Black Friday Portraits...

[enezdez]

"Proud To Be An American..."
GFX 50R
f/9.0
ISO 100
1/125 Sec.
GF 110mm f/2 R LM WR
87mm Equivalent

(Processed In LR & PS)

OCF Right Godox AD300 Pro with shoot through Umbrella, Reflector (Silver Side) & Godox XPro(F) Trigger.

"Still Cool..."
GFX 50R
f/2.0
ISO 100
1/125 Sec.
GF 110mm f/2 R LM WR
87mm Equivalent
(Processed In LR & PS)

OCF Right Godox AD300 Pro with shoot through Umbrella, Reflector (Black Side) & Godox XPro(F) Trigger.

"Portrait of a Man..."
GFX 50R
f/9.0
ISO 100
1/125 Sec.
GF 110mm f/2 R LM WR
87mm Equivalent

(Processed In LR & PS)

OCF Right Godox AD300 Pro with shoot through Umbrella, Reflector (Black Side) & Godox XPro(F) Trigger.

Cheers, & Thanks For Looking.


Enezdez

 

[NS: Nikon Shooter]

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Ah… interesting! Now you seem to have gone with the Kodacolor red
based emulsion look. I dig the first shot though it looks severe as well
but with a touch of… in the eyes!

 

[zulu42]

#2 for me. If you did any iris enhancement I would dial it back a teeny bit. Shallow dof nicely handled. Bright background spot to the left of his chis draws my eye. I love this guy.

 

[enezdez]

-

Ah… interesting! Now you seem to have gone with the Kodacolor red
based emulsion look. I dig the first shot though it looks severe as well
but with a touch of… in the eyes!

@NS: Nikon Shooter Thanks!

#2 for me. If you did any iris enhancement I would dial it back a teeny bit. Shallow dof nicely handled. Bright background spot to the left of his chis draws my eye. I love this guy.

@zulu42 No enhancements whatsoever, thank you for pointing the spot to the left, I will remove it if I decide to print it or use it for competition. And yes he is a cool dude!!!


Thanks,

Enezdez

 

[Donde]

Very nice set of the gent.

 

[enezdez]

Very nice set of the gent.

@Donde Thanks!

 

[enezdez]

I continued to work on portrait #3...and I think I have made some significant improvements...

 

[NS: Nikon Shooter]

-

The tweaks brought to that take are not, IMO, to an improvement.
Yes, you took care of the higher keys in the skin tones but with the
consequence of too warm colours over all.

Two solutions: 1) reduce colour temperature, 2) reduce saturation.
I would privilege the first to start exploring.

 

[NS: Nikon Shooter]

-

ADDENDUM

The quality of the first posted shot is impeccable in that regard.

 

[smoke665]

There will always be differences in opinions on skin tones when looking at the same image on different monitors - differences in the human eye, differences in calibration/brightness, even taste differences affect how we see tones. As such I don't give much weight to opinions regarding skin tones. Additionally most portraits, (unless they're kids with blemish free skin), require hue/saturation/brightness adjustments, dodging and burning, and other adjustments because the the skin colors change across the facial structure. The skin on Seniors is problematic due to the skin being stretched thinner on the cheekbones, then you have the discoloration/age spots to deal with. The secret to post processing on seniors is to minimize - not eliminate the harshness, and remember there is no one adjustment that fits all areas equally. Learning how to create and use masks goes a long way in helping here.

Rather than depending on my eye, monitor or opinions, I go by the numbers for HSB when checking skin tones. The numbers I use as the standard for the skin tone on a Caucasian is Hue=18-22 degrees, Sat=30-40 percent, Brightness=71-89 precent with a medium suntan being in the 77 range of Brightness. For example a sample in the highlights of your image gave H-26, S-37, B-99, while a sample in the darker areas of the forehead gave H-20, S-71, B-78. In this example the excessive brightness in the highlights are causing the colors to wash out, while the high saturation and the lower brightness in the shadows, causes it to appear darker than it should.

 

[enezdez]

This is my last attempt...I going with this one...

 

[NS: Nikon Shooter]

-

Way more pleasing, enezdez!

The closer you'll get to the first, the better I think!

 

[WalterRowe]

This is my last attempt...I going with this one...

View attachment 251193

From here I might lower the red saturation tad, then raise the overall saturation just a touch. See if you like that or not. This to me has a little much red, but once you reduce that you will need to compensate with overall saturation to retain the orange and yellow tones. The color temperature looks spot on.

 

[Rickbb]

IMHO there was nothing wrong with the first one. Nice work.

 

[WalterRowe]

IMHO there was nothing wrong with the first one. Nice work.

Looking back at all three versions of this image I agree with @Rickbb. The first version of this image in the original post is spot on.