How could I improve this portrait?

[o hey tyler]

Interesting.
How did you spray her with that smoooooth plastic without getting it in her eyes?

They probably used the same technique you did to make her skin look like sandpaper.

It was quite noble of you to ride up on your horse and protect the defenseless against the jibes and coarse comments of the rest of us. :hail:

but, as you know, her skin had those imperfections to start and they became apparent when I lightened the image, so you are actually making an insulting comment about the subject rather than on my technique. Not very gallant, oh knight.

If the OP wants to hear or see about minimizing skin defects, he should post a higher res image.

I'm just going by what I see. Your edit looks like she has a sandpaper face, and the second edit is overexposed and plastic looking. Neither are particularly great edits IMO. But neither of you were working with a RAW file. You oversharpened the image, and that was your fault.

But I suppose you're a cranky old man that can't admit that you maybe went overboard with the processing. That's fine with me. I take most of your comments with a grain of salt, and this is why.

 

[LuigiVN]

They probably used the same technique you did to make her skin look like sandpaper.

It was quite noble of you to ride up on your horse and protect the defenseless against the jibes and coarse comments of the rest of us. :hail:

but, as you know, her skin had those imperfections to start and they became apparent when I lightened the image, so you are actually making an insulting comment about the subject rather than on my technique. Not very gallant, oh knight.

If the OP wants to hear or see about minimizing skin defects, he should post a higher res image.

I'm just going by what I see. Your edit looks like she has a sandpaper face, and the second edit is overexposed and plastic looking. Neither are particularly great edits IMO. But neither of you were working with a RAW file. You oversharpened the image, and that was your fault.

But I suppose you're a cranky old man that can't admit that you maybe went overboard with the processing. That's fine with me. I take most of your comments with a grain of salt, and this is why.

Well thanks people for all your feedback. i think the picture's still not ready for printing... If I had to print one It'd be The traveller's or mine but mine is a bit underexposed.. Can someone else suggest some ideas? I really don't mind about the imperfections on her skin because I'm gifting it to her mother but I'd like it to look decent to a photographer's eye (because the girl in the picture is a photographer as well).

How did you guys make her eyes look so clear? I'd love to include that...

 

[The_Traveler]

I'm just going by what I see. Your edit looks like she has a sandpaper face, and the second edit is overexposed and plastic looking. Neither are particularly great edits IMO. But neither of you were working with a RAW file. You oversharpened the image, and that was your fault.

But I suppose you're a cranky old man that can't admit that you maybe went overboard with the processing. That's fine with me. I take most of your comments with a grain of salt, and this is why.

Sort of interesting that when you did't get the last laugh with your fairly aggressive comment, you start with ad hominem attacks?

Why don't you just put me on ignore and you can keep both your salt consumption and your blood pressure down?

 

[The_Traveler]

LuigiVN

I didn't use Camera Raw since I wasn't starting with a raw file but went straight to PS.
I used a curves layer to lighten her skin and increase the contrast slightly.
(Since I don't know the real color of her complexion, I didn't know how far to go.)
I also used a dodge/burn layer to whiten her eyes a bit.

PS isn't an easy program to learn and it takes a good while before one can develop some degree of facility.
There are thousands of tutorials and lots of books available; my suggestion is that you take a beginning course to get you on the right track with some basic ideas and then you can learn from there.

Lew

 

[o hey tyler]

Why don't you just put me on ignore and you can keep both your salt consumption and your blood pressure down?

Because I often find you to be full of yourself or unable to admit a mistake. Which I happen to find funny. Case in point. You can add me to your ignore list. Nothing of value would be lost if you ignored my posts.

 

[The_Traveler]

Nothing of value would be lost if you ignored my posts.

Certainly the most accurate and useful advice you'll ever give in the area of photography.

 

[Derrel]

Nothing of value would be lost if you ignored my posts.

Certainly the most accurate and useful advice you'll ever give in the area of photography.

Ohhhhh....popcorn time!

 

[o hey tyler]

Nothing of value would be lost if you ignored my posts.

Certainly the most accurate and useful advice you'll ever give in the area of photography.

Can you give me the action you used to make sandpaper skin? Or did you just run the photo once through Picnik?

Also, I was browsing your site. I'd like to purchase the photo of you on your "About" page. I believe it's called "Chatting with my only friend".

 

[DiskoJoe]

just keep working with your camera and the photos will get better. there is nothing wrong with this photo except you needed some better lighting to fill her face so you would have got better detail and sharpness but it is okay as is.

definitely use raw mode. photoshop will usually recognize raw files automatically and open them with the raw converter. typically about 95% of editing can be there.

You might consider getting a prime lens too if you like to do portraits. Canon makes a nice 50mm f1.8 of an amazing 85mm f1.8. Neither are that expensive and you could get nice bokeh without having to zoom in so tight.

 

[The_Traveler]

Can you give me the action you used to make sandpaper skin? Or did you just run the photo once through Picnik?

Also, I was browsing your site. I'd like to purchase the photo of you on your "About" page. I believe it's called "Chatting with my only friend".

Dear O Hey Tyler,

I'm sorry that I can't send the action.
I don't use actions often and, as it seems you want to start learning to edit your pictures, I think that you, as a beginning student, should stay away from automatic solutions.

Although I'd be happy to sell a print of that picture you referred to, it has occurred to me that this inquiry might be an attempt to be nasty.
I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage there as I'm certain there is nothing derogatory that I could say about you or your photography that you haven't heard many times from people already.

Best wishes,

Lew

 

[o hey tyler]

Lew,

My inquiry about your photo was quite serious. It speaks about your soul, and disposition towards others. It would also be nice to have at the bottom of my staircase so I have something to laugh at for the ~6 seconds it takes me to descend the flight to my warm cup of coffee in the morning.

But, if you don't want to get rid of it. That's perfectly alright. I really was only planning on offering a few vintage bottle caps, and a half pound of apple wood smoked bacon for the print.

Thanks for taking time to piece together a response,
Tyler

 

[The_Traveler]

Lew,

My inquiry about your photo was quite serious. It speaks about your soul, and disposition towards others. It would also be nice to have at the bottom of my staircase so I have something to laugh at for the ~6 seconds it takes me to descend the flight to my warm cup of coffee in the morning.

But, if you don't want to get rid of it. That's perfectly alright. I really was only planning on offering a few vintage bottle caps, and a half pound of apple wood smoked bacon for the print.

Thanks for taking time to piece together a response,
Tyler

Thank you for the offer but I don't 'get rid of' my pictures.
You may be happy to get 'a few bottle caps and a half a pound of bacon' as representing a generous price for your own pictures but I hold mine a little dearer than that.

 

[Speckles]

 

[LuigiVN]

just keep working with your camera and the photos will get better. there is nothing wrong with this photo except you needed some better lighting to fill her face so you would have got better detail and sharpness but it is okay as is.

definitely use raw mode. photoshop will usually recognize raw files automatically and open them with the raw converter. typically about 95% of editing can be there.

You might consider getting a prime lens too if you like to do portraits. Canon makes a nice 50mm f1.8 of an amazing 85mm f1.8. Neither are that expensive and you could get nice bokeh without having to zoom in so tight.

Yeah, I even thought in starting with a 50mm f:/1.8 but I just love zoom so I placed it as my 2nd lens, I still don't even have a bag, I'm using my dad's minolta one... But a nifty fifty would be pretty nice... Specially since I plan to take photos in gigs around town

Gus it'd be nice if you stopped arguing in the thread and do it via private message or something

 

[Bright Mind]

Hey LuigiVN,

Great Shot, I really love the way of photo shot that you has applied. I agree with lamvukha to make pictures some brighter,

Using Photoshop software to edit it, smoothing tools, whiten, brighten ... you'll do okay