A Head Shot?! ME?? I Don't DO Head Shots! PLEASE Help. C&C

[runnah]

Dare I say maybe soften some of her wrinkles?

 

[sm4him]

Wow, thank you ALL! Your remarks were all very helpful and highly encouraging.

WOW--good shot! I love the bus backdrop. Well-done! Her positioning in front of the bus is excellent--the strong black vertical of the bus door assembly on the left side of the frame is good, and her head positioned in front of the windshield's light diffuse reflection gives terrific 3-dimensional "POP!" to her. Camera height is is just PERFECT...not too high, not too low, but low enough to make her appear powerful. Her gaze approaches the viewer directly, and her expression is not too-smiley, and not too sour. All in all, this looks like a pretty solid effort. I suppose you could soften the skin a bit using various Lightroom methods, or a Gaussian blur technique, or any one of a half-dozen other recognized methods, but I don't think I'd go "too far" in that vein.

Thanks, Derrel; that means quite a bit to me that you think it's not too awful! Just getting her to NOT look sour was a pretty solid accomplishment actually--that's part of why she hates the pictures I usually take of her, because as soon as she sees the camera, the corners of the mouth turn down and she ends up looking...well, yeah, SOUR.

WB aside, she comes across as a strong, professional woman who can be tough when needed. So, what were you saying about not doing good headshots?

I believe what I said is that I don't do headshots AT ALL, good or bad. I don't do GOOD portraiture. :lmao: You nailed her description, so if the photo conveys that, then yeah, maybe I didn't stink it up too bad.

Given the circumstances I'd call it a winner!The WB looks better in the full size version than in the thumbnail and since you say she's pale skinned you probably have it spot on. Her skin doesn't need any attention (unless she's really under 30). She ought to be pleased with this one.

Based on this shot you might want to ditch the birds and start shooting people. :thumbup:

Definitely NOT under 30. And thank you for that compliment. I *DO* really want to practice portrait photography this year and get at least marginally comfortable with it, but I don't think I'll be ditching my birds anytime soon.

 

[sm4him]

First you need to crop this tighter. Dont worry about cutting into the sign or part of her shoulder. The face is the main focus. Also this image is a bit on the cool side and giving her more of a blue twinge then she needs. I would warm this image up some and it will provide a better contrast to the blue blazer she is wearing. This could be a good shot with a small bit of work.

Thank you; I mentioned it later on, in one of my replies but forgot to mention it in the first post, that I actually DID crop it tighter for the headshot. But, I do see some potential to use this shot full-size as well, since it DOES portray the transit environment.

Here's my crop FWIW:

View attachment 42519

I may have actually cropped the actual headshot photo even tighter than this; I'll look at it tomorrow and compare this one; thanks!

Very nice job on the fly! I wouldn't do too much to her skin...she's a beautiful woman and she looks like she earned her lines. Her face has character the way it is!

Yeah, this is not the ideal candidate for skin smoothing.

Dare I say maybe soften some of her wrinkles?

Yeah...see, that's part of what I'm getting at here. I don't have any sense at all of when to work on someone's skin and when not to. I thought you almost ALWAYS did some skin smoothing. So, let's forget for the moment that I have no idea HOW to smooth skin or whatever else you do to it, anyway--who IS an ideal candidate for it, and when do you NOT do it?

I'm with runnah (dear god, did I just SAY that? :lmao: )--I thought you usually wanted to smooth out wrinkles. No?

 

[The_Traveler]

It seems to me that the original is overbright, cropped so that she is a bit too small in the frame and the luminosity of her and the background is too close so she fades into it.
I would crop it so that she is larger in the frame, and the bus smaller.
Then darker everything but her quite a bit so she stands out against the background. Darken the sign even more.
Then darken her coat and scarf so it isn't that totally wishy washy blue and sharpen her face to give it more character.

 

[runnah]

I'm with runnah (dear god, did I just SAY that? :lmao: )--I thought you usually wanted to smooth out wrinkles. No?

Well it is always so overwhelming at first...

Yeah I tend to do a light pass on women. While lots of us crave the razor sharp images most people don't want their flaws magnified. So either use sifter light or smooth it in post.

I do make some of the workers guys look more grizzled and they seem to like that.

 

[The_Traveler]

If I were to reshoot this, I would suggest a less figured scarf, a jacket in the brown tones and a small gold earring rather than one that sort of looks like it could be in the background.

 

[sm4him]

It seems to me that the original is overbright, cropped so that she is a bit too small in the frame and the luminosity of her and the background is too close so she fades into it.
I would crop it so that she is larger in the frame, and the bus smaller.
Then darker everything but her quite a bit so she stands out against the background. Darken the sign even more.
Then darken her coat and scarf so it isn't that totally wishy washy blue and sharpen her face to give it more character.

If I were to reshoot this, I would suggest a less figured scarf, a jacket in the brown tones and a small gold earring rather than one that sort of looks like it could be in the background.

Thanks, Lew--helpful suggestions; I see what you're saying and I like the edit.

Gotta be honest, though: If *I* were to redo this, I'd suggest a REAL photographer. :lmao: But I had neither THAT option, nor the option to suggest what she should wear. And I'm not likely to have that option the next time, either. She doesn't really take suggestions very well.

 

[Granddad]

.... I don't have any sense at all of when to work on someone's skin and when not to. I thought you almost ALWAYS did some skin smoothing. So, let's forget for the moment that I have no idea HOW to smooth skin or whatever else you do to it, anyway--

Skin smoothing (in my opinion) is for when someone A) has a temporary blemish (spot?) that shouldn't be permanently recorded. B) looks older/tireder etc than they do in reality. C) Is paying you to make them look good. D) When it's appropriate. E) When you feel like doing it.

There are loads of PS tutorials on this subject on Youtube. Personally I also like the Portrait Professional software; it will do the preset idiot smoothing/reshaping to create a plastic Barbie if that's what you want or you can use sliders to control the whole process and flick back and forth between your enhanced version and the original to see what the changes look like. The changes can be subtle like you've gone over it with a fine emery cloth to polish it up a little, or they can be heavy like you've rearranged the face with a lump hammer and used spray on plastic skin.

I do mostly people so I find it's worth my while having it as it saves me time and does a pretty reasonable job. I'm not sure if it would work on birds of the feathered variety so even though it's quite reasonably priced it may not be a worthwhile investment (£19.95 in the UK) for you.

 

[sm4him]

.... I don't have any sense at all of when to work on someone's skin and when not to. I thought you almost ALWAYS did some skin smoothing. So, let's forget for the moment that I have no idea HOW to smooth skin or whatever else you do to it, anyway--

Skin smoothing (in my opinion) is for when someone A) has a temporary blemish (spot?) that shouldn't be permanently recorded. B) looks older/tireder etc than they do in reality. C) Is paying you to make them look good. D) When it's appropriate. E) When you feel like doing it.

There are loads of PS tutorials on this subject on Youtube. Personally I also like the Portrait Professional software; it will do the preset idiot smoothing/reshaping to create a plastic Barbie if that's what you want or you can use sliders to control the whole process and flick back and forth between your enhanced version and the original to see what the changes look like. The changes can be subtle like you've gone over it with a fine emery cloth to polish it up a little, or they can be heavy like you've rearranged the face with a lump hammer and used spray on plastic skin.

I do mostly people so I find it's worth my while having it as it saves me time and does a pretty reasonable job. I'm not sure if it would work on birds of the feathered variety so even though it's quite reasonably priced it may not be a worthwhile investment (£19.95 in the UK) for you.

Thanks, Granddad--that makes sense. Someone else sent me a PM saying kinda the same thing about smoothing when they look older than they really are.

My general editing style is to do only what is absolutely necessary; I can't see myself EVER wanting to create the plastic Barbie skin kind of smoothing! Since I *do* plan to work on my portraiture skills this year, I'll have to look into that software. Getting a new computer soon, so it's a good time for looking at new software.

 

[runnah]

 

[Granddad]

By the way, sm4him, is photography part of your job description or do you get to send her an invoice? :lmao:

 

[Granddad]

View attachment 42545

Another nice edit!

 

[snowbear]

By the way, sm4him, is photography part of your job description or do you get to send her an invoice? :lmao:

I'm guessing this falls under the "all other duties as assigned" part of the job description!

 

[sm4him]

By the way, sm4him, is photography part of your job description or do you get to send her an invoice? :lmao:

By the way, sm4him, is photography part of your job description or do you get to send her an invoice? :lmao:

I'm guessing this falls under the "all other duties as assigned" part of the job description!

Sure, I could send her an invoice...as soon as I get my resumé updated so I can just go ahead and start looking for another job at the same time. :lmao:

*Technically,* photography is NOT in my job description. Probably over half of what I do is not actually in my job description, because in the past several years I've been able to really "evolve" this job into something entirely different than it was when I started here 8 years ago. It was a FAR less interesting job back then. Photography is something I started doing "informally" because we were using awful, hideous pictures from the 80s for pretty much everything. It evolved to the point where it's now "understood" that I am the company photographer, it's just not technically in the job description--but as Charlie II mentioned, it would definitely fall under the "other duties as assigned." It also reminds me that I really need to talk to my boss about getting that job description updated. And getting a raise. Because I do a h*lluva lot more these days than I used to.

 

[sm4him]

View attachment 42545

This is VERY nice; I especially like the toned-down jacket. I can almost guarantee you that she would HATE this version with a passion though...BECAUSE of the toned-down jacket. "That's not the color of my jacket. I wore it because I like that blue, I look good in it...yadda yadda. She is a woman who knows how she wants things and isn't interested in being confused by the facts. :lmao: