[Franklin]

This was an 'on the spot' head/shoulders photo just using available light and bounce flash in a kitchen. Input on what more I should be doing in PP to improve the 2nd photo appreciated. And obviously I don't do portraits for a living.

[Fred]

Tell us more about what you did in your edit. I, frankly, can't tell the difference between the two!

[Franklin]

(01-06-2014, 04:24 AM)Fred Wrote: Tell us more about what you did in your edit. I, frankly, can't tell the difference between the two!

I gave her a bit of a tan, cleaned up under her eyes and brought out the color of her eyes some more; some skin smoothing, brightened teeth and whites of eyes a bit.

[MacSass]

Hi,

honestly I would do much more - this is a nice portrait of a nice model looking very natural.

If you do more you risk that this becomes visible and ruins the nice natural look. The teeth whitening I would even take back a bit as they start to look a little uneven.

The only thing I could really think of is to eventually reduce the reflection on the nose a little more (slider in the skin section).

I find the blue in the background growing out of her head a little disturbing - but this is beyond PP.

Overall a very nice picture and model that does not really need a lot of PP :-).

Regards - MacSass

[Franklin]

(01-08-2014, 01:07 AM)MacSass Wrote: Hi,

honestly I would do much more - this is a nice portrait of a nice model looking very natural.

If you do more you risk that this becomes visible and ruins the nice natural look. The teeth whitening I would even take back a bit as they start to look a little uneven.

The only thing I could really think of is to eventually reduce the reflection on the nose a little more (slider in the skin section).

I find the blue in the background growing out of her head a little disturbing - but this is beyond PP.

Overall a very nice picture and model that does not really need a lot of PP :-).

Regards - MacSass

MacSass,

Thank you for your constructive reply -

The blue above her head is a shadow from a winter decoration on the curtain in the background, and I could probably clone tool or selection tool w/content aware (EDIT: I ended up using the color replacement brush and mixer brush to get rid of the shadow) that out of the photo in Photoshop, as well as diminish the shine on the nose, but I'm not sure I will do that to the nose (EDIT; diminished it just a bit with mixer brush). EDIT: lightened her eyes closer to their true color; the bounce flash doesn't put the light in eyes as strong, so those shots don't always show eye color as well, so enhanced them a bit.

She was not feeling 100% the day I visited but I won't go into detail on that. The woman in the photo is from my home town, and an aspiring movie actress.

Again, just a bounce flash shot in a kitchen. She was pretty happy with the pp photo when I emailed it to her.

[keithblan]

I wouldn't have done much different except to lighten her tan and her hair. Also add a bit of vibrance and redness to the hair. Perhaps a similar effect could have been achieved with a slight increase in exposure.

See what you think.

   

BTW. Do you have a diffuser on your flashgun? I've found the Stofen diffuser on my Canon speedlight helps a lot in these bounced flash situations.

[Franklin]

(01-15-2014, 05:42 PM)keithblan Wrote: I wouldn't have done much different except to lighten her tan and her hair. Also add a bit of vibrance and redness to the hair. Perhaps a similar effect could have been achieved with a slight increase in exposure.

See what you think.



BTW. Do you have a diffuser on your flashgun? I've found the Stofen diffuser on my Canon speedlight helps a lot in these bounced flash situations.

Keith, Thanks for your input. Pretty quiet in the forums here at times.

I have a diffuser but it was not in my camera bag as I had bought a new Lowepro® bag and forgot to include it.

I changed the color balance in PS in my latest adjustment, and her eyes truly are angel eyes - beautiful light blue, and I adjusted them to match her true eye color, as a bounce flash doesn't put enough light in the eyes to show that normally.
Personally I think you went too far in your adjustments, just my opinion (her eyebrows look nothing like what you have done for example). I also removed the shadow from the winter decoration above her head in PS. I am looking at buying one of those shoot through portable studio lights sometime if I become more involved with portraits, I have seen some beautiful work from them.

[keithblan]

Hi. Like your new version.
You are right about the eyebrows in my version; I think I accidentally included them when I extended the skin area so they got "smoothed".
Hope you are able to photograph this young lady again when you get new lighting gear.
Regards
Keith