How am I doing? C& C please.

[mc1979]

Ok, so I have roughly been at this for 9 months now. I know I have years ahead of me! I really really want to be good at this..but I don't want to be disillusioned either. The 3 F's are great for praise, I come here for real critique.

I'll post 3 I did today.

Main thing that bugs me about the first one, is the strand of hair on her face to the left. I think I really nailed focus on the eyes, which was my whole point in practicing today.

1.

Leah (1 of 1) by mchatham79, on Flickr



Again, I think I nailed focus in this one as well, but there is another stray hair. Not such a big deal to me, but I'm sure others on here will go ahead and point it out. Also, her nail polish is chipping off.

2.
Leah (2 of 1) by mchatham79, on Flickr

And in the last, I think it's a little soft in the eyes, which I hate, because I really liked this one. But I don't think it's an epic fail..what say you?

3.


Leah (3 of 1) by mchatham79, on Flickr


I appreciate all your feedback! Thanks in advance!

 

[Bolthead]

I like the seriousness in no.1, you can easily remove the stray hair if you really wanted to. Just my 2 cents.

 

[MLeeK]

If you look at these without clicking the bar for the larger size-they look very different on the focus. HOWEVER if you click the bar? They are beautiful! I think you did a lovely job. The last is not an epic fail by any means. It can be sharpened a bit to print beautifully. Personally? I really love the first one!

 

[Robin Usagani]

What really bothers me is the random crop you are doing. All with weird width to height ratio. The stray hair can easily be removed with cloning. The photo looks sharp and you nailed the exposure I think.

 

[mc1979]

Thanks to the both of you, the 1st is definitely my favorite as well. I did try removing the hair with LR3, but I just couldn't get it to look right. I do now have CS5, but I just look at it with my mouth wide open because I haven't a clue what to do with it..LOL These were quick edits in LR.

 

[VegasPhotoNut]

New at this to, but i love them. The focus is great imo. good stuff!

 

[mc1979]

Schwetty, because I still haven't gotten the hang of cropping LOL. I mean, I cropped these images down a tad to what I thought was pleasing to the eye...using LR. I didn't do specific ratios. I just don't get aspect ratios..resizing, all that jazz..I know I MUST get it, but right now..just don't.

 

[Demers18]

I like the first one as well.

 

[Robin Usagani]

Personally I would just stick with 3:2 ratio like your original files. Do other ratios when you are actually ordering a large print and you know exactly what you need. If you just want to keep the jpeg in your library, dont do weird crop. Right now the way you do it, you cant send it to ANY lab and not throw away pixels unless they print it on larger paper and hand cut it.

Schwetty, because I still haven't gotten the hang of cropping LOL. I mean, I cropped these images down a tad to what I thought was pleasing to the eye...using LR. I didn't do specific ratios. I just don't get aspect ratios..resizing, all that jazz..I know I MUST get it, but right now..just don't.

 

[Ron Evers]

Stray hairs, who cares, its natural. Soft focus in #3 is fine for a young girl portrait in my opinion.

I usually maintain the original aspect ratio when I crop for viewing & always keep the original to crop to printing size.

 

[mc1979]

So what you are saying is basically..keep my original photo ( which I do still have ), don't do any cropping? But what if that's not what I want the viewer to see? Ughh..I'm sorry for sounding like an idiot..I just DO NOT get this part of it.. LOL:banghead:

 

[Sean1965]

I agree shes not a model screw the stray hair are you serious she is a kid and well a stray hair here and there is natural I'd keep it its a perfect photo

 

[mc1979]

Lol, let me say that the stray hair isn't a huge issue with me, but is the only thing I could see out of place with this photo.... I also figured that if I didn't say something about it, that would be the FIRST thing someone mentioned! I happen to love this pic too, it's my fave of all 3, I just want to get others opinions as well!

 

[cyngus]

dig the composition and crops.. i would bump the saturation a bit and adjust the lcurves as well to bring up the lighter tones.. it makes a world of diff in my opinion.. just a little saturation bump like 12-15 and same for the lighter tones.. just a little bump brighter.

 

[cyngus]

oh and the catch light is great! i'd exploit it a little.. brighten that up a little with a dodge tool or a white brush with a low opacity