Critical comments required

[sweetapollo]

I took this on a 50mm Nikkor prime lens. Seems the F4.0 I used wasn't quite right. I did set my focus on his eye and had noticed the depth of field issue.

 

[sweetapollo]

Dan do you prefer unedited or barely edited shots to edited? I find most shots over edited, but know it is what people want. I know I should probably just stick to what I do......

 

[KmH]

All photographs are edited.
The only variable is how much editing gets done by the camera/lens or outside the camera.

 

[sweetapollo]

Flushed with success, I will ungratefully add that you missed focus.
Note that the hair on her shoulder is in focus, his beard and left eye are also but the focus fades badly rearwards.

What F stop would you normally use for a portrait style shot?

 

[sweetapollo]

If you're going to clean up the skin, clean up the blood vessels in his eyes and the spots on his lips while you're at it.

If I was to get rid of the blood vessels in his eyes would you lighten the whites also as they are a little yellow anyway? I understand about the lips and yes I should have removed the cracking redness in his lips (I was afraid of making him look too feminine by doing this)

 

[The_Traveler]

The DOF at f 4 is about 6" at 4 ft subject/camera distance, 8.5 at 5ft, 12 at 6 ft. (DOFMaster.com) so it should have been damn close to fitting both eyes no matter what - if you were focused on the closest eye. It does look like the focus actually starts falling off before his closest eye. His eyebrow is sharp but the eyelashes are less so.

This might have been the dreaded 'got focus and then swayed back a bit' syndrome.

 

[sweetapollo]

The DOF at f 4 is about 6" at 4 ft subject/camera distance, 8.5 at 5ft, 12 at 6 ft. (DOFMaster.com) so it should have been damn close to fitting both eyes no matter what - if you were focused on the closest eye. It does look like the focus actually starts falling off before his closest eye. His eyebrow is sharp but the eyelashes are less so.

This might have been the dreaded 'got focus and then swayed back a bit' syndrome.

Ok. Thats very helpful. Yes maybe I got it and slightly moved. Also it could have been that with a 50mm I was a little too close as if I recall I was probably less than 4 ft away.

 

[sweetapollo]

If you want C&C on the editing, post the before photo and tell what edits you made.

Sorry I never got back to this post. So this is the image before doing anything.



As you can see there is cropping, colouring (from RAW so needed levels, colour temperature and blacks setting as I do with all my photos)

I then smoothed the skin (a little too much I think)
coloured the eyes and lips, coloured the hair a little more to make it look less flat. In hindsight I should have resolved the lip cracks before colouring as it has made them more pronounced.