What needs done to this photo?

Sharkbait · Sep 6, 2004

Took this of my wife today while shooting some pregnancy-photos. Overall, I like the shot, but there's just something about it that I think keeps it from being 'frameable', you know? I can't put my finger on it though...

LizM · Sep 6, 2004

Her shoulders are a lot lighter than her face. Keeps drawing my attention away from her face. Its a really nice pose and expression though!

Sharkbait · Sep 6, 2004

That's a good point. I think that may be part of it. I did a LOT of burning and patching to the shoulder area--it was pretty much blown out thanks to some dappled sunlight coming through the trees. Wonder if I should try dodging the face area to bring up that brightness there some.

LizM · Sep 6, 2004

It might be better if you could darken the shoulders more. Every time I try to lighten a face I loose the texture.

Geronimo · Sep 6, 2004

Besides the shoulders, I think if you could make a better contrast from her hair to the background it would draw more attention to her then her form, I guess that is the word I am looking for.

Digital Matt · Sep 6, 2004

Her face is just too dark. Her shoulder would be fine if her face were more Illuminated. A reflector or possibly some fill flash would have helped, but a curves adjustment could solve that. Also, I would use the channel mixer for the B&W conversion, and use more reds than blues. This will lighten her skin quite a bit.

Alison · Sep 7, 2004

I feel her face is too dark as well. Digital Matt's suggestion is right on. When I convert to black and white with flesh tones I adjust the red or orange levels to make sure the face and skin remains bright. Her expression and pose are great. Reflectors and fill flash alway help as well.

green · Sep 7, 2004

for me its the eyes.

i'm really big on expression in the eyes... to me they're not sparkling... not drawing me in and making me wonder what she's thinking.

altered ego · Sep 7, 2004

the eye in your avatar is certainly drawing me in, green...

but, i agree with what digimatt says

green · Sep 7, 2004

:blulsh2:

my mom told me once i gave away everything i felt through my eyes... i can tell when people are smiling because they're happy or when they're smiling just to look happy. maybe thats why i'm obsessed with eyes.

(heh... i named my company Green Eye Designs)

Sharkbait · Sep 7, 2004

Hmmm, okay good input, thanks everybody! Back to work on this one, I think. ;-)

FWIW, this was shot with a fill-flash. I was running my 70-200mm though, so I was a good 15-20 ft away, which wastes most of that flash power. Might try to re-do it from scratch with a different b&w conversion technique. A couple ppl mentioned converting it via the channel mixer; I've never done much with that--anything in particular I should know? Or just go play around with it?

Digital Matt · Sep 7, 2004

The only thing you need to know is, check the box marked "monochrome", and make sure the total values equal 100%, and not more, otherwise you are adding to the photo, not just changing the values that are there.

If you want to boost the skin tones, set red to about 70%, and blue to 30%. Vary both of those numbers until you are happy. You can put 30% on green too, especially if you have lots of green in the picture. You could split your last 30% between green and blue also. Whatever works.

hobbes28 · Sep 7, 2004

I'm jumping on this bandwagon. I've tried to look at this picture without reading and look again after reading and I think she needs more light on her face. Everything else is great.

drdan · Sep 8, 2004

All the comments are good I think, but I agree with Green, the main problem is the somewhat guarded look of her eyes. She looks like she was a little too tired in this picture or something. The hair does blend in with the background too much also.