les did a very nice job of removing those unruly hairs across her face. She does need a little more exposure and perhaps her face is a tad on the red side.

She also needs more light on her eyes. Your main light must be coming from above her creating shadows on her eye.

Notice the multiple reflections on her eyes. A nice single catchlight per eye on her irises would be better.

You could crop a tad off the right side. You want to compositionally balance the left and right sides of the photograph. The compositional "rule" for this suggests that you position the tip of the subject's nose in the vertical center of the photograph. By positioning the tip of her nose in the vertical center of the photograph you not only have her facing into the picture, but you have good left and right compositional balance. This little rule almost always works well. At least it gives you a good starting point from which to subtly adjust your composition to make it visually balanced.

Because of your relatively tight crop on the bottom I would consider cropping in a little more on top. I think it would give you a bit better top and bottom compositional balance. 

Nice shot,

Mark

Grayham,

  I did a little bit to it in Lightroom lightened it up and sharpened it.  In Photoshop I sharpened around the eyes, made her teeth lighter and worked on the eyes a bit.  There are some good tutorials here on PN on post processing and retouching.  I like Les's take on it too.  I took it in a different direction and sharpened it.  I removed the multiple catch lights in the eyes.

My dear, really a wonderful portrait!

Grayham...  A real scroll stopper; what a beautiful young lady!  The other guys have all given you excellent advice and I really like Les' version.  Regardless, well done... Mike

Hi Mark.... thanks for your visit and very constructive comments. I like your re-touching, and your comments make sense. I have no idea where the catchlights came from as we were in a park at about 11am. Never-the-less, I take on board your advice and see how I do on my next shoot.

Thanks again.

Regards

My model just gets better and better. Thanks for your visit and I will certainly look at the PN tutorials. Love the retouches you have done.

Thanks again

Regards

Maurizio and Michael....... thank you for your kind comments. Yes she certainly is a "show stopper".... must have been for me to pluck up the courage to ask for a picture.

Thanks again.

Regards

Very good portrait and very beautiful girl, well done!

...... praise from you is like praise from Caesar... thank you so much.

Regards

Wonderful capture, so charming .. it's really what it's all about, bravo. 

Fabrizio and John........ thank you so much for your visit and kind words.

Regards to you both.

Excellent !

Can I say I love this beautiful girl ?  :))

Regards , Dan

Thanks for visiting Dan. The sad thing here is that I met her and her Mum in a park... asked if I could take a few shots and away they went. I never even got her name........... so no repeat shoots! Life is a little unfair (smiles).

Regards

Beautiful girl, fantastic portrait. Clearly over analyzed. I like all versions with the exception of John's version. It clearly looks faked. Skin texture is bad.

........ thank you for your visit.

I have learned a lot from the comments received here and hopefully remember them during my next shoot.

Thanks for stopping by.

Regards

Perfect beauty with a bit underexposed to make it mysterious and more gorgeous!!!  Warm regards.

Thank you so much for your visit and kind comments. What struck me the most about this young girl was that her lovely smile extended to her eyes. This prompted me to find the courage to ask her/mum for a shoot. Wish I'd kept in touch.

Regards

Extremely nice young lady. Good shot! All the so called retouches failed completely -there's nothing to improve.

Thanks for your visit and kind comments. I learned a lot from the posters to this image and I appreciated their interest in commenting and assisting this "fledgeling" portrait photographer.

Thanks again for stopping by

Regards

Well I agree with John Peri (as usual) and Charly K. For me the slightly random effect of the stray hair gives it a great sense of natural reality. The exposure - viewed on my Mac (calibrated) screen - is spot-on: you could increase the dynamic range (you're not using the top 15 levels) but more exposure would degrade the highlights. You could lighten the eyes and sharpen the lashes slightly but you would have to be very careful to avoid the hyped advertising-shot effect.

With such a beautiful subject all you need to do is engage and capture her in a charming shot and you have done that perfectly.

Best wishes,  Jonathan