First post, looking for critique!

[chrisfoxdesign]

Hi Forum,

Great to be here, looks like a tremendous resource. I'm reading a book called "People Pictures" which I'm sure many of you are familiar with. I'm on exercise 1, creating an "authentic" portrait. Attached is my first effort, maligned somewhat by the instruction to manually focus. No skills with that anymore apparently, but other than that would love some feedback.

What does it mean to you for a photograph to be "authentic"? Does this photo meet that? Thanks all!

 

[thetrue]

Well, it is a photograph, not a drawing, so to me it qualifies.....

 

[CA_]

Hi Forum,

Great to be here, looks like a tremendous resource. I'm reading a book called "People Pictures" which I'm sure many of you are familiar with. I'm on exercise 1, creating an "authentic" portrait. Attached is my first effort, maligned somewhat by the instruction to manually focus. No skills with that anymore apparently, but other than that would love some feedback.

What does it mean to you for a photograph to be "authentic"? Does this photo meet that? Thanks all!

View attachment 30886

I feel like authentic may mean somewhat candid. There are muscles in the face that are involuntarily used only in real smiles, and our brains can tell the difference. This picture is a good start. I've heard many photographers say they will not shoot outdoors unless it's dawn or dusk, so try that. Looks like you've placed her in the upper left 3rd, which is a good start. My eye sort of wants this to be more straight on than from up above that you seem to be shooting, but shooting from a slightly elevated spot typically is far more flattering to the subject.

So, stick to your rule-of-thirds, shoot at dawn and dusk, and keep the poses as candid and natural as possible, and you'll get good results. I like to tell jokes while I shoot too, helps keep the expressions real and the session fluid.

Good luck!

 

[jodygrigg]

Nice portrait, the only thing I find distracting is the background, ie the highlights. I would clone out some of those stray hairs too, just my 2 cents.

 

[The_Traveler]

I agree with the preceding comments, the person's face isn't frozen in that take-a-photo rigidity we see much too often.

What does bother me about this photo is that it is much too blue or 'cold' and thus there is no vitality in her skin.
Second, her head is tilted and off center in the image, for no artistic reason. It looks odd to me.

You will get more better,more useful help if you allow editing.
It is very easy to show subtle changes/suggestion with an edit and virtually impossible to do with words.

 

[chrisfoxdesign]

Awesome, thanks for the feedback. I've changed the editing setting, would love to see what you do with it. Thanks!!!

Attaching my own edit based on the feedback. Thanks again everyone, if there's more I'd love to hear it.

 

[The_Traveler]

 

[chrisfoxdesign]

Very nice, thanks! What control did you use? Hue/saturation/brightness? White balance? Other? Thanks for any help.

 

[The_Traveler]

Very nice, thanks! What control did you use? Hue/saturation/brightness? White balance? Other? Thanks for any help.

I used a color balance layer in PS. This can be easily done in LR with temp and perhaps tint, but I generally don't import images that aren't mine and I like the flexibility of layers.

Lew

 

[chrisfoxdesign]

Lew, thanks for all the help. I have CS4 and very familiar with all the controls, but haven't given that a try yet. Thanks for the feedback and tech input. I owe you a beer.

Chris