Wonder

Yes, I HAVE been taking pictures since I got back from Alaska. I

am interested in learning more about portrait work. Talk to me

about this one. Any comments or ratings are appreciated!

Thanks!!

more sharpness

Imo a portrait doesn't always have to be sharp. Grains, dust and what so ever can very well be used, but I think this little boy has too much light in his face and have you tryed another cropping? ½ to 2/3 down in his hair will make his look stronger. If it is possible try to do another lightning (not flash from the front)when you do portraits. Just proposals.

those eyes!!! but why so grainy? Intentionally?

read the above critics, sorry every one has to learn, but can't you see your self that this belongs in your portfolio and not to be rated.

Sorry, Fiona ... I guess that I can't see for myself what you seem to think is so horrible about this shot. I didn't think it was perfect, but I wouldn't have uploaded it if I didn't think it was worth getting input from my PN peers.

Bente ... first of all, THANK YOU for your recent upload of Skagen ... I LOVE it!! :-)

 

Secondly, is this what you meant for a crop? What do you think?

By the way ... in case it might add to the discussion, here is a copy of the original shot. My thinking was this: his face was splotchy and of course there's the red-eye ... but I LOVED his expression and wanted to try to work with that. Really, the only thing I could imagine doing with the face-splotch thing was to convert to B&W and then use a filter to "artistically" (hopefully) tweak the image so that he would be "glowing" instead of splotching. What would any of you have done?

Hope you don't mind. I took a crack at the image.

Don't mind at all, Howard! I like the red tones in your coloring of it, as it picks up a touch of the slight "strawberry" in his blonde. I also like that you didn't cause his face to be so blown out. Thanks!!

I did also something with your picture hope you like it, and ofcourse it is not horrible, it is just GREAT you put this for a comment, a lott off people don't dare to do this. They are much to afraid to get 'bad' comments.

Els, you are great! Thanks for your B&W version. Do you think his face is still a little splotchy?

Hi Lou Ann ... here you have my proposal. I think it is a matter of taste. However I do like your grainy effect. Glad you liked my Skagen pic.

....and the same proposal in sepia and some dust added.

Oooohhh!! I like the sepia much better. And ... the crop you did was VERY close. I like that, too!! Rather late in the evening in Denmark for you to be making adjustments to my photos ... thanks, Bente!! :-)

take your original, grayscale, then mess with the duo, tri or quad tones...At first this really hit me the wrong way, but after seeing the splotchies, you did the best thing. A tritone might be the best choice...

.... Now I have been looking several times at you pic ... and for every time I look it groves and I think you did a very good job ... and when it comes to it all ... yours is still the best version .... so it is (0:

You folks are good to me! Thanks for all of the advice ... I enjoy playing with these images.

 

Dennis ... I never realized that the stuff you post as "duotone", "tritone", etc. was something that I would be able to do with PS ... what do you think of this try?

Your last version is absolutely the best ... well done!!!! imho

Of course, you knew I would have to play with this! I copied the red channel over and then selected Linear Light (I think). It was the one that got rid of the most red, with keeping the detail in the face. I used 52%, I believe. Then I added a slight diffuse glow - the settings were 1, 1, and 15 in PS. I was working on the low resolution image, so it's probably grainier than it would be using the full size image. Just another one to compare.

How about touching up the color version? All I did (with the small file I had to work with) was healing brush on the splotchy red areas, removed red eye with the paint bucket, and color balanced it.

 

http://pacific.photoisland.com/sessions/96028939798/24456687lg.jpg

 

 

Thank you very much, all of you, for taking the time to use your PS skills (all better than mine) to work on this pic, and then to tell me WHAT you did. You have no IDEA how much that helps me. I look forward to having more time this summer to sit down and truly LEARN much more about using photoshop ... and to then be CREATIVE with images like this that I love one particular thing about, but there are a lot of other things that detract. Every single iteration that you've given me above here captures the ONE thing that I was looking at in the original ... his expression. Thanks!!!!!

lololol.....whoa, all these versions!!! am a bit confused now on which one to go for! =0) i like your version lou ann, but i think you've lost a little bit of the details in the face, so im gonna go with the sepia version. However, its a great capture!

I think I go with Bente's version.

Lou Ann, he's a beautiful child. Funny, but I would not have cropped the original by much. I actually like the composition - it gives you a sense of where we are. I can see why you went to b&w, I would have done the same given the blotchy complexion. I agree though that there's too much glow. Did you use distort/diffuse glow? I've tried that too, but I'm not good enough in PS either to make it really effective. I would tone down the effect & see how it looks. I've tried working on it a bit and will attach yet another version! I know how difficult it is to photograph children, they don't stop for a second, but if you want a really good shot of him, I'd say go outside on an overcast day with about 2 rolls of film and NO FLASH. Then just spend the day shooting. Let him become used to the idea of you with a camera by pointing it at other objects and pretending to shoot. Be aware of shadows on the face, but don't direct him or ask him to look at the camera. Just carry on a conversation with him about whatever it is he's into and shoot when you see the expression you like. Don't be afraid to get close if he lets you, and shoot wide open - makes for interesting shots. The thing about kids is you have to shoot alot of film..or cards (whatever the case may be) to get just one really good shot.