Beautiful model, lovely child, and a new direction

Aayria · Aug 4, 2010

Just sharing some of my recent work for a bit of feedback. I've been playing with editing a lot more lately, and was looking for some opinions particularly on the processing.

The last shot was just for fun, I wanted sort of a "fairy tale" feeling.. did it work? =)

Thanks for viewing! Oh- and I'm married with four children, so don't get any ideas that I'm posting for attention and expect all the guys here to flock to my posts!!! :lol:

(/sarcasm)

astroskeptic · Aug 4, 2010

Wow, these are fantastic. Looks like you got the focus perfect on the eyes in every case; the dof is great; vignetting works well but might be a little overdone in #5; highlights are blown in #2 but it's obviously intentional and seems to work well. I love the colors in the last one.

Newnan3 · Aug 4, 2010

I like the PP on #3 alot....

Derrel · Aug 4, 2010

Nice diversity on these Aayria ! I think the vignetting is just a slight bit too obvious on three of these, but do agree that vignetting is helpful on each shot that has it. I think the last shot, of the young woman with the red flowers has too much black space at the top, and would look better with a little left hand side cropped off, a lot of the top cropped off, and reduced to about the same aspect ratio as it is now, or perhaps a little less 3:2. I think your work is getting better and better,rapidly. I love your color palette on the richer, more realistic shots 4 and 5, but think the last one,with the red flowers, is just a bit over-saturated and over-processed in her skin tones! However, I know that those types of Gaussian blurring type photos look much,much better in real-life,and printed or just seen larger than these small web reduction samples.

I see by your comments that you happened to see that thread...

ababysean · Aug 4, 2010

I think they are all wonderful!
Definitely need to print those out!

Ron Evers · Aug 4, 2010

I think #3 is the best of set, the vignetting works very well in that one.

misstwinklytoes · Aug 4, 2010

These are awesome! Great photos!

JenLavazza · Aug 4, 2010

These are truly WONDERFUL!! Did you use any actions on them? If so, PLEASE share~!!

Aayria · Aug 4, 2010

Thanks everyone! I've really been pushing lately, and it's felt great to see bits of improvement along the way. =)

Jen- I didn't use any actions on these, they were edited in LR3 and then in Gimp. I did a lot of split toning and shadow saturation..mostly just playing around to get different effects. I did use layers to put a spotlight on my subject in most of them... First layer darkened, second layer screened/overlayed with a layer mask- painted back in the subject with black- instant spotlight! (I think that made sense lol)

And yep Derrel- I read "that thread" but wasn't about to touch it with a ten foot pole. :lmao:

Geaux · Aug 4, 2010

Awesome shots!! I, myself, has been getting into the 'portrait' aspect of photography, its really fun. You've nailed your edits perfectly too, love the 'vintage/hipstamatic' look.

PS: Hot avatar

OrionsByte · Aug 5, 2010

I always love seeing your shots Aaryia, and these are no different. They're all wonderful portraits.

It may just be me because no one else has said anything about it, but does the girl in #1 have a bit of a halo? It's really distracting to me, and almost makes it look composited, but I may be seeing things that aren't there. It's late.

lunaaa · Aug 5, 2010

Like everyone ,i love to check out your photos i loved every one of the set. #5 is my favourite though.

edouble · Aug 5, 2010

Great editing techniques. I really have to spend more time learning this.

Aayria · Aug 5, 2010

OrionsByte said:
I always love seeing your shots Aaryia, and these are no different. They're all wonderful portraits.

It may just be me because no one else has said anything about it, but does the girl in #1 have a bit of a halo? It's really distracting to me, and almost makes it look composited, but I may be seeing things that aren't there. It's late.

Thanks for the comment! =)

You may be right about number one, taking another look at it. It's probably due to the editing, I used layers and a mask to brighten the little girl and darken the background- not unlike a ad-hock HDR effect. I may have to go back and tweak it a bit, thanks for pointing that out!