How would YOU crop this?

Granddad · Apr 15, 2012

I took some photos of my wife yesterday and I'm struggling to decide on the right crop. Any suggestions are welcome.
General C & C also welcome as I'm working on my portrait skills. I adjusted lighting and WB in Lightroom and used the healing brush and liquify in PS 8 to gently erase a year or three. Without showing the original, how did I do on making the skin look reasonably natural?

My thanks in anticipation.

There's a larger version at http://conniehurd.com/images/Granny2_0165-3worked.jpg if you wish to look more closely at the skin work.

The_Traveler · Apr 15, 2012

I think it's way too bright and the light is too high, making her neck dark and outlining her face.
Try it with her chin down a bit.

Granddad · Apr 15, 2012

Thanks for the feedback, Lew.
I like the crop and I see your point about the lighting. I took a bunch but this was the best of the batch, I'm struggling a bit with getting the poses right. I'm planning on reshooting in the next day or two.

cgipson1 · Apr 15, 2012

Nice edit, Lew!

granddad.... shoot in portrait!

If she is going to wear that dark fur, need to light it better (rim) for background separation.

Derrel · Apr 15, 2012

Skin looks pretty good overall. The image below is how *I* would crop the original image. I added a Gaussian Blur layer at 90 pixels, then used the Screen feature to lay a screen over it for a diffuse glow, then used the Curves tool to reduce the intensity of the screen to an almost,but not totally, unnoticeable level. I then used the shadow/highlight tool to lighten up the blacks a slight bit, to compensate for the lack of a separation or hair light...making the background just a bit above inky blackness. I rotated it three degrees, cloned in some more top space above her head, and then cropped to a vertical. I thought there was a slight (very slight) bit of coolness in the hair and skin tones...I adjusted that out in selective color with a little bit of tweaking in the red and yellow color segments.

Granddad · Apr 15, 2012

Thanks Guys. I'll be reshooting in portrait (I know I should, but in this case portrait would have revealed the other end of the Ebay fur coat ... I wasn't thinking properly because I could have cropped that out) with additional lighting - a rim light behind to bring out the hair, chin lower and I think it would be good if she extended the lipstick beyond her naturally thin lips. Work on lighting the fur and possibly try using her off-white rabbit jacket instead/as well as.

Derrel, excellent job on bringing the hair into view!

Mark