C&C please

Battou · Sep 10, 2008

Finalized See post #15

Asside from the blown highlight Why does this suck? I do know that my FD 85mm 1.8 would have been a better choice as well but....Something just ain't right here.

Shot with Canon FD 50mm 1.4 on Canon EF (uncropped full frame)

Brian Austin · Sep 10, 2008

Color balance is shifted toward green.

The physical balance of the image feels off as well due to the tilted columns.

LaFoto · Sep 10, 2008

Brian is mentioning the green colour cast already, that is one thing (makes his skin look sickly), the inclined columns are another thing, and then he is very centred and takes up too little room inside your frame, there is a lot of (to my mind) unnecessary empty space around him which (since most of that is those tilted columns) even is quite distracting. If I were to try to salvage this one, I'd apply the scissors to it and make it a vertical frame.

I also feel that you'd both have had more out of the photo if you had stepped a little more to your right, having him face the light some more, so not the side of his face but more of his face had got the light and your light metre could have measured from there.

Battou · Sep 11, 2008

He is a She BTW...but anywho um uh

Ok the unnscessary space could have been delt with with the 85mm at the time of the shot, but as stands now cropping is my friend. I'll see what I can do about the green cast.

I'll definately put a little more thought into lighting for the next attempt.

Sadly LaFoto, I had also shot a vertframe at the time but the idiots at the lab cut it in half and a portion of her head is cut off :banghead:

Stuff like this keeps happening I'm going to get seriously pissed and start taking heads

LaFoto · Sep 11, 2008

Sorry about the "he-she-confusion", it's her haircut ...

And what a pity about the other photo ... how on earth could that happen? End of film? Light on her face looks better, though glasses can always pose an additional problem, of course, as can be seen in the vertical frame.

Battou · Sep 11, 2008

LaFoto said:
Sorry about the "he-she-confusion", it's her haircut ...

Not a big deal, I realized that but by the time I got back to add that there where alredy replies so I just tacked it on to the ensuing post.

The Haircut was done out of support for her aunt who had to have her head shaved for surgery, her, her mother and her brother all did it.

LaFoto said:
And what a pity about the other photo ... how on earth could that happen? End of film? Light on her face looks better, though glasses can always pose an additional problem, of course, as can be seen in the vertical frame.

Yeah, end of the roll but, the entire frame was shot, the lab techs could have been a little more precise with it. This is not the first time it's happened to me but, I do know full well I can get and generally do get the full E frame. It just seems that now and again I get stuck with an idiot who counts frames and cuts where ever he wants instead of looking. I have a hand full of film stubs that are cut right next to the sticker in an effort to maintain final frames, but at the same time I have a couple that are not even close and contain a portion of someones image.

As for reflections....Oh boy, I don't know how to use a polerizer....last time I tried I screwed some stuff up :lol:

Battou · Sep 11, 2008

Cropped and resized, Still being a noobie in PS on top of a horrible moniter, My attempt at the green cast may not be totally...um good, thoughts.

NateWagner · Sep 11, 2008

Well, the thing that bothers me the most about the photo is how the head is tilted down and to the side. I think if the same angle were used but her head was more upright that would look better. Because of the apparent noise as well it might be interesting to see a B&W conversion of this photo as well.

Battou · Sep 11, 2008

I'm not a portrait photographer so posing is greek to me, I just let her do what she felt was right :lol:

But I will keep that in mind for the next time.

As for the Convert

LaFoto · Sep 11, 2008

That conversion into black and white is quite an improvement! As is the vertical crop!
Right, the way she holds her head does still look a bit "forced", but then I gather that neither you are a portrait photographer nor she is a model. So you both felt a tad "out of your cosy box" here, I should think. Which shows. But then I think that if that was the case for both of you then why not let it transpire?

skiboarder72 · Sep 11, 2008

Not bad, I like the overexposure on the portrait, the subject is usually the face and as long as that isn't blown out or totally dark then I like it... too many people try to go for the "correct" exposure with no blow highlights at all and I feel it takes away from the picture when shooting people, expose for the people... not the background

good work!

monkeykoder · Sep 11, 2008

The only thing I see is her face seems to blend into the background I don't know how or why and I'm pretty sure it can't be fixed....

goliath · Sep 11, 2008

A 2min color balance adjustment in photoshop can get the picture looks more natural and remove the blueish/greenish tint.

Image/adjustement/color balance -> adjust midtones, highlights and shadows. Take a white point in the image (like the t-shirt) and try to make it look white.

Battou · Sep 14, 2008

LaFoto said:
That conversion into black and white is quite an improvement! As is the vertical crop!
Right, the way she holds her head does still look a bit "forced", but then I gather that neither you are a portrait photographer nor she is a model. So you both felt a tad "out of your cosy box" here, I should think. Which shows. But then I think that if that was the case for both of you then why not let it transpire?

I agree on the convertion, Thanks NateWagner for suggesting that.

True, A little out of the comfort zone, I'll give you that. For me portrait work is something I do want to be able to do and do well enough to hold my own, It's worth every shot to me. Her on the other hand...Her cosy box is quite small. She in not the most confident young lady out there, but I am amung the few people she is comfortable with. She definately enjoys the attention I give her despite how it may look in this picture, she almost always looks as though she is going to burst into tears. In the two weeks since this was taken she has come a long way as far as that goes. But I digress....

To answer the question, Why allow it to happen despite the comfortzone issue. It she had offered to model for me weeks prior to this shot because it's something we can do together and I obviously need the practice.

skiboarder72 said:
Not bad, I like the overexposure on the portrait, the subject is usually the face and as long as that isn't blown out or totally dark then I like it... too many people try to go for the "correct" exposure with no blow highlights at all and I feel it takes away from the picture when shooting people, expose for the people... not the background

good work!

Thanks, It's the highlight on the side of her face that was getting to me, but now that you mention it had I gotten a more appropriate exposure for that spot the other side would have been too dark.

goliath said:
A 2min color balance adjustment in photoshop can get the picture looks more natural and remove the blueish/greenish tint.

Image/adjustement/color balance -> adjust midtones, highlights and shadows. Take a white point in the image (like the t-shirt) and try to make it look white.

That's what I did, but as I said I am a photoshop newbie. Given the fact the only computer I have Photoshop on has a POS for a moniter, I think I would be better off figuring out what is causing it as I am certain it is not the film in and of it self. It's somewhere in the processing I am doing, if I can find and eliminate it I should be fine and won't need PS.

Battou · Sep 15, 2008

Ok, so it's looking like the BW is going to be the keeper then?

Additional
I'm still going to be shooting a lot of her but for right now...

Finalized

Bigger Here

I missed on the rotation a little bit during reprocessing but I think we'll live.