Winter Portrait

J.E. · Dec 16, 2006

So, there we go, my first real photo-posting. :blushing:

It's a portrait I took some four days ago while taking portraits of my sister for a photo-calendar she wants to give her boyfriend for Christmas. It's the January Picture.

It's not perfect and it bears my signature only because it's for giving away and I want to be credited. I'm no professional photographer by any means. Just a girl with a small camera, really.

What do you think?

Alex_B · Dec 16, 2006

Looks like you captured a "natural moment" .. which is not always easy with relatives )

Also, although the crop is unusual for me, it somehow draws us into her eyes as the main subject, nice

However, the image is too soft for me personally, and white balance seems a wee bit off.

maybe I would PS-out those reflections in her eyes.

Anyway, it is a good idea to have your signature in any image you show anywhere on the web! I do it even with the poorest of my images.

markc · Dec 16, 2006

The pose and crop work fine for me, but I agree that it's a bit soft. I'd try sharper and with a bit more contrast. Adjusting the color is a little tough. It looks like you might have used to different kinds of light sources. Taking out the smaller highlight might work, but I'd leave the large one in.

Is it ok to post an edit?

J.E. · Dec 16, 2006

Quick reply before I get back with more time on my hands: Thanks you two, and yes, go ahead, Mark, it's okay to post an edit. Thanks for asking, though.

elsaspet · Dec 16, 2006

Beautiful photo! A slight soft, but not unfixable.

First edit:
eye enhanment to draw them out even more, lip sharpening, teeth whitening.

Second edit:
above with tweeks in levels, and some sharpening.

Alex_B · Dec 16, 2006

elsaspet said:
eye enhanment to draw them out even more,

wow, quite an improvement ... ! But the eye enhancement seems overdaone to me, as now they look a bit alien as they are embedded in the rest of the image. ... but then again this was just a quick fix.

lip sharpening, teeth whitening.

better than lip whitening and teeth sharpening :lmao:

silly me

J.E. · Dec 16, 2006

Wow, elsaspet, how do you do this eye enhancement thing? It has an astounding effect!!

elsaspet · Dec 16, 2006

Hi JE,

I'm not sure what you are using to enhance images, so I made it pretty much anything you could do in PS elements.

Eye Enhancement:
Whites of eyes- Select-Desat Yellow/Blues-Dodge on a layer at about 15 percent-adjust to suit taste.

Iris-Slight dodge on colored area,select and bump overall hue and a slight burn out outer iris. Again on layers with opacity adjusted.

Lashes-(This works also to sharpen the eye area)- Just a smudge of a burn in the midtones, on a layer, on the upper outer corner of eye.

Hope that helps. Again, it's a lovely photo, and your sister will be thrilled.

LaFoto · Dec 16, 2006

Julia, I think your sister is having a wonderful idea for her boy-friend's Christmas present, and I am happy to hear that you help her bring this about!
Is it all portraits of your sister then, one for each month?

Almost monochrome as this one is, I find it very fitting for the month of January. She looks relaxed and happy with you taking her photo and that alone is good.

Focus is not all that perfect.
But you say you only use a small camera?

But what lights did you set up?
You definitely know more about taking someone else's portrait than your average Tom, Dick and Harry!

I like the two catchlights in her eyes. And I like the fact that there are two! I wonder what those lights are!

With regards to offering you edits I am not sure I am versed enough in Photoshop to help you much (and I am sure you have already ordered the prints for the calendar for long, anyway), but I might feel enticed to give it a try. But not even Photoshop can bring about sharpness where the focus was soft to begin with...

LaFoto · Dec 16, 2006

I tried:

But I no longer remember what I did. I edit by "feeling". Sorry.

J.E. · Dec 17, 2006

Thank you, elsaspet, for the explanation of what you did! I don't have PS but a very similar software and I think I can translate your modifications to my program quite well. And thanks for the compliment.

Corinna, yes, the calendar contains twelve pictures of my sister, all of which I took at the same day. We had this giant photoshoot but only about two square metres of room and I have virtually no photo equipment. Only a small camera, an old tripod from our father and an ironed bedsheet for background.

Not being able to avoid drop shadow when using the cameras flash I went for natural light. We shot next to a window. Actually there were two windows. One opposite of my sister and one on the far right of her (which is where, I beliebe, the second catchlight in her eyes comes from). Unfortunately winter is not a good season for using natural light, so as the shoot advanced, I switched on the light in the room as well. But no flash. Only one picture out of the twelve was taken with flash (accidentally, and it turned out pretty good

).

By the way, I have yet to print the photographs, so any edit is greatly appreciated. I may even post another two or three for you guys to have a look at.

LaFoto · Dec 17, 2006

Well, you won't be able to get any good prints out of our edits on here ... resolution is too small for that. If you would want someone to edit any of your calendar pics, you'd have to mail them the original file in e-mail, I think. Once edited, they can mail it back to you and you have a good file from which to order the prints (for I assume they are going to be larger than postcard size!?)

J.E. · Dec 17, 2006

I know, the resolution is too bad for getting decent prints. The originals have a much higher resolution. But seeing your edits is a great way to get ideas of what to do to the pictures myself to "upgrade" them. Or, as you say, ask a kind person to help me out with the original.

markc · Dec 17, 2006

Oops, got distracted. (oh, shiny!)

Mine wasn't much different from elsaspet's, but I'll throw it up anyway.

Really basic. Sharpened, curves for contrast, slight color adjust, and spotted the one highlight in the eyes. There's more you can do, but I just wanted to show what some simple edits can do for an image.