I snapped this photo of a young friend who is a waitress. She was gazing out of the window of the cafe during a break. She's always talking about how she's working there to better herself in the future. She's saving for an education. She looked like she was thinking (although with a smirk) about how she couldn't wait to go out into the world outside those windows. I decided to soften the look to a more wistful gaze. The girl has absolutely the most glorious alabaster skin and amazing blue eyes, but the light in the place washed out the eye color. I used PP to put that color back and to even out her almost already perfect skin, and to soften the harshness of the window light reflecting across her face and chest. Didn't need much imperfection work though. I have two shades of background that I used (I used this background, because the lights worked well with the highlights and shadows cast by the original window.) I'm trying to decide which background tone works best in this picture. I've already printed the images, and they came out beautiful. I still have some touch up work around the hair edges, but my printer (Epson 1400 photo) works wonders on the normal photo setting with blending just the right amount of color across to take off any harsh breaks between the image and background. I'm always amazed that my printer produces work that actually looks better than what I'm seeing on screen. (I use Huey Pro to calibrate my monitor.) If I'm printing graphics or images that require an extra sharp crispness to define seperations, then I use the ultra fine photo settings. The subject liked both backgrounds, and couldn't decide. She liked the sunny golden one, because she said it looked happier, however she thought the other reflected her feelings about working in the cafe (dungeon...LOL). So....folks, I'm putting this out for you to weigh in.
I titled this image....."Waiting" on a Dream
Other than touching up the hair a little more for on screen viewing(which I plan to do)...any other suggestions or comments are welcome. Gosh I love this software, it really did an amazing job working in almost full profile...I was impressed.
Is there a spell check on here...if so I'm sorry I couldn't find it.
I would say you did a fine job on this portrait. I like the choice of background with the shadows, which fits the obvious type of light being from a window. The detail of this background is a bit sharper than the portrait, so "fuzzing" it a bit would make it less vivid. The darker one would be my choice.
Another suggestion would to be to crop the photo at the bottom just above the apron--so it wouldn't look like an apron. Then if you were to remove the apron straps in PS [or equivalent] noone would wonder what the blue lines were.
Since you asked for opinions, and we're all learning here, may I make a comment about the pose? In lofty portrait circles [where I don't live]it's better to not allow the nose to break the cheek line or the far eye. In this case you could have turned her head to her left a bit, still showing the far eyelash, and have a nice profile view. Or she could have turned to her right a little so her nose would be within her cheek. You've already got a great portrait here, so these are just some thoughts about the pose. If you ever wanted to re-enact this you could also try the profile idea with her eyes slightly aloft for a totally different feel.
Amen, I agree that this is a great program. Take care.
02-09-2010, 01:39 AM (This post was last modified: 02-09-2010, 08:13 PM by macs mom.)
I just snapped that without a pose, I saw the smirk and went for it. I kept the apron on this one since I was trying to show her current station in life...."Waiting"...for a Dream....just had to leave that waitress part in....I'm just learning to use my camera (one of those Cannon Rebel T1i dslr thingies). I did get a front shot of her a few minutes later. I'm not happy with the jaw line shadow on the left side of the picture, I tried to make it a little more pinkish than orange, but it didn't look any better. The print came out looking great though....my printer reads my mind and not the screen...thank goodness. Any suggestions on tweaking this image...I love to learn. I do know that my PP portraits will improve when I get the hang of the camera. Thanks for the great tips....I have a lot to learn. At least with PP in hand...it is not always "garbage in garbage out!"
